Attn Peloton Users: Hackers Could Spy On You and Control Your Exercise Machines

By B.N. Frank

More alarming news reported about Peloton exercise equipment in addition to some of their treadmills being recalled because of injuries and deaths suffered by adults, children and/or pets.

From The Boston Globe

Peloton security vulnerability could leave users open to hackers, researchers say

Most Peloton users ride the sleek bikes to get strong. But what happens if there’s a weakness in the equipment’s tech security?

A security flaw in Peloton’s Bike+ model could leave the machine open to hackers, allowing them access to users’ credentials, control of the camera and other operations, according to an independent investigation published Wednesday from security software company McAfee.

Such a breach would require someone to have physical access to a Peloton bike and to plug another device into the USB port to access the Android operating system, explained Steve Povolny, head of advanced threat research at McAfee.

“When your operating system on your computer boots up, it should be checking that that’s the operating system that it expects,” he said in an interview. “In this case, the Android operating system here used by Peloton on their Bike+ is really just failing that expected check.”

Without that check, Povolny said, the McAfee researchers could load their own customized operating system, giving them full control over every aspect of the $2,495 Bike+ from any remote setting.

“That’s where we talked about harvesting credentials, we talked about accessing the camera on the microphone and really anything that you can do on this operating system for the bike, that’s what they could do now, remotely,” he said.

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This vulnerability was also present on Peloton Tread exercise equipment, McAfee confirmed.

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As noted by Steve Povolny, head of advanced threat research at McAfee: “Anything that’s a computer system as a baseline is subject to an attack, and Peloton is no exception.”

Perhaps more health enthusiasts will now consider buying exercise equipment without computer systems. They’re probably less expensive too!