Want to learn how to hack CCTV cameras? You are in the right place, but be aware that I'm writing this article to let you know what is possible to do and how you must protect your IP cameras to avoid them to be hacked.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not responsible for any of your acts. You don't suppose to hack CCTV cameras that don't belong to you. You've been warned.
OK, after this disclaimer, let's dive in into the information about IP cameras, and how they are hacked by malicious people on the Internet.
In this article I will explain step-by-step what are the methods used by hackers to get into in the IP cameras and recorders such as DVRs and NVRs.
Extra material about CCTV camera hacking
To have extra information about how to hack CCTV camera and how to protect yourself you can also read the following articles:
The methods to hack CCTV camera
There are different ways to hack CCTV camera, some of them are easy, others are a little bit more technical and some others are not even hacking.
Let's take a look at the following methods:
1. Use a website that shows hacked CCTV cameras
This is not really hacking, but it's the easiest method. You just visit a website that list a lot of hacked CCTV cameras and you just need to watch them.
Those website are created by hackers that get into IP CCTV cameras or DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) and let the information available for you for free.
So, in the end of the day you are not hacking anything but just watching CCTV camera that have been hacked by somebody else.
See below an example of a website that show such hacked CCTV cameras:
The website lists CCTV hacked cameras around the world and organize them by manufacturers, countries, places, cities and timezone.
See below an example of live CCTV cameras installed on malls.
The website administrator claims that this The world's biggest directory of online surveillance security cameras and that no privacy of individuals will be respected by showing only filtered cameras (whatever this means).
According to a message in the main page, the CCTV camera can be removed from the site when somebody send an email asking for it.
2. Hack CCTV camera using default passwords
That's also not really a hacking but it works. You just need to find the CCTV camera online and try to use the default password, a lot of devices on the Internet are still using the same original password from the factory.
The idea is to look at the IP camera manual and look for the default password, so you can use it to hack the CCTV camera (or recorder).
How to find the IP camera on the Internet
OK, before you try the default password to hack CCTV camera you need to find them on Internet and there are different ways to do that, let's check the first method that uses a network IP scanner to find online IP devices.
In this article I will teach you how to use the Angry IP Scanner to scan the Internet and look for IP cameras and recorders (DVRs and NVRs)
STEP 1 - Download the Angry IP Scanner
Click here to download the Angry IP scanner for your Operational System: Windows, Mac or Linux.
See below the Angry IP Scanner website. Make sure you have Java installed and download the correct version for your computer.
STEP 2 - Install the Angry IP Scanner
The installation is very simple, you just need to run the setup file and follow the instructions as shown in the images below: (click to enlarge)
Click Next
Click Install
Click Finish
STEP 3 - Configure the Angry IP Scanner ports and fetcher
To be able to find the information we are looking for to hack IP cameras is necessary to configure the Angry IP Scanner ports and fetchers so it can display the right information. See the picture below for the configuration.
Configure the ports 80, 23, 8080, 8081 and 8082 that are the most one used by people that install the IP cameras and let them available on the Internet.
Configure the fetchers to display the Web Detect information that will show some device information that is useful to find out who is the manufacturer.
To hack a CCTV camera is really necessary to have such basic information
Go to tools and click on fetchers to open the configuration window
Select the Web detect fetcher on the right side and click the arrow to move it to the left side so it can be displayed in the software main page.
STEP 4 - Choose the IP port range to scan
To hack a CCTV camera first is necessary to find one that is available on the Internet, so you need to choose an IP Address range to scan with the Angry IP scanner. See the picture below where a range of IP address was scanned.
You can use the IP range from your country or service provider, in the example above I used the range from xx.242.10.0 to xx.242.10.255. Note that you can fill the first part of the IP range and choose /24 or /16 for example to let the software find the range for you with 254 or 65.534 hosts respectively.
For privacy reasons the first part of the IP is not shown, after only few scans it's possible to find two Hikvision DVRs that are online on the Internet. I know that because of the Web detect information that shows DNVRS-Webs.
The scan can be done for thousand of IP addresses, so it's quite common to find a lot of IP cameras, DVRs and NVRs that are connected to the Internet.
After find an IP camera or DVR online you just need to right click and choose to open it on a Web Browser. Just like shown in the picture below.
In this case the device is a Hikvision DVR and you can just try to use the default user and password: "admin/12345" found on Hikvision manual.
Note the manufacturer name (Hikvision) underneath the login screen. Sometimes you see a big logo and sometimes a small text just like this one.
Did you get the idea? To hack CCTV camera you just need to use a tool to scan the Internet, find an online device and try the default password you can get from the manufacturer manual or from a IP camera default password list.
Below the image from the DVR after login with the admin/12345 credentials.