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README.md

C210 Tapo camera

IP Cameras are a nightmare for our privacy. For this reason I am reverse engineering a Tp-Link Tapo C210's firmware and its relative app in order to prevent them from sending any data to untrusted servers.

There are some better resources than mine: see https://github.com/nervous-inhuman/tplink-tapo-c200-re and https://drmnsamoliu.github.io/, but use those resources mindfully, as they are about Tapo C200, whereas this repository focuses on the C210. Despite being esthetically equivalent and having a similar name, their hardware is completely different. The C200 is based on a MIPS microprocessor, whereas the C210 is based on the ARM-based MStar SSC335 chipset.

In particular, I will focus on

  • the reverse engineering of the app in order to be able to use the camera without a Tp-Link account;
  • the reverse engineering of the firmware to strip off the portions of code sending the video stream to their servers, or better self-compile a clean firmware. Good news you can install OpenIPC (here for our hardware-specific version, with memory chip NOR 8M) and linux-chenxing, so we do not need any reverse engineering, at most contributing to these projects.

How these cameras were designed to work

  1. You download a proprietary app (Tp-Link Tapo) and create an account without which the camera can not work;
  2. You use said app to instruct the camera to use a specified Wi-Fi AP;
  3. The camera sends the video stream not end-to-end encrypted to servers we have no control over;
  4. You have the possibility to update the camera's firmware through its app. This expands the attack surface for a hacker or from the company itself to push a malicious update.

What we can do

As of today, we have:

  • Libre NVR solutions (iSpy, ZoneMinder, ...);
  • A collection of open source software to control these cameras through undocumented APIs, see my collection.

Nonethless, if you use these solutions, you still need the proprietary app and a Tp-Link account the first time you boot the camera up and NVRs will not stop the camera from sending the video stream to their servers without using a firewall.