On the privacy risks of compromised trigger-action platforms

Yu Hsi Chiang*, Hsu Chun Hsiao, Chia Mu Yu, Tiffany Hyun Jin Kim

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Trigger-action platforms empower users to interconnect various physical devices and online services with custom automation. While providing convenience, their centralized design raises privacy concerns for end users. Unlike prior work that consider privacy leakage to action services, we consider privacy leakage to compromised platforms. After investigating potential privacy exposure to a popular trigger-action platform, IFTTT, we identified three types of leakages: event data, trigger event presence, and device possession. We also found that 91% of the top 500 triggers on IFTTT potentially leak sensitive information to the platform, and 25% leak implicitly. To achieve the paradoxical goal of hiding the event data and presence while asking the platform to trigger corresponding actions when an event occurs, we propose Obfuscated Trigger-Action Platform (OTAP) and Anonymous Trigger-Action Platform (ATAP). ATAP additionally provides device set confidentiality at the cost of minor platform modification. Our schemes can preserve user privacy without sacrificing convenience, and are incrementally deployable in various use cases. Our work addresses a crucial missing piece in securing the trigger-action ecosystem, and can be integrated with solutions that ensure integrity against untrusted platforms or solutions that address untrusted vendor services and users.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputer Security – ESORICS 2020 - 25th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2020, Proceedings
EditorsLiqun Chen, Steve Schneider, Ninghui Li, Kaitai Liang
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages251-271
Number of pages21
ISBN (Print)9783030590123
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Event25th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2020 - Guildford, United Kingdom
Duration: 14 Sep 202018 Sep 2020

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12309 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference25th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security, ESORICS 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityGuildford
Period14/09/2018/09/20

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