Petlibro
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2019 |
| Legal Structure | |
| Industry | Pet technology |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://petlibro.com/ |
Petlibro sells internet-connected pet-care hardware, including automatic feeders, water fountains, self-cleaning litter boxes, and cameras, that depends on the company's mobile app and cloud servers for setup, scheduling, remote control, and video.[1][2] In August 2026, a Petlibro server outage stopped feeders from dispensing scheduled meals for owners who were away from home, even though the company said schedules stored on the device should keep running.[3] Separately, security researchers disclosed in December 2025 that flaws in Petlibro's platform allowed complete account takeover, device hijacking, and access to private audio recordings, and that the company left a critical authentication bypass reachable for over two months.[4][5]
Petlibro is a pet-technology company that has sold internet-connected devices since 2019.[6] The company reports that its feeders and fountains have reached over 3 million units sold, that it holds over 35% market share in smart feeders on Amazon, and that it has placed products in more than 1,000 Target stores.[6] Those figures are Petlibro's own self-reported numbers and are not independently audited.
Products
[edit | edit source]Petlibro's product line spans four hardware categories, each tied to the Petlibro app. The feeders include an RFID-based feeder, the Polar wet-food feeder, and the Granary dry-food line.[3][2] The Polar Wet Food Feeder was named to TIMETemplate:'s Best Inventions of 2024.[6] The Granary Automatic Cat Feeder with Camera schedules up to 10 meals or snacks a day and is marketed as "Wi-Fi connected, app-powered."[2] The Dockstream fountains, the Luma self-cleaning litter box, and the Scout camera round out the range.[3][1][2]
The Scout Smart Camera launched in June 2025 at $99.99.[6] It uses pet-recognition software to log when a pet eats, drinks, or uses the litter box, stores clips in the cloud for up to 30 days, and delivers daily highlight reels through the app.[1] Petlibro's privacy policy states that its system collects image and video data captured by the camera to improve the device and its AI features.[1]
Cloud dependency and subscriptions
[edit | edit source]Petlibro devices require the app and the company's cloud for their headline features. The Granary feeder's camera history is gated behind a paid Petlibro Video Cloud subscription, and each feeder a household owns requires a separate subscription for cloud video storage.[2] At the Scout camera's June 2025 launch, its AI features were similarly locked behind a subscription, a standard tier at $12 per month or a premium tier at $17 per month.[1] This is a software-as-a-service arrangement layered on top of hardware the customer has already bought.
The dependency matters when the servers fail. Petlibro states that feeding schedules are programmed directly onto the device and continue to run without an internet command, but functions that rely on the app connection, such as the manual Feed Now button, can be disrupted during an outage.[7][3] The August 2026 outage tested that claim, and many owners reported that their feeders missed scheduled meals anyway.[3]
Incidents
[edit | edit source]August 2026 cloud outage
[edit | edit source]A Petlibro server outage that began on August 11, 2026 prevented smart feeders, fountains, and litter boxes from performing scheduled tasks.[3][8] Owners of the RFID, Granary, and Polar feeders reported that their devices missed scheduled feedings, a problem for those who were away from home.[3][7] In a statement to The Verge, CEO York Wu said the outage was "related to how the Petlibro app communicates with devices through its online servers" and that scheduled feedings should run without an internet command.[3] Petlibro's status page said it began investigating at 5:00 AM PT on August 11, 2026 and declared service fully restored the next day, on August 12, 2026, but some owners said their feeders were still offline and not dispensing after the fix.[8][3][9]
2025 platform security vulnerabilities
[edit | edit source]In December 2025, security researchers disclosed a set of flaws in the Petlibro Smart Pet Feeder Platform. The National Vulnerability Database records CVE-2025-3646, an authorization bypass in platform versions up to 1.7.31 that NIST scored 8.2 HIGH on the CVSS 3.x scale.[5] The NVD describes it this way:
Petlibro Smart Pet Feeder Platform versions up to 1.7.31 contains an authorization bypass vulnerability that allows unauthorized users to add users as shared owners to any device by exploiting missing permission checks. Attackers can send requests to the device share API to gain unauthorized access to devices and view owner information without proper authorization validation.[5]
TechNadu reported that the broader disclosure went further than a single API gap. According to its account, the flaws permitted complete account takeover of any user, whether customer or employee, device hijacking, and access to private audio recordings, along with exposure of pet data.[4] TechNadu also reported that while most issues were patched, the critical authentication bypass "remained active for over 2 months due to 'legacy compatibility' reasons."[4] A device the buyer owns and a home audio feed were reachable through the vendor's cloud, which is the tradeoff at the center of these internet-connected products.
Precedent
[edit | edit source]Cloud-dependent pet feeders have failed this way before. In February 2020, Petnet, a smart feeder maker backed by investors including Petco, went through a week-long outage of its second-generation SmartFeeders.[10] Petnet said the feeders could still dispense on schedule, but several customers replied that their devices had stopped dispensing food or were not dispensing on schedule, and messages to the company's support email and CEO went undeliverable.[10] The pattern is the recurring risk of tying a basic function such as feeding a pet to a vendor's servers. The same dependency drives premature obsolescence and is a core concern of the Right to repair movement, which documents hardware whose features stop working when the manufacturer's cloud does.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Forristal, Lauren (2025-06-27). "Petlibro's new smart camera uses AI to describe your pet's movements, and it's adorable". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Granary Automatic Cat Feeder with Camera". Petlibro. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Roth, Emma (2026-08-12). "Cats and dogs are missing meals after a popular smart feeder went down". The Verge. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Apostol, Lore (2025-12-29). "IoT Device Vulnerabilities in Smart Pet Feeders: Petlibro Exposes Pet, User and Employee Details". TechNadu. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "CVE-2025-3646". National Vulnerability Database. NIST. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 "Petlibro Launches Scout: The AI-powered Pet Camera That Knows the Difference Between Your Pets, And What They're Up To". PR Newswire. Petlibro. 2025-06-25. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Jacobs, Skye (2026-08-14). "A smart feeder outage left some cats and dogs without scheduled meals". TechSpot. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Petlibro Service Status". Petlibro. 2026-08-12. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ Tangermann, Victor (2026-08-17). "Internet-Connected Pet Feeders Go Down, Leaving Kitties Hungry". Futurism. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Shu, Catherine (2020-02-24). "Petnet's smart pet feeder system is back after a week-long outage, but customers are still waiting for answers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-08-24.