Petlibro smart feeder platform flaws allowed account takeover and device hijacking

An unauthenticated attacker could take over any Petlibro account that used a Google login, then hijack the owner's internet-connected feeders and cameras, change feeding schedules, and pull private audio recordings, through flaws in the cloud platform behind the company's smart pet devices. An independent security researcher publishing as BobDaHacker disclosed the platform flaws publicly on December 27, 2025, and the National Vulnerability Database catalogued six of them in Petlibro Smart Pet Feeder Platform versions up to 1.7.31. TechNadu reported that Petlibro patched most of the issues but left the critical authentication bypass reachable for over two months after disclosure, citing "legacy compatibility".

Background

Petlibro sells internet-connected pet products, including automatic feeders, water fountains, and camera-equipped feeders, that owners control remotely through a mobile app backed by a cloud service the National Vulnerability Database calls the Petlibro Smart Pet Feeder Platform. The researcher, publishing as BobDaHacker, wrote that the app is used by "[m]illions of pet owners" to feed their cats and dogs remotely, and that the audit surfaced a set of flaws in how that platform authorized requests. Because the feeders, cameras, and fountains depend on this shared cloud backend, an internet of things account and its linked devices are only as private as the platform's server-side checks; the same cloud dependency left owners unable to feed their pets during a separate Petlibro cloud outage.

BobDaHacker reported the six vulnerabilities to Petlibro on November 5, 2025, and Petlibro acknowledged the report the next day. The public disclosure followed on December 27, 2025, when the researcher published a write-up describing each flaw and the request paths that triggered it. The consumer stakes are direct: as the researcher put it, an attacker who controlled a feeder could stop feeding someone's pet, reach the owner's home cameras, and listen to private recordings.

Six flaws in the platform

The National Vulnerability Database catalogued six flaws, each affecting Petlibro Smart Pet Feeder Platform versions up to 1.7.31. NIST rated three of them, the account-takeover, device-control, and hardware-disclosure flaws, at 9.8 (critical) on the CVSS 3.1 scale, the top severity band, and rated the device-sharing and pet-data flaws 8.2 (high).

Account takeover

The most serious flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-15115, is an authentication bypass. NVD describes it as a vulnerability that

allows unauthenticated attackers to access any user account by exploiting OAuth token validation flaws in the social login system. Attackers can send requests to /member/auth/thirdLogin with arbitrary Google IDs and phoneBrand parameters to obtain full session tokens and account access without proper OAuth verification.

The researcher explained the mechanism in plainer terms, writing that the social login endpoint "doesn't verify OAuth tokens. It just accepts an email and a Google ID directly from the client", so an attacker who supplied a target's email and Google ID would "get back a full session token, member ID, email, and everything needed to access their account". A Google ID is not secret; the researcher noted that Google's People API lets anyone look up a person's Google ID from their email address. NIST rated the flaw 9.8 (critical) on the CVSS 3.1 scale, the highest severity band.

The National Vulnerability Database entry for CVE-2025-15115 describes the Petlibro Smart Pet Feeder Platform authentication bypass that "allows unauthenticated attackers to access any user account" through the social login system.

A related authorization flaw, CVE-2025-3646, let an attacker add themselves to someone else's device. NVD describes it as an authorization bypass 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.

NIST assigned this flaw a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.2 (high). The researcher wrote that adding a shared owner was "[w]ide open" while only removing one was permission-checked, and that the API response even disclosed the original owner's email address.

Device control and hardware exposure

CVE-2025-3653 is an improper access control flaw that let an attacker operate a device without owning it. NVD states that it allows unauthorized device manipulation by accepting arbitrary serial numbers without ownership verification, so an attacker who sent a serial number to the device control APIs could "change feeding schedules, trigger manual feeds, access camera feeds, and modify device settings without authorization checks".

CVE-2025-3654 fed that attack by exposing the hardware identifiers needed to target a device. NVD describes it as an information disclosure flaw through which attackers could "retrieve device serial numbers and MAC addresses through /device/devicePetRelation/getBoundDevices using pet IDs, enabling full device control without proper authorization checks". NIST rated both flaws 9.8 (critical) on the CVSS 3.1 scale.

Private audio and pet data

CVE-2025-3652 exposed the mealtime audio recordings owners record for their pets. NVD states that the flaw allows unauthorized access to private audio recordings by exploiting sequential audio IDs and insecure assignment endpoints, and that an attacker could send requests to /device/deviceAudio/use with arbitrary audio IDs to assign recordings to any device, then retrieve the audio URLs to reach other users' private recordings. The researcher wrote that the audio IDs were "sequential and incrementing" and that during testing they retrieved five random people's mealtime recordings.

The National Vulnerability Database entry for CVE-2025-3652 describes an information disclosure flaw that "allows unauthorized access to private audio recordings by exploiting sequential audio IDs".

CVE-2025-3660 exposed the pet records tied to an account. NVD describes it as a broken access control flaw through which authenticated users could send requests to /member/pet/detailV2 with arbitrary pet IDs to "retrieve sensitive information including pet details, member IDs, and avatar URLs without proper authorization checks". NIST rated the pet-data flaw 8.2 (high) on the CVSS 3.1 scale; for the audio-disclosure flaw NVD lists no NIST CVSS 3.1 score, only a CVSS 4.0 base score of 6.9 (medium).

Impact

TechNadu, reporting on the disclosure on December 29, 2025, summarized the combined effect of the flaws as complete account takeover of any user (customer or employee), access to private audio recordings, device hijacking, and pet data exposure. TechNadu wrote that the account takeover flaw "allowed complete takeover of any user account that uses Google logins", and that the data-exposure flaws let an attacker query any pet's details, read the serial numbers and MAC addresses of linked devices, hijack device functions such as feeding schedules and camera feeds, and reach the private mealtime audio.

The researcher's write-up made the same point from the owner's side, listing what the flaws allowed: complete account takeover, access to private audio recordings of people talking to their pets, device hijacking that could change feeding schedules or reach cameras, and exposure of pet names, breeds, health information, and photos. For an owner who travels and relies on a feeder to feed an animal, the researcher wrote, an attacker could stop the feeding, reach the home cameras, harvest personal data, and listen to private recordings.

Disclosure and response

According to TechNadu, Petlibro acknowledged the report and eventually patched the vulnerabilities, but left the critical authentication bypass live long after the other fixes shipped. TechNadu reported that

the critical authentication bypass remained active for over 2 months due to "legacy compatibility" reasons.

TechNadu's report on the disclosure summarizes the platform flaws, noting the critical authentication bypass "remained active for over 2 months due to 'legacy compatibility'" reasons.

The researcher's account matches. BobDaHacker wrote that Petlibro "made a new endpoint that properly verifies ID tokens, but left the old vulnerable endpoint active for 'legacy compatibility'", saying the company wanted to wait until its analytics showed most users had upgraded before removing the old path. The researcher recorded that on December 4, 2025, Petlibro said it planned to enforce upgrades within two weeks, and that as of the December 27, 2025 write-up the old /member/auth/thirdLogin endpoint was still active and anyone could still log in to any account that used a Google login. In an update dated December 28, 2025, the researcher wrote that Petlibro removed the endpoint after being told about the blog post. TechNadu likewise reported that the vulnerable endpoint was only removed after the researcher published the findings.

The episode fits a broader pattern the wiki documents around connected devices whose core function depends on a manufacturer's cloud, where owners have no local control path and little leverage when the vendor delays a fix. It is one of the arguments raised in the right to repair debate over internet-connected hardware.

See also

• Petlibro
• Petlibro cloud outage leaves smart pet feeders unable to dispense scheduled meals
• Internet of things