They’ve hijacked the porcelain throne: Toilet hackers can bust into bathrooms via Bluetooth

Remember when you thought dropping your cellphone in the toilet was a major problem?

Now, imagine you’re sitting on your toilet and suddenly it begins to flush out of nowhere. Then, you’re trying to indulge in your toilet’s handy bidet feature, but it starts shooting unexpected streams of water at you.

Sounds a bit outlandish, but owners of the Satis smart toilet are now susceptible to having their toilets hacked and experiencing such an invasion of privacy.

 The Satis toilet only costs a few thousand dollars. (Image via LIXIL.)

Trustwave Holdings, an e-security firm, published an advisory notice last week warning Satis smart toilet owners that their toilets could potentially get hacked.

The Satis smart toilet was introduced a few years ago by housing equipment company LIXIL. Some of its features include automatic toilet seats, deodorizers, flushing, and even bidet functions.

Satis owners can download an app to their Android device and control their toilet via Bluetooth. The only problem is, the Bluetooth PIN, “0000” is hard-coded into the app, so all an outsider has to do is download the app and they can control any Satis toilet within Bluetooth range.

Control a Satis toilet right from an Android device. (Image via LIXIL)

“Attackers could cause the unit to unexpectedly open/close the lid, activate bidet or air-dry functions, causing discomfort or distress to user,” Trustwave Holdings said in its notice.

No, nobody is going to get hurt as a result of this hack, but the security firm does warn that Satis toilet owners can become distressed or see an increase in their utility bills if they are hacked.

“An attacker could simply download the “My Satis” application and use it to cause the toilet to repeatedly flush, raising the water usage and therefore utility cost to its owner,” the e-security company added.

As if a Satis owner wasn’t feeling violated enough, a hacker can even access their “usage log.” That’s right, the Satis toilet is so smart it even keeps track of when you used the toilet and for what purpose.

This hack may be annoying and act as a funny joke at the same time, but the good news is we can assume there aren’t too many serious criminals interested in flushing your toilet remotely.