We just bought a new refrigerator this weekend, replacing the $3500 2011 Bosch that came with the apartment.
The Bosch burned out the compressor’s ECU - a $350 part that with labor would have been an $800 repair.
We comparison shopped all the appliance stores in NYC and ended up with a $2k Samsung side by side (not my favorite brand, but it fit in our tight galley kitchen)
PC Richard had only a single model with a touchscreen on the floor (Samsung French door). Best Buy and Home Depot had maybe one more from LG.
So on one hand, the concern that every refrigerator will have a useless touchscreen seems unfounded.
But... I was reading through the manual and was surprised to find instructions for connecting the appliance to my wifi. (MAC address available two hex digits at a time flashed through the temperature gauges)
Ostensibly this is to provide a channel for electric demand response (they even documented the api). It also connects up with Samsung’s SmartHome ecosystem (why??)
I have no doubt there is a full Android stack hidden what appeared to be a normal “dumb appliance”.
These hidden smart appliances are going to be great attack surfaces. I’m sure soon enough they’ll automate the wifi connection by making a back channel the nearest lightbulb or something.
Of course who’s following CVEs on their mesh connected toaster?
You probably could have found the control board for sale online for half that cost and replaced it yourself. It's no more that a couple plugs, refrigerator repair is very over priced unless they have to tinker with the refrigerant.
