Security Analysis of Trust on the Controller in the Matter Protocol Specification
Kumar Shashwat, Francis Hahn, Xinming Ou, Anoop Singhal · 2023
Matter is an open-source connectivity standard allowing smart home IoT (Internet of Things) devices from different vendors to interoperate with one another. A controller1in a Matter system commissions new devices into the Matter fabric. The device needs to present a credential called Device Attestation Certificate (DAC), indicating that it is from a trusted vendor and has gone through the necessary testing to be compliant with the Matter standard. However, the controller is not required to prove to the device that it is from a trustworthy vendor. We verified through experimentation that anyone can create a Matter controller that can commission a commercial Matter device. We analyze the security implication of this design choice in Matter, and present a few scenarios where a malicious controller can exert harm to an otherwise healthy Matter ecosystem.1Throughout this paper the term “controller” refers to the controller component in the Matter protocol specification. It does not refer to any specific controller from any vendor.