Low-power radio device (LoRa): what it is and how it is attacked
A small battery-powered sensor or switch that sends short messages over a long range: a meter, a door contact, a thermostat.
Also known as
- LoRa
- LoRaWAN
- Zigbee
- Z-Wave
- sub-GHz
- wireless sensor
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
These are chosen for battery life rather than for security, deployed in the hundreds, and frequently control something physical: heating, lighting, doors, water.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Keys fixed at manufacture and shared across a production batch, so one recovered device speaks for many
- Messages accepted on content alone with no check on freshness
- Deployments that outlive the supplier, leaving devices that can never be updated
What reduces it
- Ask how keys are issued and whether they can be changed in the field, before purchase
- Look for replay protection in the specification rather than in the brochure
- Set the replacement date at purchase, because these will outlive their supplier
Where it sits
- Group
- Wireless and radio · The parts of the network that travel through the air, and how far they reach.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- low-power-radio-device
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in wireless and radio
- Wi-Fi access pointAP · wireless · WAPLets devices join the network without a cable.
- Wireless network nameSSID · network name · WLAN · guest wifiThe name devices show in their list of available wireless networks.
- Wireless controllerWLC · wireless LAN controller · AP controller · cloud-managed wirelessThe single system that configures and watches every wireless access point.
- Mobile broadband router4G router · 5G router · cellular modem · MiFi · dongle · tetheringA box, or a phone, that gives a network its own connection through the mobile phone network.
- Satellite terminalVSAT · satcom · satellite internet · BGANA dish or flat panel that connects a site to the internet through a satellite.
- Satellite time and location receiverGPS · GNSS · GPS clock · grandmaster clock · timing sourceA device that works out where it is, and what the time is, from satellites.
- Bluetooth deviceBT · Bluetooth Low Energy · BLE · pairing · wireless keyboardSomething that connects to a phone or a computer over a short-range radio link: a headset, a keyboard, a car.
- Radio gatewayIoT gateway · LoRaWAN gateway · Zigbee hub · protocol bridge · smart hubThe box that turns messages from small wireless sensors into ordinary network traffic.
- Contactless readerNFC reader · tap reader · payment terminal · card terminalA pad that reads a card, a phone or a wristband held against it, usually to take a payment.
- Wireless monitoring sensorWIDS · WIPS · wireless intrusion detection · air monitorEquipment that listens to the airwaves and reports transmitters that should not be there.
The wireless and radio group lists all 11 of them side by side.
Low-power radio device on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type LoRa. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker