Radio gateway (IoT gateway): what it is and how it is attacked
The box that turns messages from small wireless sensors into ordinary network traffic.
Also known as
- IoT gateway
- LoRaWAN gateway
- Zigbee hub
- protocol bridge
- smart hub
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
It is the seam where a radio world with almost no authentication meets a network that assumes there is some. Whatever it forwards is believed downstream.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- Sensor messages passed inwards without the gateway asserting anything about where they came from
- A device sitting on the internal network and on an open radio network at the same time
- Consumer hubs bought by a facilities team, never inventoried and never patched
What reduces it
- Make the gateway decide what is worth believing, because nothing downstream will
- Give it its own segment on the network side, since it bridges two worlds by design
- Fix this at purchasing: an uninventoried hub is the common case
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
- radio-gateway
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.
- Low-power radio deviceLoRa · LoRaWAN · Zigbee · Z-Wave · sub-GHz · wireless sensorA small battery-powered sensor or switch that sends short messages over a long range: a meter, a door contact, a thermostat.
- 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.
Radio gateway on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type IoT gateway. 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