The hardware on the ban list are on there because they literally have blatant back doors built right into the firmware. That may please some politicians but reality is that’s very dangerous if not installed correctly (as has been outlined many times on this forum). IOTs are almost always a compromise since we all want amazing features and access but allowing this also opens up a potential tunnel for exploit as well. Most of us are not high value targets so then we have to decide how much security we want and what compromises we’ll accept to achieve it.
New Reolink Wired POE Doorbell Cam ?
- Thread starter Elton Noway
- Start date
That is incorrect. The Chinese manufactures are on that list because of the POSSIBILITY of backdoors and other nefarious things (which are actually scarier than the backdoors) in the firmware. As far as I know, no actual backdoors have been found to date. If you can prove otherwise, I'd love to see the evidence.
That being said, I am sure that every manufacturer on that list has had some sort of exploit found in their firmware at some point in time. So has every other manufacturer of CCTV devices regardless of the country of origin. So again, the idea that Reolink cameras are "safer" to use than Dahua cameras because they are not included in the US Government ban list is completely false. As a normal residential user of CCTV products, your "risk" is exactly the same whether you use Dahua or Reolink or Axis or any other brand cameras.
Here is a link to a previous post I made about the ban. It doesn't directly apply to this topic, but certainly helps explain the need for the ban in the first place and why we as "normal residential users" don't really need to worry about it.
Backdoor can mean intentional or not, it doesn't need to be deliberate or nefarious. Hikvision definitely contained a backdoor which was proven to allow anyone access who knew about it. Hikvision was silent about fixing it and later buried all communications about it (not a very trustworthy move). That said hopefully you can see I have many chinese (Dahua) cameras at home so obviously I'm not telling people don't use them by any means. I actually also agree with the comments in your link and with the idea that vulnerabuilities are possible in any commercially available brand. It really is about managing risk and there's deinitely people out there that are still using port forwarding and default passwords without ever having had any negative consequences from doing it.
Looks like this whole Reolink doorbell discussion is about to be moot for me anyway because Ubiquiti just announced a new G6 POE Doorbell lineup to start shipping this fall.
Camera G6 Pro Entry - Ubiquiti Store
All-weather, PoE+ 12MP Doorbell with enhanced AI detections, two-way audio, 3" touch display, a secondary package camera, and integrated Access Reader capabilities.
store.ui.com
Camera G6 Entry - Ubiquiti Store
All-weather, PoE+ Doorbell with enhanced AI detections, two-way audio, a secondary package camera, and integrated Access Reader capabilities.
store.ui.com
Doorbell Lite - Ubiquiti Store
Compact PoE video doorbell with two-way audio and versatile mounting options.
store.ui.com
TheWaterbug
Known around here
I haven't used any Ubiquti cameras before; do they play nicely with BI and other 3rd-party NVR/NVR software? I know some Ubiquit stuff (but not all) likes to be closed-system.
Those product pages are silent on RTSP/ONVIF.
Only if you have a cloud key or nvr that acts as a rtsp relay for the cameras. You cannot get streams directly from the camera as far as I understand.
Pretty much DOA for me even though they are really interesting options.
Unfortunately, no, they don't support output as RTSP/ONVIF on Unifi cameras but Protect does allow 3rd party camera adoption. It is definitely possible to run Protect and BI at the same time though so you have the best of both worlds (some 3rd party 4k cameras have had issues displaying well in Protect). One of the major gripes I had with BI was the inability to access the 2-way capability on a door bell (ex Reolink). I use Protect alot because it works very well on mobile devices since it has a built in VPN client versus needing to use 3rd party stuff and cobble something together that works. The Reolink doorbell needs internet exposure to use their mobile app which obviously can create security issues as we discussed above. The Unifi option will be nice because I can then put those doorbells back on a network behind the UNVR and completely sandbox (isolate) them from the internet again (which is always my preference).
The G6 Pro Entry doorbell is likely close to $400 so that would take it out of the running for me. Besides my 2 Reolinks have been perking along since June of 2023 without a hiccup, cost less than $90 apiece....cannot be more pleased.
I actually totally agree Tony, my Reolinks have been great to date as well. Only complaint is I have to use their app to get the 2-way capability. I'm definitely going to be waiting a bit for the Unifi stuff to get alot more reviews and of course price/availability could certainly be isssues given Ubiquiti's past history.The G6 Pro Entry doorbell is likely close to $400 so that would take it out of the running for me. Besides my 2 Reolinks have been perking along since June of 2023 without a hiccup, cost less than $90 apiece....cannot be more pleased.