Actually, keeping cats and dogs safe and alive is the first and main reason why I didn't disclose details or break anything. Not liking to go to jail is the second reason.

But yeah, I agree that these titles sound awful. "Russian hacker bricked all the pet feeders and could starve all cats to death". Boo! Such a monster! Hah. The main thing I got from my 22 y.o. life is that I love cats more than people because they always love you back and never hurt you. Precious creatures.

Hahah. Looks like that story became Chinese whispers (no pun intended) so I'm here to explain my original intentions. When I stumbled this vulnerability, I did two things. At first, I published the fact the vulnerability exists on my Telegram channel. I never published anything that could lead to disclosure. Secondly, I notified Furrytail manufacturer about the vulnerability and I gave them COMPLETE and detailed description of what is happening. I even gave them some tips that could help them fixing this breach. And I want to quote one sentence from my letter sent to them: >I assure that I will not use this breach and will not harm any feeders and their users. So please don't treat me as a "black hat" or something. I just wanted all the cats to be safe and that's why I won't disclose anything until fix is released.

Ok, here am I, the researcher, to explain this in detail. First, I completely agree. I keep all my IoT devices locked out of WAN. The problem of this device is that you never connect to it locally nor from outside. There is only one way to control this feeder: to use mobile app that communicates with Chinese HTTP API. The feeder itself connects to another Chinese API to report statuses and get commands to execute. It means that you have NO WAY to keep it secure and have control simultaneously with original firmware. That's why I started reverse-engineering the device, I wanted to develop an alternative firmware (or at least some alternative open-source server to be installed locally) so the device wouldn't be open to the Internet anymore. And then I stumbled this nightmare.