Review - TOP-201 Super Mini 720P HD IP-Cam (The Cheapest IP Cam So Far !!)

[chorizo]

Possibly I am misinterpreting what I read here, especially as your serial link shows you are not a complete digi-noob. But it sounds as if the camera simply had a hardcoded IP and you expected it to have DHCP hence "it isn't listed in the connected clients sections of the router". More of a misunderstanding then an issue.

Yeah maybe it was just a wrong expectation on my part: I was surprised, thinking it wasn't working properly, because in the past I configured a few devices with static IPs and I recall they were listed in the "devices" section of the router too. So, assuming both the camera and the router are working as expected, I see two possibilities:

1. What I recall is wrong (it was long time ago, it could be...)
2. The devices I had were configured using Static DHCP

The fact is that if the device isn't recognized by the router I'm unable to configure its networking settings (things like port forwarding, access logging, etc.).

 

[cybermaus]

You cannot enter the IP for port forwarding manually? Usually there is a manual option. Even if there is a drop down list with IP's, there may be an empty one at the end of the list.
What brand router?

 

[chorizo]

You cannot enter the IP for port forwarding manually? Usually there is a manual option. Even if there is a drop down list with IP's, there may be an empty one at the end of the list.

You're right (there's an option to insert the ip manually at the end of the drop down list): never noticed that one...

As these kind of devices are quite vulnerable, if exposed carelessly on the internet, before setting it up I'm checking what's the safety level of this ipcamera.

Here's the result of a port scan (when available I've also added additional descriptions gathered manually):

1. 80/tcp (http, uc-httpd 1.0.0, Web UI)
2. 554/tcp (rtsp, H264DVR 1.0, H.264 video stream)
3. 3702/udp (SOAP / ONVIF / ws-discovery, gSOAP 2.7)
4. 8899/tcp (SOAP / ONVIF, gSOAP 2.7)
5. 9527/tcp (Telnet, BusyBox v1.16.1 telnetd)
6. 9530/tcp (unknown)
7. 34567/tcp (ipcamera TCP port)

Even if not identified by the port scan, the camera may also use the following ports:

1. 8443/tcp (ipcamera SSL port) // the camera seems to refuse any connection attempts on this one
2. 34568/udp (ipcamera UDP port)
3. 34569/udp (IP Search port)

Verdict: password (and firewall) protect it as much as you can (otherwise it's going to be abused by black hats).


Now I've got three other questions:

1. I've tried browsing the web UI using Firefox: it gets diplayed but only in chinese and the browser says I miss a plugin: do I need to use Internet Explorer to get something useful?
2. Is it possible to login through telnet as the root user? (I've confirmed that the password should be xmhdipc, network port 9527, but I'm unable to login^)
3. Is CMS really needed? (or I can use any other compatible viewer without losing useful features?)

^ I can log using:

• Username: admin
  
• Password: <empty>

That's not the root account.
Moreover, after I run the command to get the sh shell, the shell doesn't seem to run the commands I type. Furthermore, if i list the available users using the provided command, the camera replies saying the only ones existing are: admin and default (that's not true because user root is included in the ipcamera's shadow file).

Thanks again!

 

[Kawboy12R]

Safety level 0. Deny them access to the net completely. Preferably deny them access to your OWN computers except for camera management boxes. Some of these even come prepackaged with malware.

 

[Dodutils]

Now I've got three other questions:

1. I've tried browsing the web UI using Firefox: it gets diplayed but only in chinese and the browser says I miss a plugin: do I need to use Internet Explorer to get something useful?
2. Is it possible to login through telnet as the root user? (I've confirmed that the password should be xmhdipc, network port 9527, but I'm unable to login^)
3. Is CMS really needed? (or I can use any other compatible viewer without losing useful features?)

1. Many cameras still use ActiveX so it should be IE only (Microsoft Edge dropped ActiveX support)
2. Or may be you firmware version changed as root password ?
3. What are "usefull features" to you ? if you use this camera thru NVR or usual software like BI or Netcam Studio they can do the viewing/motion alert/recording so no need of original CMS especially for such "basic" camera.

 

[Dodutils]

Safety level 0. Deny them access to the net completely. Preferably deny them access to your OWN computers except for camera management boxes. Some of these even come prepackaged with malware.

Yes security is crap like ESCAM QD300/QD900 which accept you get stream without any password and allow P2P unencrypted over Internet so you someone can sniff your link and get login/password and full RTSP stream.

If you have local privacy/security concern the best you can do is to connect them to managed switch that will isolate their network into a dedicated VLAN that your NVR can access to for example, then from outside you connect to your NVR (or BI or Netscan Studio or whatever software) directly from Internet or for more privacy/security thru some VPN you set on your DSL/Fiber router.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Verdict: password (and firewall) protect it as much as you can (otherwise it's going to be abused by black hats).

Sorry - totally wrong.
Vulnerability exploits don't generally care what password you've set. That's why they are vulnerabilities.

 

[chorizo]

3. What are "usefull features" to you ? if you use this camera thru NVR or usual software like BI or Netcam Studio they can do the viewing/motion alert/recording so no need of original CMS especially for such "basic" camera.

Sorry if I wasn't clear: I meant to ask if there were any unique features available only using CMS? (I don't think so)

Safety level 0. Deny them access to the net completely. Preferably deny them access to your OWN computers except for camera management boxes. Some of these even come prepackaged with malware.

Uhm so, ignoring the fact that all the traffic is in cleartext (it isn't good but unfortunately it isn't surprising), you say the camera may be dangerous / hostile even for use in the local network and It may even contain malware? (is the malware part a general statement or is the "TOP-201" known to be infected?)

If you have local privacy/security concern the best you can do is to connect them to managed switch that will isolate their network into a dedicated VLAN that your NVR can access to for example, then from outside you connect to your NVR (or BI or Netscan STudio or whatever software) directly from Internet or for more privacy/security thru some VPN you set on your DSL/Fiber router.

Yeah, I wanted it to be accessible from the outside but in a secure way (I was thinking of using something like a ssh tunnel / VPN). Your suggestion provides an interesting idea too...

Sorry - totally wrong.
Vulnerability exploits don't generally care what password you've set. That's why they are vulnerabilities.

You're right, I've explained myself in a bad way...

What I meant was that assuming there are no known exploits affecting this device, to harden it, you still need to change the default password (empty) and firewall anything which isn't needed or restricted in other ways (ssh tunnel, VPN, IP whitelist, etc.).
For example I know devices like this (even this one) are compromised and turned into bots exploited by botnets like Mirai controlled by black hats. I haven't read the details about how this is done but I think the devices are tested against a set of known username / password combos, wordlists.

Do you know if there's any know exploit afftecting the "TOP-201" ipcamera?

Many thanks everybody!

 

[chorizo]

Sorry to bump the thread: no replies to my previous questions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[zero-degrees]

Sorry to bump the thread: no replies to my previous questions?

Thanks in advance!

You are asking a lot of a questions for a $25 camera... You get what you pay for.

Just because today there are no known exploits doesn't mean some will not appear tomorrow. While, this can be said about ANY device, the likely hood is MUCH higher in a sub par inexpensive device from china like this.

Placing this device on a secure network via VPN doesn't mean anything - other then you are trusting an inexpensive China device on your secure network... This is the exact reason why controlled networks have all types of alarms set to go off when something like this occures. Just because you secure a network so someone else can't look in doesn't mean anything if the device is unsecure or unleashes an attack from within.

Bottom Line - If you want to try a $25 ONVIF camera go for it, but don't put a lot of faith in the outcome.

 

[chorizo]

You are asking a lot of a questions for a $25 camera... You get what you pay for.

Didn't want to be annoying, just that I'm a curious person and I like to thinker with this kind of low cost devices...

As you've correctly written it isn't right to expect too much from cheap device like this: just wanted to know if there were publicly known issues / exploits in order to mitigate them...
Anyway I'll probably set-up the camera in a separate VLAN firewalling everything (inbound / outbound) so that I can talk only on that network segment locally. Another device in the same VLAN will fetch the RTSP stream and provide secure access to it (the authentication part being managed by ssh).

Regarding my previous questions, as the security part has been partially addressed, what about the CMS and telnet ones?

Thanks for your patient replies.

 

[cybermaus]

Now I've got three other questions:

1. I've tried browsing the web UI using Firefox: it gets diplayed but only in chinese and the browser says I miss a plugin: do I need to use Internet Explorer to get something useful?
2. Is it possible to login through telnet as the root user? (I've confirmed that the password should be xmhdipc, network port 9527, but I'm unable to login^)
3. Is CMS really needed? (or I can use any other compatible viewer without losing useful features?)

1 and 3 are related: If you cannot connect through the build in browser, then you cannot really configure the camera, unless if you have CMS. CMS is the only program I found that can actually controll all the configuration of the camera. But other then for configuration, I do not use it, any Onvif complient viewer should work for motion detect, any RTSP should work for viewing. I never was able to connect using IE also but I am not bothered by it.

2: In some version of the camera, they dropped autostart for telnet. Connect to 9527, and start telnet deamon from in there, and then connect through telnet.
I forget the exact commands, but something like:
shell
/sbin/telnetd &
or
shell
/bin/telnetd &

Not sure anymore if you also have to put an option on the telnetd.
You may want to read up on the internet man pages on telnetd for that.

 

[chorizo]

1 and 3 are related: If you cannot connect through the build in browser, then you cannot really configure the camera, unless if you have CMS. CMS is the only program I found that can actually controll all the configuration of the camera. But other then for configuration, I do not use it, any Onvif complient viewer should work for motion detect, any RTSP should work for viewing. I never was able to connect using IE also but I am not bothered by it.

Thanks for the explanation.

2: In some version of the camera, they dropped autostart for telnet. Connect to 9527, and start telnet deamon from in there, and then connect through telnet.
I forget the exact commands, but something like:
shell
/sbin/telnetd &
or
shell
/bin/telnetd &

Not sure anymore if you also have to put an option on the telnetd.
You may want to read up on the internet man pages on telnetd for that.

Thanks. I'll try fiddling with that one in order to see what happens...

 

[chorizo]

Unfortunately here's what happen (gif animation):

I've also tried issuing the command you suggested (I've confirmed /sbin is the correct path):

/sbin/telnetd &

But the result is always the same:

: not found

As you may have noticed from the gif, some error messages are printed during the execution:

===GetNatDnsSrvAddr ===> begin

gethostbyname mac.secu100.net fail

CCloudMediaManager::Start-------->get pub cfg ip failed [pub-cfg.secu100.net]

===gethostbyname error for host:pub-cfg.secu100.net

CCloudAlarmCli::Start-------->get pub cfg ip failed [pub-cfg.secu100.net]

CloudUpgrade::SetServerAddr: Address error! Errorcode : Name or service not known

===gethostbyname error for host:secu100.net

GetNatServerIP error

 

[cybermaus]

Thats what I got as well, and I tried many variants of the telnetd call, including some with options like IP and port to listen for, one of them worked, even though it never gave a satisfacotry command respond.

So I say again, read the telnetd man page ( the busybox one) and try some. Because I tried so many myself, I do not quite remember which variant was the right one.

 

[Dodutils]

Unfortunately here's what happen (gif animation):

Hey what did you use to record and make animated GIF of your screen session #wantit !

 

[cybermaus]

probably ShareX

 

[chorizo]

Thats what I got as well, and I tried many variants of the telnetd call, including some with options like IP and port to listen for, one of them worked, even though it never gave a satisfacotry command respond.

So I say again, read the telnetd man page ( the busybox one) and try some. Because I tried so many myself, I do not quite remember which variant was the right one.

Thanks, I'll try it this week (as soon as I've enough free time).

Hey what did you use to record and make animated GIF of your screen session #wantit !

Hi, I've used ttygif.

The exact way I recorded that gif is reported here:

Terminal emulator: xterm (132x43)

Start recording: ttyrec myrecording filename
Stop recording: CTRL + D (or type exit)

Generate gif from the recorded typescript: ttygif filename

Optimize gif filesize: gifsicle -O3 filename.gif -o optimized_filename.gif

 

[Dodutils]

Thanks, I'll try it this week (as soon as I've enough free time).


Hi, I've used ttygif.

The exact way I recorded that gif is reported here:

Terminal emulator: xterm (132x43)

Start recording: ttyrec myrecording filename
Stop recording: CTRL + D (or type exit)

Generate gif from the recorded typescript: ttygif filename

Optimize gif filesize: gifsicle -O3 filename.gif -o optimized_filename.gif

Tnx

 

[ebaycam]

i have the vmeyesuper app installed on android. And have 4 top201 ip camera. And the settings in vmeyesuper are on main stream. But it is slowly. And have real time on. When i use sub stream, no problem. I have a octa core s912 and 3gb ddr3 ram. The proccesor is on 98% 1.26ghz And that is only the vmeyesuper app.

I want watch on MAIN stream and REAL TIME. what is the best app for that? on my i7 pc it goes smoothly with the CMS program.