Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with something called “gray zone check out computers”. It’s basically about seeing what computers on a network are, well, kind of in a gray area – not fully managed, maybe not fully patched, you get the idea. I figured I’d give it a shot and see what I could find on my own home network.
Getting Started
First things first, I needed a way to scan my network. Nothing fancy, I just wanted to see what devices were active. I grabbed this open-source tool. Installed, very easy.
The Scan
I launched the tool, and boom my home network IP range and hit “scan.” It chugged along for a bit, and then I got a list of all the devices it found. My router, my laptop, my phone, the smart TV, even the darn smart lightbulbs showed up!
Digging Deeper
Now, just seeing the devices wasn’t enough. I wanted to get a little more info. I started looking, and found a place to scan for open ports. I am not a pro so I just tried it.
- Device 1 (My Laptop): All the usual ports were open, nothing too surprising.
- Device 2 (My Smart TV): Hmm, a couple of weird ports open here. Maybe something for remote access that I didn’t know about?
- Device 3 (Old Tablet): This thing hadn’t been updated in ages. And guess what? A whole bunch of open ports that probably shouldn’t have been. Jackpot!
So, What Did I Find?
That old tablet was definitely in the “gray zone.” Outdated software, open ports… a recipe for potential trouble. I mean, I’m not saying it was actively being exploited, but it was definitely more vulnerable than the other devices. I immediately powered it down, did a factory reset, and made sure to update it before putting it back on the network.
Overall, this was a cool little experiment. It showed me that even on a small home network, there can be devices lurking that aren’t as secure as they should be. I’ll run the scan and check from time to time.
