SEC_LinkShare SSID is from your Samsung TV: SWL (Samsung Wireless Link)
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/07/04
While playing around to improve the WiFi network reception of my Samsung LED TV, I enabled SWL.
It didn’t do much on the WiFi reception, but I found out that after enabling SWL, other devices could hardly find my regular access point any more.
Somehow, a very strong access point appeared pushing away all access points. The new access point had an SSID like SEC_LinkShare_######.
Though this wasn’t mentioned in the PDF manual of my TV, PDF manual of my TV (a [Archive.is] UE40C6800 LED-TV 40″ with [WayBack] Firmware T-VALDEUC-3018.1.exe ), a quick search on SEC_LinkShare+SSID indicated in the direction of Samsung devices.
So, when you enable SWL on your TV:
- your TV will become a local secured access point
- the SWL access point will be called SEC_LinkShare_###### (with 6 digits at the end)
- you cannot influence the WiFi channel used by the SWL access point
- there is no information on the password to connect to the SWL access point
- the SWL access point will potentially have a higher signal than access points further away (effectively blocking them)
Conclusion: Unless you have other Samsung devices that need the SWL, don’t activate it on your TV.
–jeroen
PS: Some links from Axel’s comment:
- [WayBack] Your Samsung SmartTV Is Spying on You, Basically | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- [WayBack] Your Samsung SmartTV Is Spying on You, Basically
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
StarlightDown said
I used Kali Linux to crack the password for the access point, and in 8 seconds I got 00000000 for the WPS pin and 20icDr1mgUcp31zSQSmJDB9mk2vtBL for the WPA passcode. However, when I tried to connect, the passcode failed. Not sure what’s going on.
StarlightDown said
I realized that the AP asks for a WPA2 key, not a WPA key, so of course it didn’t work. facepalm
Kali can still crack WPA2 keys, but it’s more complicated and I don’t know how to do it. A project to save for later, I guess.
jpluimers said
I’ve given up on it. The TV is now connected via wired network on my IoL (internet of LAN). Works fine.
Simon said
Thanks to this article I finally figured out where SEC_LinkShare SSID was coming from and disabled it in my TV settings.
Did you ever succeed in using your TV as wireless accespoint?
jpluimers said
I never figured it out at first. Later when I pulled CAT6 to the top floor, I didn’t have the need for it any more either (:
Axel Skough said
It’s exciting and I may honour Jerome Pluiimers for his excellent notifications! Now the problems pointed out regarding the malicious Samsung Wireless Link and the Samsung Smart TV are recognised worldwide and mentioned in lots of articles around the world! Despite to the facts announced by Corynne McSherry at the EFF!
This is a big issue!
Link to article at the eeff.org: https://www.eff.org/mention/your-samsung-smarttv-spying-you-basically
Andr article excerpt:
Your Samsung SmartTV Is Spying on You, Basically
Judging by the privacy policy, it seems Samsung is collecting voice commands mostly to improve the TV’s performance. “It looks like they are using a third-party service to convert speech to text, so that’s most of what is being disclosed here,” said Corynne McSherry, the intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
So this may just be an effort to make your SmartTV smarter.
But, said McSherry, “If I were the customer, I might like to know who that third party was, and I’d definitely like to know whether my words were being transmitted in a secure form.” If the transmission is not encrypted, a SmartHacker could conceivably turn your TV into an eavesdropping device.
Shane Harris
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Article Link
The Daily Beast
Related Issues:
Privacy
jpluimers said
Thanks for this. Time do not only disconnect the Samsung from the WiFi network, but from the LAN connection too.
Lucas Rodrigues said
How can I disable this shit?
jpluimers said
You can switch off SWL by following the steps in the manual of your TV. The manual of my TV can be found here: http://www.samsungworld.nl//nl/download/product/UE46C6800USXXN/manuals
Axel Skough said
To switch off the SWL at its source requires that you are controlling this source, a Samsung SMART TV or whatsoever. This solution is not always possible.
I did it in another way.
My situation is that I was working with a wireless repeater, What the SWL host did was to send connect requests, i e, connect with a WPA/WPA2 password,and – most likely – doing the same thing with for example WEP keys or something alike to create a connection, indeed activating the authenication process. This was done with a reasonable high frequency – i counted 567 retries in five minutes, about 2 retries per second.
This caused my wireless repeater to run out of internal RAM memory so it tried recovery by rebooting itself. Funny, isn’t it? But the rebootings of course disturbed all other traffic through interrupts while rebooting. That one doesn’t want to have.
So what to do? I don’t have access to this malicious SWL host. But I noticed its MAC address! And put it on the repeater’s block list. The advantage is that the SWL host will not access the resource-consuming authenication process, The packets are refused promptly due to the sender’s MAC adress used. And this seems to be sufficient when the intensity of this malicious traffic is only two retries per second. The principle can of course be more refined, but in this case it seems to be sufficient to avoid this unwanted traffic from the SWL host.
Hopefully this tip can help someone!
jpluimers said
Thanks!
mRc said
How to Connect with SEC_Linkshare without WPS
1. Connect your Computer via WPS
2. Download WirelessKeyView (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wirelesskeyview.zip)
3. Open WirelessKeyView & search for SEC_Linkshare_######
4. Use the Key (Ascii)
5. Connect other Devices without WPS
6. Enjoy!
jpluimers said
Thanks! Now: how do I enable WPS on my TV?
mRc said
1. Press the Menu-Button on your Remote
2. Choose Network
3. Choose SWL
4. Choose (SWL connect)
5. Activate now WPS on ur Device
6. Enjoy!
jpluimers said
Thanks, will try that when back home.
Chris said
I was able to break it and get the wpa2 key.. Now i am able to connect devices to my tv…. it took 10 secs for me.. A little bit of hacking but it easy..
jpluimers said
What did you use to get the WPA2 key? I’m anxious, as my TV is now wired and I want to use it as a wireless access point.
Mjay said
I’d really like to know too! Might be an anwser to some problems i have..
James HOLMBERG said
After contacting Samsung, I have been advised that this SEC ShareLink is to connect other Samsung devices (DVD, Blu Ray, Hi Fi.. etc…) wirelessly, to your Samsung TV, would have the passcode embedded in the device.
Best thing to do is to turn the SWL off.
S@ndro said
I managed to open it WPA2 is a 30-character combination of letters and numbers. Works great Now I can connect with anything PC, iPhone, etc. S @ ndro
jpluimers said
Great! How did you get the WPA2 for it?
Paul Hayhoe said
Please tell we’re all frustrated by this, Paul
Paul said
Finally, I find out my new Samsung had the wireless set on. I turned it off….all is good
zekeadam said
I cracked the tv-s pass with reaver. Now Im using as a repeater for my xbox.
Cracking is took 5sec beacuse the wps pin is 00000000
jpluimers said
Cool; hopefully others can confirm this as I ditched the USB WiFi adapter in favour of a Wireless AP that has a far better antenna.
Reaver: http://code.google.com/p/reaver-wps/
–jeroen
Sebaatian d. said
Hi eine Frage was ist das passwort von dem swl ich möchte mit meinem handy über den tv online gehen ? danke im vorraus :)
jpluimers said
Das Kennwort habe ich versucht heraus zu finden, ist aber bisher nicht gelungen.
Wenn du es irgendwo findest, bitte als Kommentar hier hinfügen.
Danke :)
–jeroen
Tim said
Excellent post. Was very puzzled by this LinkShare entry.
Dead right about it selecting the same WiFi channel as the router. I also tried changing the router channel and the TV followed it!
jpluimers said
Yeah, that “follow the leader” logic is totally wrong :)
–jeroen
ronaldo said
qual a senha sec_link
jpluimers said
Please comment in English, German or Dutch: those are the languages that I do speak.
henry said
how can i change the password?
jpluimers said
I have no idea.
Sebastian said
Thanks, very helpful! Another problem is that the SEC_LinkShare-WLAN that is created by the TV always broadcasts on the same wireless channel than your router. If you change your router WLAN channel to 5 -> The SEC_Linkshare-WLAN will also change to 5. It always overlays your primary wireless internet connection and causes a channel conflict partially affecting stability and performance.
Aftre switching off SWL (thanks to this thread) I could slightly improve my wireless connection to the TV.
Tested on Samsung UE60D8090 connected via wireless, Belkin PlayMax router connected via 32MBIT cable model connection.
Regards, Sebastian
Gloria said
Thanks. Very helpful advise.
Did you find out where the password can be located to access the SWL?
I am having problems linking my Samsung D8000 to the router. It simply cannot detect the router. Any tips on how to make it work are very welcome.
jpluimers said
I tried, but didn’t find that. In the mean time, I replaced the WIFI USB stick with a Buffalo AirStation™ N300 Dual Band Wireless Ethernet Converter, Access Point & Bridge WLAE-AG300N which converts my WiFi signal to wired ethernet. That gives much better throughput.
Not cheap, but works like a charm:
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless/client-adapters/airstation-n300-dual-band-wireless-ethernet-converter-access-point-bridge-wlae-ag300n/
–jeroen
guus said
@JPluimers, on which Samsung LED TV did you experience this?
jpluimers said
It was a UE40C6800: http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/257720/samsung-ue40c6800.html
TJ said
YEEEESSS FIIIInaly fixed our wifi at home with this!
thank you very much!I downloaded a wifi signal app on my android and the sec linkshare kept comming up with a lot stronger signal then the router. turned off the SWL on the Samsung tv/recorder and boom all good now!