Technology

There's different types of hacking. Finding and coding up an exploit? That takes skill

Then, they post it in a corner of the Internet somewhere to get appreciation for their achievement, or maybe even sell it on the dark web (or someone else sees it and packages it up in a state to sell/share)

Now, using the exploit? That's pretty easy. It requires some technical ability, but not much. It's just installing and configuring stuff, then using an app

So here's what I think happened. Someone found the exploit, and posted about it in a hacker community off the beaten path. One thing led to another, and somehow a group of edgelords get a hold of it. As a group, they manage to get it working, and act like edgelords

The original hacker might have been related, but real hackers are cautious or quickly caught - they probably solved the puzzle, maybe played with it a bit, then posted their findings and moved on to the next puzzle

"Come with me if you want to live"

I’m sorry Dave, I can’t do that

I’ve no idea how they hacked. But most likely the vulnerability was a mistake the vacuum cleaner manufacturer did, after using second tier software to “save costs”. And they probably skimped on paying the coders, if any

Most likely someone more sophisticated found the exploit, tried to get a bug bounty , was declined by the penny pinching company, and they posted to a place people like your comment inhabit.

If I’m right, this is only the start of problems with this cleaner, because it will happen over and over?