Cloud-free connection of ESP32-based air purifier to Home Assistant (2024)

Summary

How I reverse engineered an ESP32-based smart home device to gain remote control access and integrate it with Home Assistant.Recently, I've been slightly obsessed with connecting anything and everything in my house to open_in_newHome Assistant. There's something so satisfying about having everything connected and automated in one application; I can finally forget every random mobile app for a different brand of smart product.But there is one product I own that stubbornly doesn't connect to anything other than its own mobile app. It's a sleek air purifier that is unfortunately let down by its disappointing app.So many modern products depend on an internet connection and cloud account for basic functions, and who knows what unnecessary data they collect or technical vulnerabilities they add to the home network?I want to control this expensive air purifier just like the rest of my smart gadgets. And that marks the start of this challenging yet undoubtedly fun journey.It's time to hack an air purifier! 😆By the way, if you enjoy my content, you can open_in_newBuy Me a Coffee to support my content creation!warning DisclaimerThe contents of this post are intended for educational purposes on the process of reverse engineering IoT smart devices and network protocols. Hacking can be a scary term, so I'd like to make it clear that my intentions were solely to upgrade the smart device I've purchased to integrate with my smart home system. Doing so does not affect any other instances of this product or its cloud services. Therefore, any sensitive product-specific data, such as private keys, domains, or API endpoints, have been obfuscated or redacted from this post.Tinkering with your devices will likely void any warranty and carries a risk of permanently damaging the device; do so at your own risk.If we're going to hack this device to be controlled by custom software, we're going to need to understand its current capabilities and plan a point of attack, requiring the least amoun...