Household

November 5, 2026

Smart Home Threat Taxonomy › Household (OPH-HH)

The people in the house: partners, children, lodgers, guests, cleaners, landlords and installers. A smart home has many users with different interests, and most products model one owner.

Where it sits in the house

The Household suit sits with the people: residents, guests, children, landlords and installers. It is suit 12 of 13, in the Control deck.

Household highlighted on the Open House cross-section

The table

Smart Home Threat Taxonomy, Household: ID, threat, mitigation principle and design measures for all 13 entries

Mappings

Entries in text

OPH-HH-A † House Turned Against Its People. A partner or ex-partner with admin rights uses the cameras, locks, heating and lights to watch, control or frighten the others in the house.
OPH-HH-K † Ex Keeps the Keys. Someone who has moved out keeps the account, codes and app access because the devices are bound to their account.
OPH-HH-Q One Account for Everyone. The product has one account that the household shares, so there is no attribution, and revoking one person means changing everyone’s password.
OPH-HH-J Landlord Sees Inside. A landlord or agent installs devices and keeps admin or camera access to the tenant’s home, and the tenant is not an admin.
OPH-HH-10 Installer Keeps a Key. The installer or integrator keeps admin or remote access after handover, and the owner does not know it exists.
OPH-HH-9 Guest Gets Owner Rights. Inviting a guest grants a role that can add users, view camera history or change rules, and the invitation never expires.
OPH-HH-8 † Child Holds Adult Rights. Children use the panel, voice or a shared tablet to disarm the alarm, unlock the door or turn on appliances, because the product has no child role.
OPH-HH-7 † Emergency Access Denied. In an emergency (a fire, a fall, the owner taken ill) responders and family cannot get in or silence the alarm, because there is no break-glass access.
OPH-HH-6 Building Controls the Door. In a shared building, the managing agent’s system controls the entrance, flat doors or shared hub, and residents cannot see or limit what it does.
OPH-HH-5 Family Members Tracked. Presence and geofencing features show each member’s arrivals and departures to everyone else in the household, including people they would not choose to tell.
OPH-HH-4 † Alert Goes to the Absent Owner. Smoke, CO, leak and alarm alerts go only to the account owner, who may be abroad, and not to the people in the house.
OPH-HH-3 Visitors Recorded Without Notice. Indoor cameras and microphones record nannies, cleaners, guests and tradespeople who were never told.
OPH-HH-2 Nobody Reviews the Members. The product never prompts anyone to review users, codes and rights when the household changes, so access only grows.

† marks a physical-safety consequence. The full principle, measures and mappings for each entry are in the tables above and in the downloads.

Seen in the wild

OPH-HH-A House Turned Against Its People. Smart home devices used in domestic abuse (New York Times, June 2018). Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse (NYT, June 2018; CNBC syndication)
OPH-HH-10 Installer Keeps a Key. ADT technician accessed customer cameras (disclosed 2020, guilty plea 2021). Former home security tech admits to hacking into customers’ surveillance cameras (ABC7, Jan 2021)

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