Danfoss controllers let attackers spoil supermarket stock
CERT-FR said numerous Danfoss AK-SM and AK-SC controller compromises hit hundreds of French supermarkets on October 11, with some stores' fridges and freezers forced into defrost and heated to as much as 50°C.
Claroty had already found that the AK-SM 800A platform accepted a hidden daily admin code derived from the current date, which could bypass the configured password and open maintenance access. Because one controller governs a store's refrigeration system, that kind of login can become a store-wide cold-chain failure, not a single-device nuisance.
The reporting does not yet say whether the attackers used those flaws or another entry point, but the incident shows how a contractor-facing remote management path can turn into a physical-disruption channel. Older firmware and end-of-life units carry the clearest exposure if they are still reachable over the network.
Cyberattack on Connected Fridges in France - Schneier on Security
But the hackers ordered the units to heat up and stay hot, although Danfoss did not confirm any reports about just how warm the fridges and freezers could become in that process.
You don't need a nation state to warm up a fridge | Pen Test Partners
TL;DR Widespread food spoilage across Europe Over the night of the 11th of October 2026, the fridges and freezers in several hundred French supermarkets were made to warm up.