Hi everyone,

I have a smart washing machine (it came with the apartment) that relies on an iOS app for features that aren’t available directly on the device. During the recent outage, the app stopped working and I couldn’t use the machine at all.

I’m interested in this topic, but I don’t have much experience, so I wanted to use this opportunity to learn how the system works and figure out whether it’s possible to bypass the cloud and communicate with the machine locally.

Here’s how the setup process currently works:

1. The washing machine starts by creating a temporary Wi‑Fi hotspot.

2. The iOS app connects to this hotspot and begins the initialization process:

   • The app sends a public key to the device and provides it with the address of the cloud server it should use.

   • The app then sends the home Wi‑Fi credentials and instructs the device to complete the setup.

   • The device shuts down the hotspot and joins the local Wi‑Fi network.

   • All communication afterward happens through the cloud server and is fully encrypted.

   • Based on community reports, the device seems to use MQTT over HTTPS.

3. After that, the device shuts the WiFi hotspot and communicate exclusively via the cloud. All data is encrypted using the key provided by the app.

What I want to do:

1. Capture and analyze the communication during the initial pairing so I can understand exactly how the setup works.

2. Decrypt or inspect the data the device sends to the cloud so I can observe how different actions—either from the machine or the app—are transmitted.

My main question is: What’s the safest and least destructive way to approach this kind of analysis?

Any guidance or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.