Astro Hacker News - Can you get root with only a cigarette lighter? (2024)

Retr0id |next [-]

Answers to some of the questions at the end, from future me:

- It also works on LPDDR5, LPDDR4

- Yes, it works on ARM platforms (at least, the ones I tried).

- The simplest way to trigger similar faults electronically is via a high-speed mux IC, as described in https://stefan-gloor.ch/ddr5 (chipshouter also works, but is less elegant imho!)

- Yes, you can get webkit addrof/fakeobj primitives like this, although I didn't write an end-to-end exploit.

- You can pwn nintendo switch kernel with an adjusted exploit strategy, but the same adjusted strategy does not work on Switch 2, due to memory encryption (one bitflip corrupts a whole cache line). But other strategies may be possible? (notably, it is possible to block a whole write operation from happening at all - see also https://rdist.root.org/2010/01/27/how-the-ps3-hypervisor-was... )

Retr0id |root |parent [-]

I also spent a long time trying to do the glitching with a mosfet, but never got it to work. I couldn't get enough drive strength to actually glitch anything, without messing with the delicate capacitance+impedance tolerances of the bus.

nom |next |previous [-]

pfff, root, back in my day we hacked a vending machine with a lighter and got free coke.

No idea who discovered it, but the machine back at my school had an infrared interface for servicing, and you could trigger an interrupt with the flash of the flintstone of a lighter. Because it's just some 90s microcontroller, it would simply reset after failing to receive a valid command and forget what it was doing previously.

All you had to do was order a coke, and right when it drops out, before it subtracts the amount, you flash the lighter in front of the IR port like a magician, say the magic words and bam - free coke!

limit35 |root |parent |next [-]

I used a saline glitch trick in the 90s. I cannot remember the exact sequence of events, but one injected saline into the coin or bill receptacle, which made the sensor believe money was being continuously inserted into the machine. This method had the benefit of clearing the machine of change after purchase since it registered the candy bar was bought with a substantial amount of money.

thatguy0900 |root |parent [-]

Clearing the machine of money it already had sounds way more likely to get you into trouble than getting a free coke, I'm not so sure that's a benifit

chrisBob |root |parent |next |previous [-]

We just unplugged our vending machine with similar timing.

charcircuit |root |parent |next |previous [-]

That is not free, that is stealing. It's like going to a grocery store and calling it a hack that you can walk around the registers and leave without paying.

12_throw_away |root |parent [-]

True. So sad to think that hackers are exploiting - and yes, there can be no doubt, this is EXPLOITATION - weaknesses in coin-operated services. I weep to think how far has this once-noble vocation has strayed from its roots ...

kjkjadksj |root |parent |next |previous [-]

Wow. We were like cave men in comparison shaking the machine with 2-3 people to knock a can out of the racking.

jibal |root |parent |previous [-]

We used to get free phone calls in phone booths by sticking an unwound paper clip into the earpiece and touching the other end to the coin box.

devmor |root |parent [-]

You could do the same by wearing wool socks and shuffling around for a minute before touching the coin slot!

b00ty4breakfast |next |previous [-]

my prediction before reading is that they're using the piezo sparker to beat the DUT over the head with a big EMF spike

Edit: Nailed it!

grufkork |root |parent |next [-]

I thought they were going to just heat a chip to increase the overall error rate

throwawayqqq11 |root |parent [-]

Be it eletric or thermal, i came here for fried hardware and left disappointed. Now i have to wrangle my curiosity to what happens when you lighter-spark a usb port for the rest of the day.

4gotunameagain |root |parent |previous [-]

Yeah but the devil is in the details ;)

It's not like you can randomly spike stuff and achieve an exploit

b00ty4breakfast |root |parent [-]

but of course

ted_dunning |next |previous [-]

Uh... yeah.

Just hold the sysadmins hand over the lighter until they tell you the password.

Never forget the easy way in ... the humans.

quietbritishjim |root |parent |next [-]

Like the classic xkcd on security

https://xkcd.com/538/

debugnik |root |parent |previous [-]

Good luck hacking a Switch using that method and getting away with it.

rkagerer |next |previous [-]

> Finally, I'd like to thank JEDEC for paywalling all of the specification documents that were relevant to conducting this research.

slj |next |previous [-]

Yes. We do this in Australia, around the bars and pubs getting a root with only a cigarette lighter is a classic move.

karmakurtisaani |root |parent |next [-]

I feel like getting root privileges means something else in Australia.

defrost |root |parent [-]

Still only a third of the full wombat trifecta.

RugnirViking |root |parent |next |previous [-]

I had an australian colleague who found it endlessly funny that we pronounced "router" as "rooter" instead of their "rowter". statements like "If that happens the system will root the packets via the rooter first" was met with much giggling

kjkjadksj |root |parent [-]

We americans call it rowter too. Well, really raoter.

CTOSian |root |parent |previous [-]

also free arcade credits :}

haunter |previous [-]

Yeah but can you light a cigarette with only a laptop? Checkmate atheists! /s

mirekrusin |root |parent [-]

If it's intel, you can fry an egg for sure.

LoganDark |root |parent [-]

The ol' Black MacBook Cooktop...

hi-im-buggy |root |parent [-]

In combination with a weighing scale (https://github.com/KrishKrosh/TrackWeight), you have everything you could ask for in a portable food processor.

LoganDark |root |parent [-]

I would love a black MacBook with Force Touch.