Sep 16

Confirmed: Intel says HDCP ‘master key’ crack is real

Posted in: breaking news, BreakingNews, hack, hacked, hacking, Today's Chili

It’s been just a few days since we broke news of the HDCP master key crack — a rogue unlocking of the code that keeps HD content under strict control. Now Intel has independently confirmed to both Fox News and CNET that the code is indeed the genuine article. According to company spokesman Tom Waldrop, “It does appear to be a master key,” adding that “What we have confirmed through testing is that you can derive keys for devices from this published material that do work with the keys produced by our security technology… this circumvention does appear to work.” Coming from the company that developed and propagated the protocol, that’s about as clear as you can get.

If Intel is worried about the potential damage to copyrighted material and a new flood of super high-quality pirated material, however, the company certainly isn’t showing it. “For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon — make a computer chip,” Waldrop told Fox News, and that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware — something Intel doesn’t think is likely to happen in any substantial way. Of course, like any major corporation, Intel seems prepared to duke things out in the legal arena should any super-rich hackers decide to do the unthinkable. So, to the Batcave then?

Confirmed: Intel says HDCP ‘master key’ crack is real originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 22:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sep 02

Samsung Galaxy Tab rooted, just for bragging rights

Posted in: GalaxyTab, hack, hacked, Hacks, samsung, samsung galaxy tab, SamsungGalaxyTab, Today's Chili

Okay, Sera-Apps, we’re happy you cracked the Milestone, but now you’re showing off — rooting the Samsung Galaxy Tab probably a full month before launch. Do you really want Samsung to have time to patch those holes? That’s what we thought. Now, go enjoy your Superuser status, and please save some exploits for the rest of us.

Samsung Galaxy Tab rooted, just for bragging rights originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 23

E-voting whistleblower Hari Prasad arrested, taken to Mumbai for questioning

Posted in: hack, hacked, hacking, research, security, Today's Chili

In America, when you demonstrate what a racket e-voting is, you get to play Pac-Man. In India? You just might get arrested. Security researcher Hari Prasad made waves earlier this month when he demonstrated how an e-voting machine might be compromised, live on national television. It is now being reported that police have taken Prasad into custody, ostensibly for the theft of the machine, although folks in the know are suggesting that a cover-up is in the works. For Prasad’s part, he refuses to give up the source of the machine — and has been taken by police to Mumbai (a fourteen hour drive) to undergo questioning. According to researcher Alex Halderman there are some 1.4 million e-voting machines in use in India, all of which the government keeps out of the hands of researchers on intellectual property grounds — and all of which might be vulnerable to fraud. There’s a brief discussion with Prasad after the break.

Continue reading E-voting whistleblower Hari Prasad arrested, taken to Mumbai for questioning

E-voting whistleblower Hari Prasad arrested, taken to Mumbai for questioning originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 22

Confirmed: Galaxy S unlock codes are stored in your phone, Vibrant capable of AT&T 3G

Posted in: att, GalaxyS, hack, hacked, Hacks, samsung, t-mobile, Today's Chili

Sure, the Samsung Vibrant’s a T-Mobile device and the Samsung Captivate belongs to AT&T, but there’s no longer any reason you can’t swap them around — all you need is a simple script and a USB cable to completely unlock your phone. A cracker-jack team at XDA-Developers discovered that Galaxy S unlock codes aren’t kept in a secure remote server, but merely stored in a .BAK file on the device itself, which you find with a hex editor and key right in when inserting a new SIM card of your choice. We tested it out on both Vibrant and Captivate and were up and running in less than five minutes each time, and wonder of wonders, the Vibrant gave us a 3G data connection (with 2Mbps down) using an AT&T SIM. Sadly, we can’t say the inverse for the Captivate, which pulled down standard EDGE speeds on T-Mobile, but this is already far more than the hacking community could have hoped for. The best part? None of this requires you to actually root the phone, and if you’re worried about warranty you can re-lock the handset with the very same code.

[Thanks, Brad]

Myriam Joire contributed to this report.

Confirmed: Galaxy S unlock codes are stored in your phone, Vibrant capable of AT&T 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 19

Koush’s Droid X Recovery paves the way for ROMs to come

Posted in: hack, hacked, motorola, rom, Today's Chili
Koush's Droid X Recovery paves the way for ROMs to come

The Droid X got rooted just about a month ago, but still users are unable to run their own custom ROMs — something seen as a basic right amongst the Android community. Now those chaps are a good bit closer to getting there thanks to a new recovery mechanism posted by Koush. What’s taking so long? The security mechanisms on the Droid X are said to be “a real bitch” and, to circumvent them, Koush had to hijack a logging process that runs at boot-up. This process runs in place of that, allowing a user to restore their phone to a previous backup generated before trying to do something wild and crazy. What does this mean? ROM runners now have a means of safely retreating if they find themselves cornered (or bricked), allowing them to try more daring assaults more often, and meaning we could be only days away from Droid X users being allowed to fully express themselves.

Koush’s Droid X Recovery paves the way for ROMs to come originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Police  |  sourceMy Brain Hurts  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 19

PS3 modchip claims to finally allow backing up games without invasive console surgery (video)

Posted in: console, hack, hacked, hacking, jailbreak, ps3, sony, Today's Chili, usb, video

Who needs George Hotz anyway? A USB modchip for the PS3 has emerged from the mists this morning, purporting to allow the dumping of games onto nearby storage — the console’s internal HDD and external drives are both a-ok — as well as the subsequent playing of said games without the need for the original disc. Could it be the backup/piracy nirvana Sony loyalists have been awaiting for so long? Well, there’s a video showing the little USB device apparently working, and the PSX-Scene team say they have personally verified that it does what it claims to do, but skepticism remains advisable here. The PS3 has been a fortress of hacker unfriendliness, so we’d rather kick back, relax, and wait for some braver souls than us to do the testing. For now, the video awaits after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading PS3 modchip claims to finally allow backing up games without invasive console surgery (video)

PS3 modchip claims to finally allow backing up games without invasive console surgery (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 15

New Xbox 360 hacked to play ‘backup’ discs, public release underway? (video)

Posted in: hack, hacked, Hacks, mod, mods, rom, Today's Chili, video, xbox, xbox 360, Xbox360

If you’re looking for video proof of the latest and greatest Xbox 360 firmware mod, you won’t find it in the video after the break, but we’re almost willing to take it on Team Xecuter’s word and long-standing reputation that they’ve hacked the new Xbox 360. Banding together with Team Jungle and commodore4eva — the hacker who brought backups to the original console in 2006 — the group says they’ve successfully patched the DVD drive to play burned discs. Better still, they’re promising that a public release of said patch “will be available shortly” to help you unlock a Stealthbox by your lonesome. Just remember, kids, circumventing DRM isn’t always legal, even if you’re copying games that you bought right off the shelf.

[Thanks, Tito]

Continue reading New Xbox 360 hacked to play ‘backup’ discs, public release underway? (video)

New Xbox 360 hacked to play ‘backup’ discs, public release underway? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Aug 01

Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video)

Posted in: Apple, AppleIphone, breaking news, BreakingNews, hack, hacked, Hacks, ipad, iPhone, ipod, ipod touch, IpodTouch, jailbreak, Today's Chili, video

The Library of Congress made it legal, MuscleNerd showed us it was a go, and now Comex and company have delivered the long-awaited jailbreak to the fourth rendition of iPhone. According to their new page JailbreakMe, the hack works right on the iPhone 4 (or 3GS, or 3G, or iPad, or…) itself, using via the handset’s Safari browser to reportedly break into most any iOS device. The servers are getting slammed pretty badly, and only a few Engadget editors have so much as seen the page pictured above so far, but rest assured we’re testing this as we speak and will have more details up soon.

Update: Sorry folks, we’ve tried repeatedly, but apparently the servers just can’t handle the load — Comex tweets that the purple screens we’re seeing are evidence of server fail. Here’s hoping for a Cydia celebration when the stampede is over.

Update 2: Comex says you might want to reboot if you got stuck staring at that purple screen, and you could also try their backup server (click our second source link) to help the Dev Team divide the load.

Update 3: We successfully got the jailbreak to start working, but it crashed Safari. Upon reboot of our phone we’ve got… nothing but the Apple logo. Take note, this can brick your phone, so proceed with caution! Video of the experience after the break. After a reset, our phone is giving us nothing but the Apple logo. (Update to the update, the phone has been restored).

Update 4: Our intern Sam has successfully jailbroken his iPhone 4 according to this pic, so it can be done!

Update 5: Comex reports that iPads running iOS 3.2.1 aren’t presently working properly, and that MMS problems after jailbreak are a known issue.

Update 6: Good news? Saurik (of Cydia fame) has pitched in to secure JailbreakMe some better hosting. Bad news? Reports indicate that FaceTime doesn’t work after jailbreak, either.

Update 7: Seven updates? You bet, because it’s looking like there’s already a fix for the missing FaceTime and MMS features. Head on over to Redmond Pie (in more coverage below) for instructions to install the Cydia package that brought video chat back to two of our iPhone 4 handsets. If you’re just downloading JailbreakMe for the first time though, you shouldn’t need to do a thing, as Comex claims both have been fixed in a new version of the hack that just went live.

Continue reading Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video)

Official: iPhone 4 jailbreak hits from iPhone Dev Team (updated with video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 9 To 5 Mac, @comex (Twitter), @MuscleNerd (Twitter)  |  sourceJailbreakMe (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 07

Hacker creates Lego Mindstorms NXT-606 drum kit, just because he can (video)

Posted in: hack, hacked, lego, Today's Chili, video
Hacker creates Lego Mindstorms NXT-606 drum kit, just because he can

If you’ve taken your Lego Mindstorms NXT kit to the Nerd Cup, created a 3D scanner to digitize your Precious Moments collection, and trained it to solve a Rubik’s Cube, you might think you’ve run out of things to do. Perhaps this was the problem that Peter Cocteau faced — or maybe he just wanted to make the most bombastic NXT project yet. He created an 8-bit sample drum machine with 24 sounds controlled entirely by two Lego rotation sensors. He did have to make a few augmentations to get the audio output working (and to add in that bitching DJ-style light to make it more club friendly). He’s kindly provided all the source that you’ll need to get your little blocks bumpin’, but if you want yours to be just like his you’ll need to do your own soldering.

Continue reading Hacker creates Lego Mindstorms NXT-606 drum kit, just because he can (video)

Hacker creates Lego Mindstorms NXT-606 drum kit, just because he can (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jul 06

Wireless presentation controllers prove juicy targets for hackers

Posted in: arduino, hack, hacked, security, Today's Chili, Wireless
Wireless presentation controllers prove juicy targets for hackers

Wireless presentation controllers have changed corporate life forever. Instead of businessmen and women staying tethered to their keyboards while delivering boring PowerPoint presentations, they can wander about the room, gesticulating authoritatively with an ego-boosting gadget in-hand… while delivering that same boring presentation. Now a security researcher by the name of Nields Teusink is showing that those wild gesticulations open the door to crazy hacks, with most wireless presenters being recognized as full keyboards — some even as keyboards and mice. With no encryption provided it’s a (reasonably) simple task for an attacker to replicate the signal, escape the presentation, and completely compromise the machine. Teusink uses an Arduino board for his work here, impressing us while sending a chill into the hearts of slide gurus everywhere.

Wireless presentation controllers prove juicy targets for hackers originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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