DEFCON Researchers hack all the things
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| DEFCON Researchers hack all the things | |
| Number | 606 |
| Broadcast Date | AUGUST 13, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 4:18 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Complex hack of Amazon Echos, a way into a network through FAX capability and a kids hack of the Florida election site.
Headlines
- Researchers from Tencent demonstrated a complex hack of Amazon Echo speakers. The team modified an Echo by removing it's flash memory modifying the firmware on it to gain root access then soldering it back in. The modified Echo was then added to the same WiFi network as other Echos. Flaws in Amazon's whole-home communication protocol and voice interface were exploited to get full control of the targeted speakers. Amazon has patched the exploited vulnerabilities.
- Lenovo announced two thin desktop-replacement laptops, the Thinkpad P1 and P72. The P1 is 18.4 mm thick and weighs 3.76 pounds while offering a 15.6-inch 4K screen, Nvidia Quadro P graphics, 8th Gen Intel Core processor, up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 4TB of storage, starting at $1,949.The P72 weights twice as much as the P1 with up to 6TB of storage and 128 GB of DDR4 RAM with a 17.3-inch screen, starting at $1,799.
- Spotify is running a test in Australia to see what happens when it lets listeners on its free tier skip ads any time they want. Advertisers don't pay for any ads that are skipped. The idea is to create ads that people don't mind listening to so they perform better, and keep users on Spotify rather than getting put off by ads and leaving.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk published a statement saying he has been talking to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund about taking Tesla private since the beginning of last year. HE says that is the funding he described as "secured" in a tweet about taking the company private. He also clarified that taking Tesla private would be funded by equity not debt.
- For the second year DEFCON has a "voting village" where hackers can attack decommissioned election equipment to test for vulnerabilities. This is intended to help bring attention to the state of security in voting machines and thus make them more secure. Among the headline-grabbing events was one that set up a replica of the Florida Secretary of State's website and invited children to use SQL injection attacks to change the reported vote totals. Several kids succeeded, an 11-year-old being the fastest. The hack would not have changed the actual vote totals, only the web page.
- Airbus announced its solar-powered Zephyr S HAPS (high altitude pseudo-satellite) flew for 25 straight days, setting a record for any airplane. It beat the previous model Zephyr's mark of 14 days. The Zephyr uses only solar power to fly at 70,000 feet. The UK military has ordered three of the aircraft.
- Linux kernel 4.18 arrived Sunday after a week delay to address crashing in Android's ashmem temporary file system. Linux 4.18 is 100,000 lines lighter taking up a little less memory. It also includes Spectre fixes for 32-bit ARM architecture.
- Researchers from Check Point Research demonstrated how to gain access to every computer connected to an HP all-in-one printer, through its fax capability. A faxed image contained malicious code that was stored on the printer. HP has patched the vulnerability.
- Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool, England will use the Microsoft HoloLens to let surgeons consult patient's scans while operating. The hospital will also use the Microsoft Surface Hub for reviewing CT scans and other patient info.
- AMD launched the Radeon Pro WX 8200 graphics card for workstation users. It has 8GB of ECC RAM and 10.9 teraflops on the same 2048-bit bus-width and 14-nanometer architecture of the WX 9100. That's half the RAM and fewer stream processors, but otherwise largely the same card for half the price at $999.
Links
| Preceded by: "Tesla Model 3 Head Leave for Apple" |
DEFCON Researchers hack all the things |
Followed by: "Facebook Acqui-Hires Vidpresso Team" |