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Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

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Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#131

Post by jms703 »

maayank wrote: post #67

I’m currently away from home but can deny list domains on the dns level. Anyone knows the domain this update is using? Blocked samsung.com

To prevent automatic firmware updates, ads, and any other spying I'm not aware of, I block these in DNS:

*.samsungcloudsolution.com

*.samsungosp.com

*.samsungqbe.com

*.samsungcloud.tv

*.samsungads.com

The first one gets the most hits.

I also don't connect my Samsung displays to Wifi anymore. Unless I notice a problem that I have to search to fix. Then if there's a firmware update that fixes the issues, I'll do it.

NextDNS and ControlD are helpful for blocking this sort if thing, or Pi-Hole if you want to set it up yourself.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#132

Post by ymyms »

bmicraft wrote: post #100
ymyms wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great points! As an addendum to this, if #2 becomes untenable for whatever reason (such as a vulnerability in the factory firmware image), then this #3 would be good to strive for as well: 3. have a set of conditions to mark the running firmware image as "safe" and have it become the new fallback firmware image for this scenario. That way you can have a recently up-to-date firmware version constantly trailing the new…

Unfortunate you'd need to weave that all the way through the whole product stack in order not to end up in a state that looks like it's working at first glance but actually isn't doing what it is supposed to - like everything running but not showing an image, or everything running except networking is dead (-> also no further updates possible), or (remote) input devices, etc etc

Network connectivity would need to be in the set of checks to determine if an update was successful. Also, there should hopefully be QA. If you only have one smoke-test for a firmware image it should be whether or not it can upgrade/downgrade a new image from that one.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#133

Post by iaw »

I am looking to get a new monitor in the next year or so and have been considering ultra-wides. During my research the proportion of people that had horrible experiences with Samsung monitors, typically right after warranty expired, was enough to deter me from the entire brand in the future.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#134

Post by basch »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #94
tomstokes wrote: post #18

Two important features I insist on for products I develop: 1. Staged rollout of firmware updates. It’s common practice for apps and software but for some reason it’s less common with firmware. Rolling out to 1% (or less, depending on scale) of devices and waiting a day is cheap insurance. Side note: Build a good relationship with customer service people so you hear about these things immediately. 2. A failsafe firmwa…

> A failsafe firmware reset back to factory state. This doesn't work if your threat model includes denying rollbacks to prevent exploiting bugs in old firmware. I'd love to be able to roll-back firmware on some of my devices to allow me to "jailbreak" them using old firmware. In some cases your newer firmware may be blowing e-fuses that prevent old firmware from functioning. See the Nintendo Switch, for an example. T…

Blow the fuse after its confirmed working. Or always allow a one version rollback.

Im not a fan of firmware lockdowns but I understand other people may value security over moddability.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#135

Post by ErrantX »

tomstokes wrote: post #18

Two important features I insist on for products I develop: 1. Staged rollout of firmware updates. It’s common practice for apps and software but for some reason it’s less common with firmware. Rolling out to 1% (or less, depending on scale) of devices and waiting a day is cheap insurance. Side note: Build a good relationship with customer service people so you hear about these things immediately. 2. A failsafe firmwa…

Another good one is; please always split any security updates from feature changes (and backport the updates per whatever versioning policy you have for those lagging the latest).

After many years of being burned I always delay system level non-security -related updates at least several days after launch to mitigate the risk.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#136

Post by koolba »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #119
EvanAnderson wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A failsafe firmware reset back to factory state. This doesn't work if your threat model includes denying rollbacks to prevent exploiting bugs in old firmware. I'd love to be able to roll-back firmware on some of my devices to allow me to "jailbreak" them using old firmware. In some cases your newer firmware may be blowing e-fuses that prevent old firmware from functioning. See the Nintendo Switch, for an example. T…

This doesn't get enough attention, waaaay too many of these issues are traced back to the vendor trying to "prevent" someone from using their product in a way that they don't like.

Why else would a soundbar need updates anyway? It either performs its well defined functions when you bought it or they sold you a device that doesn’t input/output sound.

Updates for these types of things always fall into three categories. Either they’re gimping some unanticipated usage, they’re trying to insert ads, or they’re trying to gather more usage data.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#138

Post by mschuster91 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #119
EvanAnderson wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A failsafe firmware reset back to factory state. This doesn't work if your threat model includes denying rollbacks to prevent exploiting bugs in old firmware. I'd love to be able to roll-back firmware on some of my devices to allow me to "jailbreak" them using old firmware. In some cases your newer firmware may be blowing e-fuses that prevent old firmware from functioning. See the Nintendo Switch, for an example. T…

This doesn't get enough attention, waaaay too many of these issues are traced back to the vendor trying to "prevent" someone from using their product in a way that they don't like.

The problem usually aren't vendors. The problem usually are rightsholders - the movie/TV series industry still didn't get the Spotify memo, and the console game industry... well it's hard to say they don't have a point insisting on serious DRM given how rampant piracy becomes once there's an easy-enough root method available.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#139

Post by AlotOfReading »

tomstokes wrote: post #78
amelius wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what everybody wants, but almost nobody does. Time to market, etc.

You need to have the firmware equivalent of a platform team. It's common now for medium and large companies to have some variant of a cloud platform team: People responsible for shared practices, infrastructure, and processes in the cloud. Smart hardware companies have done the same for decades. You have a firmware platform team that handles things like update protocols, recovery protocols, testing checklists, on-dev…

Samsung has multiple such teams. In my experience with the broader industry, platform teams are usually less than a dozen people who own millions of lines of mostly-external code. You don't usually get the luxury of careful deliberation and comprehensive testing because you're doing too busy putting out fires and chasing down manufacturer errata.

Re: Samsung Q990D unresponsive after 1020 firmware update

#140

Post by basch »

koolba wrote: post #136
ChuckMcM wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't get enough attention, waaaay too many of these issues are traced back to the vendor trying to "prevent" someone from using their product in a way that they don't like.

Why else would a soundbar need updates anyway? It either performs its well defined functions when you bought it or they sold you a device that doesn’t input/output sound. Updates for these types of things always fall into three categories. Either they’re gimping some unanticipated usage, they’re trying to insert ads, or they’re trying to gather more usage data.

Maybe a new codec? New streaming app support? New wireless protocol? CEC bugfix?
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