Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

risky.biz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 180 posts

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#121

Post by PinkSheep »

LogTrim wrote: post #23

The detail that gets me is the Ministry saying the cameras were safe because they'd be on a closed network, while the backdoor can apparently be triggered via SMS from hardcoded phone numbers. That's a pretty good demonstration of why "it's not exposed to the internet" isn't a security boundary if the device itself has an out-of-band communications path. Add Secure Boot being disabled and unauthenticated live streams…

"Not exposed to the internet" means exfiltration is hard in this case. If I were to dream about defense in depth, these SIM cards should be monitored for traffic anyway or have filtering rules at carrier level. Because at the end of the day, Russian numbers or not, mobile networks are insecure.

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#122

Post by Blah1113 »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #44
chimpontherun wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it amusing that the biggest supporters or Russia in its current war of aggression against Ukraine are/were Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia -- precisely the countries that should know better, since they were the principal recipients the "love and friendship" from Russia: - Hungary: November of 1956 - Slovakia: "spring" of 1968 - Serbia: the Stalin's betrayal at the end of WW2

My brother visited some of these countries. He said most people there are oblivious to what happened to their countries. They simply don't care. It also didn't help that everyone he met (agricultural sector) was a day-drinker. That's why they're doomed to repeat it. Again and again.

exactly. they need a foreigner that visits for a weekend to tell them what is happening in their own country. those stupid day-drinking eastern europeans... the arrogance of you and your brother is incredible

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#123

Post by fierycatnet »

shevy-java wrote: post #113
gumby wrote: post #16

[flagged]

That's wrong. Even the pro-Russia politicians did not support the genocide Russia commits against Ukraine. And they are not even in the majority right now anyway; people are not going to elect bribed russian tools anymore. You could see this in Hungary. The rest will follow - everyone sees the daily genocide Putin commits here. No amount of bribe money will convince regular people from what they can see with their ow…

[flagged]

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#124

Post by PinkSheep »

Over 100 comments, zero mentions that government funds should be spent on devices with auditable open-source firmware. Anyone here? No? Then I'm the first one to say this.

SecureBoot is a funny one. It should be signed with the deployer's keys (Slovak), not the manufacturer's. Trusted boot probably wasn't a consideration here, really.

Ironically, a custom firmware can now be used thanks to the lack of a digital lock... if you still trust the hardware.

PS: Props to NBU for doing their job.

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#126

Post by Spooky23 »

victorbjorklund wrote: post #3
irishcoffee wrote: post #2

Next up, chinese solar inverter firmware.

To do what? Turn off the power in random individual houses?

If you had enough systems under control in an area, you could probably create a brown out or some other type of scenario by turning off 1000 houses on the right day.

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#127

Post by Blah1113 »

koonsolo wrote: post #80
gumby wrote: post #16

[flagged]

Slovakia is heavily influenced by Russian propaganda, which started way before Corona times. It's mainly the older people that are influenced by this, and a lot of young people either left the country already, or have concrete plans to leave. It's really sad, how these old people are ruining the future of their children and grandchildren, really crazy. You can say a lot about Russia, but they are very good with misin…

[dead]

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#128

Post by victorbjorklund »

rollulus wrote: post #20
victorbjorklund wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To do what? Turn off the power in random individual houses?

Any idea what happens to the grid when a significant chunk of solar power suddenly disconnects?

Not much if a couple of thousand homes in US switches off. There are way more sensitive targets than ”they could randomly hike the electricity usage with 0,0000000000000000001%”

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#129

Post by buran77 »

kakacik wrote: post #108
toasty228 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Older people in these countries have good memories of that time, employment and housing were basically a given, healthcare and public transportation were solved, etc. They're very easy to manipulate, promise them a 13th month of pension and they'll vote for you. I don't think you understand how bad globalization fucked up these countries, people live with their parents until they're 30+, young people can't find decen…

No, globalization gave them as a nation a chance and they mostly didn't do any serious effort to use that. Its 1000 little decisions here and that that led to some post-soviet-sphere countries to thrive, while others stumble and generally gain prosperity mostly from being dragged into it via EU membership. Ie specifically Slovakia is / used to be a big car factory for whole EU due to low salaries. Not really somethin…

> and they mostly didn't do any serious effort to use that.

Those countries who were fresh from behind the iron curtain were really dealt a bad hand. They had lived in a "protective bubble", albeit a very unsustainable one and suddenly were thrown in the ocean surrounded by sharks looking for an easy meal. Almost every one of those people found themselves desperate but "inexperienced" and unprepared for the new world, every politician was absolutely blown away by the fortune they could make, and every other country jumped on the opportunity to make money. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

For every politician who took a bribe, someone who already had money paid it. That money didn't come from inside those poor countries. This leveraging of poorer countries never stopped. That's how some countries get a better deal than others when the EU adopted the Euro, for example. But it's never been so bad as back then because it's incredibly rare that entire countries find themselves exiting a time capsule, just ready to be exploited by people who already know how the game is played.

This reminds me of two things. The people who always think others are poor because they're lazy, and the people with perfect hindsight and no pressure judging that Captain Sully could have landed the plane back on the runway instead of the Hudson.

Re: Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

#130

Post by srdjanr »

PinkSheep wrote: post #124

Over 100 comments, zero mentions that government funds should be spent on devices with auditable open-source firmware. Anyone here? No? Then I'm the first one to say this. SecureBoot is a funny one. It should be signed with the deployer's keys (Slovak), not the manufacturer's. Trusted boot probably wasn't a consideration here, really. Ironically, a custom firmware can now be used thanks to the lack of a digital lock.…

Would you be able to get those devices at all, especially at similar price as those with closed source firmware? R
Post reply on HN