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Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

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Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#221

Post by asveikau »

darksim905 wrote: post #183
tyrabound wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2017 was also the year Flock was funded and founded and went through the YConbinator cohort. But you would have thought that by 2021 when Andreessen Horowitz funded them or at least by 2025 [1] when both further funded them, someone would have actually done some minor due diligence. Coincidentally too, 2025 was when the flock surveillance matrix went up all over the country almost immediately. We constantly hear that…

Interesting that they are a YC Company. Does yC do any ethics vetting of saying "No, let's stop fascism before it spreads?"

I would recommend reading "The Nerd Reich" by Gil Duran for context on this question.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#222

Post by asveikau »

tyrabound wrote: post #83
incee wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3.18.71-perf-gaf770dc is a Qualcomm Android vendor kernel from roughly late 2017. The 3.18 branch went fully EOL in 2019, so nothing after that was ever backported to it.

2017 was also the year Flock was funded and founded and went through the YConbinator cohort. But you would have thought that by 2021 when Andreessen Horowitz funded them or at least by 2025 [1] when both further funded them, someone would have actually done some minor due diligence. Coincidentally too, 2025 was when the flock surveillance matrix went up all over the country almost immediately. We constantly hear that…

In an ideal world they'd have people whose job it is to monitor upstream activity in the components used in the firmware and maintain this. Sounds like they did not have that.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#223

Post by autoexec »

Having hardcoded credentials is a sign of total incompetence. In this case at least it wasn't a password, but an API key which can be used to request credentials (stored in plaintext) which look like they'd get you access Flock's servers. Not quite as bad as a hardcoded admin password, and it's not clear what you'd be able to do if you did authenticate successfully as a camera, but its worrying enough. There have been enough vulnerabilities found in Flock's systems that it's pretty clear they aren't concerned about their security and it's plainly obvious that they don't care at all about our privacy or security.

Even if we decided that this level of mass surveillance on the American public was acceptable to us, Flock Safety/Flock Group as already demonstrated that they can't and shouldn't be trusted to implement it.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#224

Post by carefree-bob »

coldbrewed wrote: post #220
carefree-bob wrote: post #219

This is SOP for IOT devices. I am beginning to think we need to regulate this stuff, because it is ubiquitous. The device manufacturers do not have a culture of security.

There are much better ways of device enrollment; at a minimum they could require device activation that doesn't blindly use a token with no further checks.

I'm concerned about publicly accessible devices containing secrets also. These are not physically secure places to store keys, they are mounted on street lights where anyone with a ladder can get the key material out of the device.

It's like they have no threat model in place.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#225

Post by astura »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #173
QuiEgo wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t worry, your elected representatives won’t be bothered by trivialities such as facts either way.

They can be recalled and/or replaced, as many have who voted for data centers. They fought against datacenters. Now they are running for local offices - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/15/datacenters-... - September 15th, 2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375000 (citations)

Only a handful of states have any concept of a recall election.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#226

Post by toomuchtodo »

astura wrote: post #225
toomuchtodo wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can be recalled and/or replaced, as many have who voted for data centers. They fought against datacenters. Now they are running for local offices - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/15/datacenters-... - September 15th, 2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49375000 (citations)

Only a handful of states have any concept of a recall election.

Indeed, have to wait for elections when recalls aren’t an option. Elections arrive eventually.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#227

Post by aussieguy1234 »

> This camera is missing Android security updates for the last eight years.

Right. So expect thousands of Flock cameras to be hacked soon.

Possible perps include foreign intelligence agencies (Khamenei in Iran was tracked down for his assassination using Iranian traffic cams), stalkers, domestic violence perps tracking their victims, the list goes on....

More than likely though, multiple of the above.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#228

Post by KennyBlanken »

It's always funny how such a "law and order" company not only lies through their teeth but also maliciously files false police reports. As in there's literally video evidence of them calling the police and telling the police things that are not happening.

It's also really annoying me that police departments around the nation are petulantly implying they were "forced" to do this because of lawlessness and silly-villain karens...also claiming, without the press even remotely challenging them, that they're disappointed because "we believe they work."

There literally isn't a single fucking shred of evidence that Flock cameras do jack shit, that isn't from a study Flock paid for, which heavily cherry-picked communities, particularly ones with very low crime rates where a Flock camera happened to be involved and the crime rate which was already low dropped by a couple crimes a year and resulted in a "200% reduction in crime."

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#229

Post by toomuchtodo »

iririririr wrote: post #206
bigfatkitten wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC does no meaningful vetting at all. You can steal another YC entrant’s product and still get funded. https://deepdelver.substack.com/p/delve-fake-compliance-as-a...

many cases already public of rejected founders having their idea pushed on accepted founders with bad ideas.

TIL but not surprising.

Re: Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera

#230

Post by anitil »

iririririr wrote: post #207
datakan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The oldest supported kernel is 5.10 and that loses support in December. That's wild they are using a 3.X kernel

You'd be surprised how many things you use daily that people still backport the bare minimum to clig to 2.4.x forever

Yeah I've seen plenty of kernels that start with a 2 with no forward path possible due to "we don't know how to get our driver working anymore"
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