Remote code execution via MIDI messages • Hacker News Board

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#41

Post by publicmail » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 5:10 AM UTC

brian-armstrong wrote: post #35

moosedev wrote: post #13

Great project, write-up, and sense of humor in the videos! > Using that part number I wasn’t able to find any information about the chip online apart from an article that claimed it was based around a “SuperH” CPU core – an ISA that I’ve encountered for the first time ever in that article. Also found in Sega 32x, Sega Saturn, and Sega Dreamcast! And some early Pocket PCs (turn-of-the-century handhelds running Windows…

Many industrial applications as well. Mitsubishi used it in the ECU of some of its cars, including the Lancer Evolution.

Early (2003 for sure) 350z had it as well.

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#42

Post by leptons » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 5:21 AM UTC

friend_Fernando wrote: post #31

skissane wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, which country are you in? Is this something your country's government made your ISP do?

It's starting to look like an increasingly sensible policy IMO.

I won't click on any .ru domains. It's just not worth it at this point.

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#43

Post by 127 » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 5:27 AM UTC

dhosek wrote: post #25

liotier wrote: post #7

Of course it is SysEx. SysEx is to standard MIDI what inline assembler is to Python. A world of undocumented proprietary stuff lurks within just about every MIDI device !

I wish it was somehow possible to perform a piece of music that would cause remote code execution. It’d be so cool to plug in a MIDI keyboard, play an Am6,9/G# and have it open a terminal window with root access.

That doesn't make much sense as note on and note off messages are very simple and you can't insert arbitrary bytes with them, unless maybe you use some very particular run mode.

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#44

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 6:05 AM UTC

friend_Fernando wrote: post #30

Waterluvian wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know RE but I love this sentiment. I think it’s quite generalizable too. So many things are like that. Just start somewhere. It really doesn’t matter where. And what you find will guide your next steps. Eventually you’ll have enough context to see a much bigger picture well before it’s fully revealed.

Gradient Descent?

[deleted]

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#45

Post by jamal-kumar » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 6:09 AM UTC

liotier wrote: post #7

Of course it is SysEx. SysEx is to standard MIDI what inline assembler is to Python. A world of undocumented proprietary stuff lurks within just about every MIDI device !

Wow, this is a whole thing I had no idea about. Was recently looking into what it would take to fuzz MIDI and while I found some resources to generate a .mid file to this end it wasn't exactly what I was hunting for. This is maybe something I should consider exploring instead, thanks!

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#46

Post by Asooka » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 7:34 AM UTC

dhosek wrote: post #25

liotier wrote: post #7

Of course it is SysEx. SysEx is to standard MIDI what inline assembler is to Python. A world of undocumented proprietary stuff lurks within just about every MIDI device !

I wish it was somehow possible to perform a piece of music that would cause remote code execution. It’d be so cool to plug in a MIDI keyboard, play an Am6,9/G# and have it open a terminal window with root access.

Oh there definitely is some MIDI device out there that will get a buffer overrun from a particular set of just regular note inputs. Maybe 11 notes at once due to the programmer thinking "humans have only 10 fingers, a static array of 10 elements is enough to hold all notes currently playing".

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#47

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 7:35 AM UTC

leptons wrote: post #42

friend_Fernando wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's starting to look like an increasingly sensible policy IMO.

I won't click on any .ru domains. It's just not worth it at this point.

Your loss. This is a pretty good post.

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#48

Post by saagarjha » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 7:36 AM UTC

Curious if you can intersperse the Bad Apple commands with MIDI music so it plays the audio itself ;)

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#49

Post by Perenti » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 8:26 AM UTC

dhosek wrote: post #25

liotier wrote: post #7

Of course it is SysEx. SysEx is to standard MIDI what inline assembler is to Python. A world of undocumented proprietary stuff lurks within just about every MIDI device !

I wish it was somehow possible to perform a piece of music that would cause remote code execution. It’d be so cool to plug in a MIDI keyboard, play an Am6,9/G# and have it open a terminal window with root access.

I'm reminded of how in GEB by Hoffstaeder (sp?) the tortoise creates a recording that destroys any device you play it on.

Re: Remote code execution via MIDI messages

#50

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Jan 06, 2025, 8:58 AM UTC

lqstuart wrote: post #21

> I’m very unexperienced when it comes to reverse engineering Lol… where does that leave the rest of us in comparison

Knowing a lot but being aware you know nothing is like level 4 of experience, where level 1 is being new and eager but knowing you know nothing yet, level 2 is the "I am a god" stage, and level 3 is "I'm an idiot".