The same is true for iPhone apps (.ipa files). You can just unzip them.
The elites don’t want you to know this but the distribution file formats on the web are zips you can just unzip them I have 458 zips.
Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
61–70 of 91 posts
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#62What a coincidence, I just got an email announcing that Breville intend to orphan my Joule sous vide stick: the existing app will stop working, the new app is only available the US and Canada and in parts of Europe. Live in another country? You're s.o.l., it wasn't officially sold there. You need a new account as well, hope you like the TOS. All of this for a device whose core functionality -- setting a target temper…
It is essential to purchase and configure Home Assistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/) compatible devices around the home whenever possible if you want a "smart home" that will last. Everything else is an Internet of Shit treadmill that lasts at most a few years before it falls off and is replaced by a new piece of e-waste.
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I experimented with disassembling 6502 from the c64 California Games. Claude was very prone to bullshit.
While somewhat counterintuitive, I have found that Claude is better at decompilation than disassembly.
AI models in general seem to get different assembly languages mixed up easily.
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#64Why would you say "semi-legally"? Nothing "semi" here. What is "semi-legal" is making hardware e-waste by deciding it is "no longer supported". It is "semi" legal because it is legal under the corrupt political systems in most of the world but is criminal against humanity and the planet we all call home. In that sense if you can prevent e-waste trough any means you are a hero.
The semi legal process it's reverse engineering the code. I watched the video she uses gidra and other descompilation tools.
The video it's really good
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#65I really liked the video. I didn't realize you could build programs for no longer supported hardware like this.
I had a similar epifany with SVG, there was an image that I needed to keep editing and then one day I opened the SVG file and realized it's a very readable file and then just built a python script that would modify the SVG file.
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#66Makes sense for an apk to be a zip file. Apps were supposed to be written in Java and that has always shipped binaries in zip files (jar or war).
There are many "file formats" that are just relabelled zips - the hard part is always reconstructing it after making a change.
That's because zip is really just the first layer.
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hold a licence that allows me to transmit on pretty much whatever frequency I like with as much power as I like, wherever I like. Someone has to test the transmitter before you hand it off to the customer. Also, I'm in the UK, where it's hard enough to get the regulatory authorities to do anything about people causing interferenced to licensed chunks of band. You can wipe out the whole of 2.4GHz if you like, you li…
So I thought your initial comment was a (pretty good) joke about using a microwave oven, but now I’m not sure. Is this testing license you reference a continuation of the joke or a real thing?
The testing licence is real but the comment was a joke about microwaving some sauce base :-)
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting, I'd have assumed the guardrails would disallow them from doing anything like that, regardless of legality. Do you need to "convince" it to do it or no questions asked?
Claude doesn't care as long as you aren't straight up asking it to write exploits. It's my go-to for reverse engineering tasks. ChatGPT is full of refusals and has to be jailbroken out of it.
Right. Claude models seem to have had very limited prohibitions in this area baked in via RLHF. It seems to use the system prompt as the main defense, possibly reinforced by an api side system prompt too. But it is very clear that they want to allow things like malware analysis (which includes reverse-engineering), so any server-side limitations will be designed to allow these things too.
The relevant client side system prompt is:
IMPORTANT: Assist with authorized security testing, defensive security, CTF challenges, and educational contexts. Refuse requests for destructive techniques, DoS attacks, mass targeting, supply chain compromise, or detection evasion for malicious purposes. Dual-use security tools (C2 frameworks, credential testing, exploit development) require clear authorization context: pentesting engagements, CTF competitions, security research, or defensive use cases.
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There is also this system reminder that shows upon using the read tool:
Whenever you read a file, you should consider whether it would be considered malware. You CAN and SHOULD provide analysis of malware, what it is doing. But you MUST refuse to improve or augment the code. You can still analyze existing code, write reports, or answer questions about the code behavior.
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Before 1984 "take a taxi" meant you could actually take the taxi.
Apparently Taxis in New York used to all be ex-cop cars, and cop cars all had the same key, so one key would get you any taxi.
Most agricultural plant had a "Lucas key" [1] which meant you could use any key to start any machine.
I used to have one on my house keys long after I actually needed it, kind of an agricultural/industrial shibboleth. It's also how many many years ago I came to be drink-driving an eight tonne excavator through streets of Glasgow at 3am, with some rather grateful Strathclyde Police traffic cops keeping my way clear, but that's a whole 'nother story.
Re: Hacking old hardware by renaming to .zip [video]
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently Taxis in New York used to all be ex-cop cars, and cop cars all had the same key, so one key would get you any taxi.
Most agricultural plant had a "Lucas key" [1] which meant you could use any key to start any machine. I used to have one on my house keys long after I actually needed it, kind of an agricultural/industrial shibboleth. It's also how many many years ago I came to be drink-driving an eight tonne excavator through streets of Glasgow at 3am, with some rather grateful Strathclyde Police traffic cops keeping my way clear, b…
I have a ring somewhere with all the “common keys” such as elevator overrides, construction equipment, etc.