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High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

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Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#81

Post by lozenge »

Arch-TK wrote: post #61
Twirrim wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do this around people with type 1 diabetes, and there's a chance you're wiping out their glucose monitor (a sizeable number of the continuous glucose monitor systems rely on a cellphone app, smartphones are becoming ubiquitous hardware/software.) It might be a funny stunt, but there could be some serious consequences.

>a sizeable number of the continuous glucose monitor systems rely on a cellphone app I thought medical hardware had to go through stringent approval processes with health authorities? This is just an awful design in general. An auxiliary control system for your body should be much more resistant against electronic interference and self contained to prevent this kind of vulnerability. Yeah, interfering with people's m…

As far as I know there is no general method of resisting electronic interference?

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#82

Post by wkat4242 »

Twirrim wrote: post #56
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do this in the wrong school district and they'll put you in prison. Absolutely ridiculous.

Do this around people with type 1 diabetes, and there's a chance you're wiping out their glucose monitor (a sizeable number of the continuous glucose monitor systems rely on a cellphone app, smartphones are becoming ubiquitous hardware/software.) It might be a funny stunt, but there could be some serious consequences.

This hack doesn't wipe the phone. It just hangs it. It can be restarted.

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#83

Post by xnzakg »

javawizard wrote: post #69
gipp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Picked one up for Christmas and have already been having a blast with it today. Yes, it is supremely hackable, try awesome-flipperzero [1] as a starting point. The iOS exploit discussed here is already patched as of a week or two ago, fwiw. [1] https://github.com/djsime1/awesome-flipperzero

Ok this is the silliest nitpick but like... The personality/emotionality of the flipper zero has been the biggest thing stopping me from using mine more. Like, I classify myself as an empath, and it's physically painful to think about using it and having to face the dolphin's sad face if it's been a while. Looks like I need to hack mine to not get sad when I don't use it. Digital antidepressants, as it were...

Obviously the best option is to just use it regularly enough that the dolphin doesn't get sad!

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#84

Post by swarnie »

ace2358 wrote: post #44
rdtsc wrote: post #22

I liked the first comment there: > "According to an APS statement, 'by turning off those teenagers' phones, the student created a dangerous environment in which students might actually have been able to learn something instead of staring at their phones all day. We're just not equipped to handle that kind of thing, so we called the police instead.'"

A few states in Australia have outright banned phones in schools. I have a few teacher friends. I’ve heard the students still aren’t interested in learning… (Jokes aside I think it’s going great for the kids and the teachers in aus)

This is pretty common i think.

20 years ago when i was at school phones had to be turned off at the gate and not turned back on until you left, a 3310's text message ringtone meant someone was getting suspended. Some small exceptions were made... If you stayed late for sports practise you could turn them on outside the locker rooms to call for a lift ect...

From what i understand from my nieces / nephews the rule is still in place at the same school.

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#85

Post by dfgfek »

seanhunter wrote: post #35

Before any gets inspired by this and tries to use an F0 for assorted hijinks like this, just make sure you understand the legal framework in your country. In the UK where I am for example, this is almost certainly “deliberate interference with wireless telegraphy” which can carry a 2 year prison sentence. Not saying that the law isn’t an ass, just that you might want to know what you’re getting yourself into before y…

>Not saying that the law isn’t an ass

The ass here is the person who is disabling phones that don't belong to him.

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#86

Post by agsnu »

deadbabe wrote: post #66
seanhunter wrote: post #35

Before any gets inspired by this and tries to use an F0 for assorted hijinks like this, just make sure you understand the legal framework in your country. In the UK where I am for example, this is almost certainly “deliberate interference with wireless telegraphy” which can carry a 2 year prison sentence. Not saying that the law isn’t an ass, just that you might want to know what you’re getting yourself into before y…

So what you’re saying is plant a device that can’t be traced to you then leave the area and set it to fire on some timer.

The UK has the most CCTV cameras per person outside of China, so better make sure your opsec counter-surveillance skills are up to scratch...

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#87

Post by bgro »

Interfering with radio (phone) signals seems to be one of those perhaps unexpectedly serious crimes especially for how easy it seems to be even by accident.

If only other similar service rights were given the same protection. Like the constant data leaks/thefts.

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#88

Post by fragmede »

ryukoposting wrote: post #16
yellow_lead wrote: post #3

It's probably a flipper zero. There is a Bluetooth iOS spamming script which can cause the devices to freeze or crash.

Wow, what a funky little device! Thanks for the lead, I might have to pick up one of these things. It looks good for hack ing but is it hack able itself? An exposed JTAG port would have this thing shipping to my home right now.

it exposes an Arm serial wire debug port, which is and isn't a JTAG port. Specifically, it's a different layer 1 interface, using a 2-wire serial port instead, but it uses the JTAG protocol on top.

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#89

Post by iinnPP »

_nalply wrote: post #68
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #8

If that kid (and their parents consent) is on HN I’d like to buy them a soda and see about hiring them as an intern. we’re both in the DC area and I have a few interesting robotics projects for aspiring hackers

As long you give scripts they can execute this might work out

It's a highschool. That's plenty old enough to write your own exploits.

Re: High school student allegedly uses device to turn off nearby iPhones

#90

Post by closewith »

Freak_NL wrote: post #70
127361 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is ridiculous. Critical safety functions should not be dependent on a unreliable medium that can be easily disrupted. There must always be a fallback mechanism.

People who use such a feature would surely have a backup strategy in case their phone dies, the battery dies, is stolen, is lost, or is unavailable for any number of reasons (fucked up OTA update? hacked? some dumb app crashing their device?), right? If they don't and just rely on that single consumer-grade device working all the time , I feel sorry for them. This glucose monitor excuse gets trotted out for these top…

> People who use such a feature would surely have a backup strategy in case their phone dies, the battery dies, is stolen, is lost, or is unavailable for any number of reasons (fucked up OTA update? hacked?

People become inured to extreme risks. It's common to come across people with history of anaphylaxis who only carry one or zero epipens, despite the extreme risk of death.

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