Can you get root with only a cigarette lighter? (2024)

(vidbuchanan.co.uk)

100 points | by HeliumHydride 3 days ago

6 comments

  • Retr0id 1 hour ago
    Answers to some of the questions at the end, from future me:

    - It also works on LPDDR5, LPDDR4

    - Yes, it works on ARM platforms (at least, the ones I tried).

    - The simplest way to trigger similar faults electronically is via a high-speed mux IC, as described in https://stefan-gloor.ch/ddr5 (chipshouter also works, but is less elegant imho!)

    - Yes, you can get webkit addrof/fakeobj primitives like this, although I didn't write an end-to-end exploit.

    - You can pwn nintendo switch kernel with an adjusted exploit strategy, but the same adjusted strategy does not work on Switch 2, due to memory encryption (one bitflip corrupts a whole cache line). But other strategies may be possible? (notably, it is possible to block a whole write operation from happening at all - see also https://rdist.root.org/2010/01/27/how-the-ps3-hypervisor-was... )

    • Retr0id 1 hour ago
      I also spent a long time trying to do the glitching with a mosfet, but never got it to work. I couldn't get enough drive strength to actually glitch anything, without messing with the delicate capacitance+impedance tolerances of the bus.
  • b00ty4breakfast 5 hours ago
    my prediction before reading is that they're using the piezo sparker to beat the DUT over the head with a big EMF spike

    Edit: Nailed it!

    • grufkork 5 hours ago
      I thought they were going to just heat a chip to increase the overall error rate
      • throwawayqqq11 4 hours ago
        Be it eletric or thermal, i came here for fried hardware and left disappointed. Now i have to wrangle my curiosity to what happens when you lighter-spark a usb port for the rest of the day.
    • 4gotunameagain 1 hour ago
      Yeah but the devil is in the details ;)

      It's not like you can randomly spike stuff and achieve an exploit

  • ted_dunning 5 hours ago
    Uh... yeah.

    Just hold the sysadmins hand over the lighter until they tell you the password.

    Never forget the easy way in ... the humans.

  • rkagerer 6 hours ago
    > Finally, I'd like to thank JEDEC for paywalling all of the specification documents that were relevant to conducting this research.
  • slj 5 hours ago
    Yes. We do this in Australia, around the bars and pubs getting a root with only a cigarette lighter is a classic move.
    • karmakurtisaani 4 hours ago
      I feel like getting root privileges means something else in Australia.
      • defrost 4 hours ago
        Still only a third of the full wombat trifecta.
    • CTOSian 4 hours ago
      also free arcade credits :}
  • haunter 5 hours ago
    Yeah but can you light a cigarette with only a laptop? Checkmate atheists! /s