Reverse Engineering a Missile Launcher Toy's Interface 118
nitro writes "A fairly in-depth technical report by the security researchers at TippingPoint was released on how to reverse engineer the proprietary protocol for controlling a USB missile-launching toy system. They develop an iPhone application to control the device. 'The hardware is coupled with a simple GUI controller written in Delphi (MissileLauncher.exe) and a USB Human Interface Device (HID) interface written in C++ (USBHID.dll). The toys lost their allure within minutes of harassing my team with a barrage of soft missile shots. That same night I thought I would be able to extend the fun factor by coding up a programmatic interface to the launchers in Python. ... One interesting thing is that we have a lot more granular control of the turret movement now than we did with the original GUI. I wrote two simple loops to count the number of possible horizontal and vertical ticks and the results were 947 horizontal and 91 vertical versus 54 and 10 from the original GUI respectively. Granular control allows you to slowly and quietly reposition the turret for stealthy attacks.'"
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Good work. (Score:5, Funny)
You could call it "Skynet".
Pft. (Score:5, Funny)
iPhone this. iPhone that (Score:1, Funny)
I don't Phone anyone so I stopped reading at "iPhone"
Cheap Toys (Score:1, Funny)
I watch Woot on pretty much a daily basis and as a result I frequently end up purchasing toys that I really don't need. Most recently I picked up this silly pair of USB Missile Launchers for just under 40$ shipped.
Presumably this is how the guy ended up with an iPhone.
Re:Good work. (Score:5, Funny)
That sounds fantastic. I'd love to jump out of bed at 3 am wondering where the iceberg is. And I won't need to squirt the deer with water, either; I just sleep on the porch, and when I fucking piss myself I can hose them down, too.
Re:Cops and Robbers or Global Armageddon ? (Score:4, Funny)
I was thinking of some joke a little more limp-wristed, which is what I always thought when I saw some kid talking about "Rouge Squadron". They fly the pink X-Wings, right?
Re:Hacking somethign that did not need a hack. (Score:5, Funny)
The code. Put up or shut up, AC.
Hiring? (Score:1, Funny)
It must be fun to reverse engineer toys at a computer security company and get paid.
Re:Cops and Robbers or Global Armageddon ? (Score:5, Funny)
I was thinking of some joke a little more limp-wristed, which is what I always thought when I saw some kid talking about "Rouge Squadron". They fly the pink X-Wings, right?
Pink 5 standing by... And FABULOUS
Re:Good work. (Score:3, Funny)
Who says the squirt gun has to use water?
Re:Good work. (Score:5, Funny)
I'd love to jump out of bed at 3 am wondering where the iceberg is.
Thanks to global warming, there are no icebergs anymore. Oh, wait-
Shit, an iceberg got him!
Re:Good work. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:DIADS (Score:3, Funny)
Not such a joke. Look up DIADS, Digital integrated Air Defense (amazingly, not in Wikipedia!). This guy has just hacked the rudiments of Fire Control system. Which is approximately half of a DIADS. The other half being the radar and sensor integration. Which is handled by the many Open projects on sonar and video camera applications. Put them all together, and Our Sandbox Conquering Overlords will have all the tools they need to take them to Playground Domination.
Re:Python? (Score:5, Funny)
Oblig. [xkcd.com]
Re:Squirting deer... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good work. (Score:4, Funny)
I recommend landmines. Just don't forget where you put them :)
Re:Good work. (Score:3, Funny)
I recommend tiger urine.