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High Definition TiVo Bash Software Hack Claimed
crazyray writes "Fresh on the heels of Sunday's Washington Post's article about TiVo and the broadcast flag, a group calling themselves the 'HD TeAm' is claiming to have discovered a software-only exploit to enable bash on the new $1000 High Definition DirecTiVo.
Prior to this announcement, it was thought that this was only possible by desoldering and reflashing the PROM.
Perhaps most interestingly, 'HD TeAm' is offering to release the code to the world if enough donations are given to the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
This is bash.
They were threatening to release the software hack unless MS were to allow a signed version of Linux to be released on the XBox. Of course MS didn't, and the hack (which allowed the user to load an unsigned linux loader without a hardware mod) was released.
Later that hack was modified by other people to run *any* unsigned executable on the XBox. It was this very possibility that the original hacker wanted MS to avoid by allowing a signed Linux loader.
Apparently a contest was made available first before a software exploit could be found. The HD TeAM group just happens to be the first to claim success. If their post:
"HD TeAm has a solution prepared and authorizes it's distribution via ddb once $1,000 has been collected. We request that all proceeds be donated to the EFF so that research of this nature remains legal in the future."
"It is our position that if the community, particularly the minority with the disposable income for hd-units, is unwilling to come together & donate this token sum to a worthy organization the hack is probably better kept private"
Who said Freedom was Fair?
> The secondary reasons are to add features and disk space.
Disk space can be added to TiVos without shell access. Many people have already upgraded their HD TiVos' hard drives, while only a handfull have shell access to them.
They are asking for donations (to a non-profit organization!) and in return they will release a hack that THEY CREATED into the public domain.
How is offering to release something that you created in exchange for donations, blackmail?
If it is, then I guess every business that sells goods or services is guilty of blackmail too *roll eyes*
I agree with the question - how is this blackmail?
It would be blackmail IF the team publicly said "we'll release this code UNLESS Tivo(/the broadcast industry/MPAA/whoever) pays the EFF $X"... this is more of a "we want an acknowledgement that this is useful, and people are interested in it, but legally we obviously can't get paid ourselves for it"
That's what Thumbs Up/Down is for, in conjunction with watching your viewing patterns. Never failed me yet! I have more stuff that I watch in the "Suggestions" box than programs I picked myself. Just brace yourself the day your SO finds "G String Divas" in the suggestions box :-).
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
There was a contest: The contest organizers would collect a bounty from folks. If some group met the challenge (bash shell in Tivo) before the deadline, then they would get the collected money.
There is a group now that claims to have a working solution to the challenge, but they are saying they will not release it until the collected bounty is at least $1000 and with a promise that the contest organizers will not send it to the winners, but to the EFF instead.
First Gallagher quote on slashdot in years, +5!
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
> I found that the command to initialize a new hard drive (if present) is already there along with a comment of "No, we didn't remove this..." So, just plug in the second drive and it should work. No PC necessary!
Wrong. Those commands cause it to add a blessed drive to MFS, not to bless a blank drive. You still need to set up the basic partition table in a PC.
nice job, skippy.
You know, I have mod points, and could just mod you down, but I thought I'd reply instead.
Godwin's Law isn't a rule about winning or losing arguments. It's a law of nature. It's like gravity. If a thread goes on for long enough, someone will mention Nazis or Hitler. But notice, I'm the first one in this thread to do so. Fascism is bigger than just Nazis. The Italian government under Mussolini was fascist as well.
Before you say that fascism requires burning racially inferior people in furnaces, you might want to at least read the definition:
Let's compare that to the current state of affairs in the US of A:
There's no question, we're a long way from Italy or Germany in the '30s. At the same time, there's a continuum between an open society and a fascist one. The US is much closer to the fascist side of that spectrum than any other western (or modern eastern) country. Sure, Cuba is worse, and so is North Korea, but when those are the only countries that are more fascist than you... it's a pretty bad sign.