Programmer Finds Way To Liberate Ransomware Affected Smart TV, Thanks To LG (theregister.co.uk)

Television production factory LG has saved Darren Cauthon's new year by providing hidden reset instructions to liberate his Google TV from ransomware. From a report on The Register: The company initially demanded more money than the idiot box was worth to repair the TV and relented offering instructions for resetting the telly after Cauthon took to Twitter to express his displeasure. The infection came after the programmer's wife downloaded an app to the TV promising free movies. Instead, it installed the ransomware, with a demand of US$500 to have the menace removed. Cauthon said LG offered factory reset steps which are not publicly revealed nor known to its customer support technicians. He says a family member showed him the TV over Christmas laden with ransomware purporting to be a FBI message bearing a notice that suspicious files were found and the user has been fined.

Comments

"Programmer finds"

[Gaygirlie]

No, programmer didn't find shit. He was given the instructions, it's that fucking simple.

Not Simple

[freeze128]

I have an LG smartphone, and I can tell you that the procedure for getting into the recovery is not as simple as other brands of phones (e.g., HTC). Usually, you would just hold down a button while the device powers on and boots up. With the LG device, you have to hold the button down until it STARTS to boot, then release the button, and then press it again. The timing is critical, and it doesn't often work the first time.

With the television, you have even more buttons to worry about, so trial and error would take a very long time.

Re:Welcome

[budgenator]

It cost the manufacturer millions just to develop that software. Do you think by you get the right to own it just by paying a few hundred bucks?

Well since it runs on Android, which is a version of Linux, which is distributed under the GPL, for free, the short answer is basically yes, costing the manufacturer $Millions is unlikely, $10's of thousands is probably stretching it.

The manufacture won't hand you the source code, because that will compromise his trade secrets and therefore, harm his business.

The kernel portions are distributed under V2 of the GPL and they must absolutely be available, the Android portions distributed by Google/Android have source code available. My guess is that since the factory reset occurs during the device being in a switched off mode, it hooks into the linux kernel and is either GPL'ed or Google/Android source code.