Slashdot Mirror
Hundreds Of Smart Locks Get Bricked By A Buggy Firmware Update (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader quotes BleepingComputer:
On Tuesday, August 8, smart locks manufacturer LockState botched an over-the-air firmware update for its WiFi enabled [RemoteLock 6i] smart locks, causing the devices to lose connectivity to the vendor's servers and the ability to open doors for its users... The device costs $469 and is sold mainly to Airbnb hosts via an official partnership LockState has signed with the company. Hosts use the smart locks to configure custom access codes for each Airbnb renter without needing to give out a physical key to each one. The botched firmware bricked the device's smart code access mode. Physical keys continued to work. The botched firmware was a nuisance for private home owners, but it was a disaster for Airbnb hosts, who had to scramble to get customers physical keys so they could enter their rents.
The post includes tweets from angry lock owners, one complaining about a two-week wait for a replacement. The company is also offering to fix the defective units within "5-7 days," promising that "Every employee and resource at LockState is focused on resolving this for you as quickly as possible."
The post includes tweets from angry lock owners, one complaining about a two-week wait for a replacement. The company is also offering to fix the defective units within "5-7 days," promising that "Every employee and resource at LockState is focused on resolving this for you as quickly as possible."
Yet another data point demonstrating outages are better caused by admins than by hackers.
"Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
Yet another data point to underpin the motto "Never allow any data or access or service that you value to be controlled by Somebody Else's Computer"
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
Is this not a solution trying to invent a problem and producing a miriad of new problems.
Whenever you adopt this kind of new technology (or a novel application of older technology, for that matter), you have to be prepared for screw-ups. It goes with the territory. This was definitely a one of those, but if LockState is telling the truth, they're putting everything they have into fixing the problem. I would bet they'll also take steps to make sure this situation doesn't come up again.
I'm a lot less tolerant of situations where large, well-established software/hardware manufacturers cause major problems thanks to buggy updates, especially when the updates are jammed down the user's throat. How many horror stories have we heard about major security problems going unfixed for months after they were reported?
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Way to Go Software "Engineers". I can't wait for the self driving cars to roll out.
We are sorry that your self driving car veered off the road and killed all its passengers. We have isolated the bug to the periphery scanning routine. Please accept 1 Mo of free self-driving car time, or 1 Mo of free Uber/Lyft service, and this complimentary condolence ham. Remember, our liability is limited to the price of the software, please accept this 1499.99 as full compensation for the death of your relatives.
Your insurance is fully liable for the remaining costs, re: the 4 pedestrians that were killed. Our liability ends here, have a great day!
What could possibly go wrong?
I've seen it increasingly over the last few years, shortcuts on testing in order to get an update/new product out the door. This is short sighted. In a year, noone is going to remember it took you a week longer to get it out the door. People WILL remember if you brick all your devices.
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
I wonder if they saved all those participation trophies.
Is the backup unlocking device.
36, 24, 36, oh what a winning hand
'Cause it's a bricked-- house
It's mighty-mighty, just lettin' it all hang out
It's a bricked-- house
Ow, that lock is stacked and that's a fact
Ain't holding nothing back
This is exactly the type of shit that happens when you have millennial dipshits writing your code. Experience matters, a lot. Something the borderline millennial dipshits that run these companies don't understand.
No. Some code should not be written.
Find a different way.
Before pushing out the update one would assume the "engineers" tested the software for all versions of the locks and discovered the problem. Maybe it was tested and somehow become corrupted over the Internet, but then if it were tested by sending the update to the company's locks using the Internet the problem could have been discovered.
"Oh fuck, oh fuck, we're fucking fucked!"
Yet another data point to underpin the motto "Why do you need that high tech POS in the first place? You got what you deserved."
The PHB does not want to pay for QA!
Can I hear that again?
[...]causing the devices to lose connectivity to the vendor's servers[...]
So, lemme get this straight: These things, that lock my home doors, have a connection to their vendor, reacting to this vendor's command to unlock or lock my home. Did I get that right?
What sane person would WANT that in the first place???
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This is just an Appernet of Apps app apping apps while apping other apps! Only LUDDITES hate apps!
Apps!
Quite possibly the worst, stupidest, generation in the history of mankind.
Until the the next generation comes of age. My generation was the laziest, dumbest, etc. until the next one, then the one after that,and so on. Hell, this has been going on since Socrates, at least. Granted, I do find things millennials do and say baffling quite often, but I'm still not too old to remember hearing the same thing about my generation when we were up and coming too.
I think that you put too much faith in the old generations. As far as I can remember, most companies have been releasing products containing shit codes. Most managers do not understand technical issues and that has nothing to do with millennials.
As it said in the article; people that put their homes up for rent on AirBnB.
This is why only dolts install supposedly smart devices.
And the real lesson is that if you're going to do firmware updates like that, you need to ALSO have a backup in ROM that is at least good enough to get connected and re-flash the primary firmware, and a mechanism to boot into it.
Other useful precautions include only doing upgrades when explicitly permitted (so, not just before the owner takes his dream vacation when a screw up would ruin his week). Perhaps best of all, get it right the first time or at least try hard enough that you feel comfortable making updates a very rare manually initiated end-user procedure.
Does anyone even know what the update was supposed to actually fix? It seems the users weren't complaining before the update went out.
And that's all thanks to Congress passing a law to make arbitration mandatory without also making it illegal for an arbitrator to be partial or providing a route for redress when an arbitrator gets the law wrong.
SCOTUS just plain got it wrong when they failed to rule that it is unconstitutional for the Legislative branch to delete the Judicial branch with a law.
The simple fact is, millennials have learned optimization. Like robots. If their parents continue to provide substantial resources, even when they are capable of supplying these resources themselves, then why not take advantage? This is a cruel, inconsiderate generation that has no problem stepping on and destroying their very own providers. An evil generation.
Generation X was childish an immature but they never wanted to depend on and deliberately suck out resources from people they care about. These next generations are very different. These generations destroy lives and they don't even know it.
I'm not exaggerating at all. Lets take one example: My daughter and her boyfriend make $100k per year in the US. They both still live at home, putting a drain on us as parents and despite many attempts to talk to them, they give NOTHING, literally nothing back. if it weren't for my grandkids, the innocents, then I would kick my kids to the curb but as it is I just can't do it. I hate this generation, they are literally sucking the life out of people that care about them and they have no personal responsibility at all. I love my kids and support them but at the same time I hate them and wish they would grow up!
Corporate and proprietary software sycophants will no doubt claim to want that. Posters like you find right here on /.. But this is another situation where software freedom and fully-free software driven hardware could have saved people from experiencing the problems described. Users could be notified of an update, download the complete corresponding source code to that update (and the software already installed in their locks) and then do due diligence for their own locks: inspecting the complete corresponding source code and finding bugs, altering that software, and sharing their improved code with others (a job opportunity). Non-technical users (who, I imagine, make up the largest percentage of computer users and owners of these locks) could have hired people they trust to do this same inspection and improvement work on their behalf.
Instead users apparently get updates from the very organization they can't trust to render their locks inoperative ("bricked" locks) and angry customers await lock replacements.
I ask the same question you asked about many computer-driven things posters here claim to want:
On /. you'll find posters claiming to think highly of them all chiefly driven by either paid shills or convenience-seeking sycophants who don't foresee the obvious security and privacy implications of these horrible designs.
Digital Citizen
Sounds like your daughters generation has terrible parents.