Firmware Prank Causes LED Curtain In Russia To Display 'Slava Ukraini' (therecord.media) 109
Alexander Martin reports via The Record: The owner of an apartment in Veliky Novgorod in Russia has been arrested for discrediting the country's armed forces after a neighbor alerted the police to the message 'Slava Ukraini' scrolling across their LED curtains. When police went to the scene, they saw the garland which the owner had hung in celebration of the New Year and a "slogan glorifying the Armed Forces of Ukraine," as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs told state-owned news agency TASS. The apartment owner said the garland was supposed to display a "Happy New Year" greeting, TASS reported.
Several other people in Russia described a similar experience on the AlexGyver web forum, linked to a DIY blog popular in the country. They said at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, their LED curtains also began to show the "Glory to Ukraine" message in Ukrainian. It is not clear whether any of these other posters were also arrested. The man in Veliky Novgorod will have to defend his case in court, according to TASS. Police have seized the curtain itself.
An independent investigation into the cause of the message by the AlexGyver forum users found that affected curtains all used the same open-source firmware code. The original code appears to have originated in Ukraine before someone created a fork translated into Russian. According to the Telegram channel for AlexGyver, the code had been added to the original project on October 18, and then in December the people or person running the fork copied and pasted that update into their own version. "Everyone who downloaded and updated the firmware in December received a gift," the Telegram channel wrote. The message was "really encrypted, hidden from the 'reader' of the code, and is displayed on the first day of the year exclusively for residents of Russia by [geographic region]."
Several other people in Russia described a similar experience on the AlexGyver web forum, linked to a DIY blog popular in the country. They said at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, their LED curtains also began to show the "Glory to Ukraine" message in Ukrainian. It is not clear whether any of these other posters were also arrested. The man in Veliky Novgorod will have to defend his case in court, according to TASS. Police have seized the curtain itself.
An independent investigation into the cause of the message by the AlexGyver forum users found that affected curtains all used the same open-source firmware code. The original code appears to have originated in Ukraine before someone created a fork translated into Russian. According to the Telegram channel for AlexGyver, the code had been added to the original project on October 18, and then in December the people or person running the fork copied and pasted that update into their own version. "Everyone who downloaded and updated the firmware in December received a gift," the Telegram channel wrote. The message was "really encrypted, hidden from the 'reader' of the code, and is displayed on the first day of the year exclusively for residents of Russia by [geographic region]."
Fuck The Soviet Union. (Score:2)
Rise up citizens and destroy the government.
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Wrong Russian dictatorship.
Also, if you look at the history of the Russian people, you'll realize they seem to be doomed to forever be ruled by totalitarian sumbitches. The Russians never rise against the power in place. That's just not in their makeup. So don't hold your breath.
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The Russians never rise against the power in place
you need to seriously read a little more history if you believe that.
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If you're referring to the October revolution, it was not a popular revolution by any stretch of the imagination.
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He may be referring to the February Revolution [wikipedia.org].
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Re: Fuck The Soviet Union. (Score:2)
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Maybe I should have used a slash ess. I am well aware of the current regime. Duck and cover, motherfucker!!
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Do you mean fuck the gangsters now in charge of Russia?
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Well, it seems one person has their head out of their ass. I really didn't realize so many people are ignorantly stupid.
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Well, it seems one person has their head out of their ass. I really didn't realize so many people are ignorantly stupid.
Hello, newcomer to the internet! We welcome all. Just realize that 90% of us are talking out of our asses. And the other 10% are just regurgitating whatever bullshit we heard on our favorite podcast this morning.
These discussion sites should really come with a disclaimer: "Don't believe anything. We're all idiots."
Re:Fuck The Soviet Union. (Score:4, Informative)
It is not his stated objective at all. Various rumours and dodgy telegram channels have stated it. It may very well be his goal but that has never been publicly stated.
“First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” Putin said. “As for the Russian people, it became a genuine tragedy. Tens of millions of our fellow citizens and countrymen found themselves beyond the fringes of Russian territory."
And what are his current actions? Largely, in his mind, re-unifying what he considers the Russian people. He considers much of Ukraine as part of the Russian people. While he is not literally recreating the Soviet Union, he is attempting to recreate a Russian empire. In the finest tradition of the Soviet Union and the Czars that preceded it.
Re:Fuck The Soviet Union. (Score:5, Insightful)
Post-WWII, the allied forces decided to include the crime of "wars of aggression" in an attempt to dissuade countries from trying to create or further extend empires. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is arguably an example of such a crime, as is Israel's invasion & occupation of the West Bank & Gaza (Palestine), & Golan Heights (Syria). As you're probably reacting somewhat emotionally but in polarised directions toward the examples I've given illustrates just how regimes & their citizens can convince themselves of pretty much anything they like in this regard.
The Spanish, German, & Italian generals & politicians who argued that the bombing of Guernica in 1937 wasn't "terror bombing" probably felt the same way as the Israeli politicians & generals that are currently bombing indiscriminately & targeting hospitals in Gaza.
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as is Israel's invasion & occupation of the West Bank & Gaza (Palestine)
Israel has not occupied Palestinian territory in over a decade. The West Bank and Gaza were under control of the Palestinian Authority. Gaza was later taken over by Hamas.
Golan Heights (Syria)
Syria attacked Israel and a large portion of the Golan Heights were taken in a counterattack. Occupied due to its strategic importance with respect to defense of northern israel.
As you're probably reacting somewhat emotionally ...
LOL. What an amazing example of projection.
but in polarised directions toward the examples I've given illustrates just how regimes & their citizens can convince themselves of pretty much anything they like in this regard.
Russia and Israel are not acting similarly. Their one occupied territory is the result of captured strategic territory f
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I'm sure you'll have some well-rehearsed talking points about
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Yep, you're pretty much proving my point.
By stating history? By showing your characterization of events incorrect? LOL.
Those with vested interests or feeling patriotic about one side ...
There is none here, again you mischaracterize things. Israel acquired the Golan Heights as a result of a defensive war. Israel attacked Hamas as the results of a terrorist attack. Neither of these are wars of aggression. That is a simple fact.
Didn't the USA recently withdraw their occupying troops from Afghanistan?
Again, not a war of aggression. We did not want Afghanistan. We wanted Al Qaeda members. We asked the Taliban to turn them over. We asked the Taliban to deport them. Instead the Taliban decid
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Your statements/arguments are a-historical. They don't take into account context in any broadly representative form. They're assertions to support a foregone conclusion which is typically how they can justify committing war crimes.
Starving over 2 million people to death (Bengal, 1943), ann
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Still proving my point.
Not at all. I simply stated history contradicting your false claims.
You're going to continue to come up with the talking points ...
Not at all. You are engaging psychological projection, projecting you false political talking points on others.
Your statements/arguments are a-historical.
False. They are all easily fact checked if a reader so chooses.
They don't take into account context in any broadly representative form.
And know the BS wraps except in a veneer of pseudo academics. Not, there is not context for facts. A military action either fits the definition of a war of conquest, or it does not. And your adopted context is a niche perspective.
They're assertions to support a foregone conclusion ...
Again, you engage in psychological proje
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& I'm sure the war machine will provide you with plenty more talking points to endlessly regurgitate about that too.
I very much doubt tha
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Here we go on the propaganda merry-go-round, endlessly regurgitating the same talking points.
That is some impressive self reflection on your own posts. Congratulations.
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Putin's stated objective is to reestablish Russia as a world power, with Russia exerting control over the former Soviet states.
Yes, but this would be more of a Russian Hegemony than a Soviet Union. A soviet is a term for a governing council elected by workers, granted that the word is synonymous with Russian in modern parlance.
Not that I disagree with your point, but Putin wants a autocratic (perhaps even kleptocratic) Hegemony (a power surrounded by vassal states for economic benefit and military protection, exerting power on them without direct control) rather than even pretending that people will be the beneficiaries of their
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You mean the former Russian empire. But "Soviet Union" sounds better, because commies.
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In Soviet Russia, LED curtains display you.
This is not good for FOSS's reputation (Score:4, Insightful)
If people are worried that "open source" = "supply chain attack" they may prefer to pay someone they can sue if things go south.
Sure, prank messages like this are mostly harmless (unless you, the innocent user, get arrested) but what if it were firmware for a drone that caused your drone to self-destruct on a certain date?
I'm not saying this kind of attack is likely, or even that it's more likely in open-source software than non-open-source software. I AM saying that it leaves the FOSS community open to "psychological warfare" by those who will point to this and say "look, see, you don't want this to happen to you, buy from us instead, TRUST US."
One advantage FOSS will always have: It's auditable.
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How is it bad for FOSS reputation when you can actually audit and view the source and fix pranks before they happen? In a closed source you couldn't. And even if you somehow got the firmware out of the chip, decompiled it and could read it, more often than not that would even be illegal.
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Attacks on repos seem to be much more common and dangerous. Replace a few NPM packages, and your malware get copied into thousands of bits of software.
The most American of statements (Score:2)
they may prefer to pay someone they can sue
Yep, we're not paying someone for certainty in the supply chain. Not paying someone to be covered under consumer protection or warranty claims. Not paying someone to divert liability.
We are paying someone so we can sue them. #M'URIKA
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You obviously havnt heard of the "Dependancy Confusion" attack if you are worried about forked code having easter eggs like that.
Prepare to really get worried.
https://www.grc.com/sn/sn-807-... [grc.com]
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This is why I only get FOSS software that comes with the assurance "satisfaction guaranteed or double your money back".
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I'm not saying this kind of attack is likely
This kind of attack is likely and it has nothing to do with whether or not the code is Open Source. Look at the Solar Winds hack. That is certainly not Open Source and yet they distributed hacked executables.
I do find this hilarious. However (Score:2)
I'd like to know more detail about how, exactly, this was managed. It'd be dumb to purchase a LED curtain that requires a direct connection the Internet and/or can be automatically updated without the owner's active participation.
Re:I do find this hilarious. However (Score:5, Informative)
> It'd be dumb to purchase a LED curtain that requires a direct connection the Internet and/or can be automatically updated without the owner's active participation.
This is actually most of the home automation market. You have to be very careful to find broadly compatible stuff that doesn't need to call home.
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I realize what you say is correct; I just don't like it. It seems to me most / all of the things these IoT devices use the internet for could be provided in a different manner, without giving these devices unconstrained access to the internet (and vice versa). Plus it's getting harder to avoid the IoT for a lot of things (like mid- to higher-end appliances).
Of course there's no good way around firmware updates coming over the internet; but I'd hope those at least aren't silent nor mandatory. I must admit al
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> It'd be dumb to purchase a LED curtain that requires a direct connection the Internet and/or can be automatically updated without the owner's active participation.
This is actually most of the home automation market. You have to be very careful to find broadly compatible stuff that doesn't need to call home.
Everybody should be forced to watch the episode of Silicon Valley where Gilfoyle puts the masturbating clowns on all the fridges if they think these always connected devices are so much better than non-connected or gods forbid, rolling your own on your internal network only.
Re:I do find this hilarious. However (Score:4, Informative)
I'd say the LED curtain uses an app for the initial set up like the language, message text, and the graphic parameters. So you pair it with a mobile phone and it is standard practice for IoT user apps to check for firmware updates on first run.
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Every customisable LED curtain on the market has a pathway to the internet. 100% of them require a connection to a phone and an app to setup. You say "dumb" as if there were any other choice.
Also no where did it say something was updated without the owners active participation. In fact TFS makes it clear this was hidden code set to trigger at a specific time and place. You as the owner would have updated this yourself (don't pretend you wouldn't have, this is the singular purpose of this product) and have b
Freedom of speech (Score:1)
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He means you can display "free " in your window and no one will arrest you. Duh.
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For reasons Slashdot butchered what I wrote. Anyway, you can write "free Ukraine/Tibet/Taiwan" etc and no arrests will be made. Free any country you want. Call Putin a warmongering idot, Xi 'Pooh Bear' and Trump a moron and no one will arrest you.
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Bragging that as an American you can say "free Ukraine/Tibet/Taiwan" is like an Iranian bragging that in Iran you can shout "Death to America!" without consequences. A better actual test of American freedom of speech is people who wave confederate flags and shout "the south will rise again!" without consequences. A direct parallel to what Russia arrested this man for would be an American's curtains reading "glory to the Taliban, god is great" during that war.
If you don't understand what the actual tests of
Tell that to Harvard (Score:2)
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Bin Laden (Score:1)
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Imagine what the FBI would do to a person whose house was decorated with "Congratulations Bin Laden" Christmas garlands. Russia is at war and a hundred times more Russians have died than Americans on 9/11. People are not in the mood for pranks.
Maybe they shouldn't have started it, then. It is quite disingenuous to compare the death toll of Russia's military to the civilian death toll on 9/11. The nearly 3,000 civilian deaths in 9/11 were caused by an unprovoked and illegal attack on the U.S. by a foreign adversary. The deaths of Russian military in Ukraine were caused by an unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military. The U.S. was the victim in 9/11. Russia was the aggressor in their war against Ukraine. The two situa
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Re:Bin Laden (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bin Laden (Score:5, Insightful)
You Russian trolls are really clutching at straws trying to push this NATO narrative. NATO expanded because countries like the Baltic ones were justifiably terrified that Russia would invade them again, not through some nefarious desire to expand NATO and threaten Russia. Comparison to the Cold War is ridiculous. Get with the programme: there currently is no Cold War, although it appears that Putin wants to return to that and is starting a new arms race. Russia's federal government's budget will hit 40% on military and security this year, whereas countries like the UK are spending half what they they did during the Cold War: https://www.reuters.com/world/... [reuters.com]
In fact, NATO looked like it was withering on the vine a couple of years ago: Donald Trump was actively undermining it, and most countries had been woefully short on their spending commitments for years. Then that little autocratic fascist in the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2014, and started a full on war in Ukraine in 2022. As a consequence of Putin's full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, two countries (Finland and Sweden) that remained neutral throughout the whole of the Cold War were so terrified they applied to join NATO, all NATO countries increased their military spending and German politics and policies changed and they've started supporting overseas conflicts. Putin has failed spectacularly if he was truly worried about NATO. But as we know, he's a lying snake and this NATO discussion is just a smoke screen to hide the truth.
just when you think it's no longer possible (Score:2, Funny)
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If you're going to troll, at least get your capitals right. You do know that Norway was a founding member of NATO [wikipedia.org], don't you?
Re:Bin Laden (Score:4, Insightful)
That's a terrible analogy. Who gives a fuck whether people in Russia are not in the mood for pranks? It's their government that started this war with Ukraine. Any pain and suffering in Russia has been brought on themselves. Ukraine is the victim here, don't forget that. If the Russia people don't like it, they should get rid of the small man in the Kremlin and withdraw their armed forces from Ukraine and restore Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders. The Russian people have a choice, and by accepting the behaviour of their fascist autocratic leader, they are complicit in any of their own suffering.
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But thats not how great powers think. USA doubled down after 9/11. Russia is doubling down on Ukraine.
You're confusing Russia with a great power... (Score:2, Funny)
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LOL. The Russian navy had to run away from a country (Ukraine) that has no navy to speak of. Some great power!
Ask the retired folks in Russia who get a pension of RUB 17,000 (USD 185) per month how great they think Russia is and what they think of their government's spending. Some great power!
Russian has regeared its whole economy for war, and the federal government's budget now allocates 40% of its spending on the military. That's almost an order of magnitude larger than the amount the UK government al
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Maybe a little "running" would have been good for the Ukrainian navy.
USA runs a 1.3 trillion deficit to pay for its 1 trillion army. If thats not being geared for war, what is? Russia has been running surpluses and now is using stored surpluses for
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Are you sure Russia started this?
Yes. Quite. Everyone knew this. Russia has already admitted it by now.
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That's odd (Score:1)
The LED curtain in Putin's window appears to be modulated to suit GBU-12 Paveway guidance.
Fe (Score:5, Funny)
LED curtains? Sorry, but I'll stick with my good old iron ones.
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Rust and you're curtains!
ÑÐÐÐÐ ÑfÐÑ (Score:2)
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Russian military leaders to be arrested also? (Score:3)
Because their military leaders are discrediting the country's armed forces as well.
By the very fact that this is day 680 of a 10 day special military invasion.
Putin wouldn't know a sunk cost fallacy if he was slapped in the face with it.
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By the very fact that this is day 680 of a 10 day special military invasion.
Operation, OPERATION. We don't use the I word here comrade.
Message was not discrediting Russian armed forces (Score:1)
> arrested for discrediting the country's armed forces
Well. Message was not discrediting Russian armed forces. They will have to change their laws.
Nice one! (Score:2)
Excellent, little trick.
Slava Ukrani!
Now if we could just have something that can attack a households internet connection to block all the state propoganda then maybe the Russians can finally wake up and get the real news.
They'll be in Donetsk tomorrow (Score:2)
Re:"Slava Ukraini!" was the war cry of ⦠(Score:5, Interesting)
You're just upset your $250 million counter-battery radar, designed to locate artillery so it can be targeted, was itself destroyed by Ukrainian artillery [businessinsider.com] only hours after the Muscovite Midget announced its arrival in Ukraine.
Re:"Slava Ukraini!" was the war cry of ⦠(Score:5, Informative)
Ukrainians didn't collaborate with the Nazis at any higher rate than any other occupied people (if there was any that collaborated slightly more it was ethnic Germans, and if any slightly less, Belarussians, but overall collaboration rates were pretty similar). And if you want historic imagery, the Russian collaboration flag was... wait for it... today's Russian tricolour. [twimg.com]
"Slava Ukraini" has long been tied to Ukrainian independence, long before World War II; it's only the followup phrase that's changed. In the late 1800s Kharkiv the followup was "Glory to all around the world!". During the Ukrainian war for independence (ruthlessly crushed by the Soviets) from 1917 to 1921, it was “Glory to the Hetmanate,” “Glory to the Cossack Army,” or “Death to the enemies of Ukraine”, depending on which group is under discussion. The phrase was already quite old and well established by WWII. And indeed, forms of it go even further back - for example, Shevchenko's poetry talks about the "Glory of Ukraine"; Kostomarov wrote “Children of Glory, Children of Glory!” about Ukrainians, including "Glory to you, Ukraine!”, etc. Ukraine's national anthem comes from a poem from 1862, whose opening line is “Ukraine has not yet perished, nor its freedom or glory.”
In short, your argument is akin to saying that because the American Nazi Party in the leadup to World War II was obsessed with George Washington [nationalww2museum.org] (who they considered to be the first American Nazi), that Americans should no longer praise Washington.
Which is stupid. Because:
1) Appreciation for Washington existed long before the Nazis
2) Letting Nazis corrupt a preexisting symbol is stupid.
3) Basically nobody today except for Nazis is going to be thinking of Nazis when they think of George Washington.
Re:"Slava Ukraini!" was the war cry of ⦠(Score:2)
> 3) Basically nobody today except for Nazis is going to be thinking of Nazis when they think of George Washington.
Damn, you ruined it for me
Re:"Slava Ukraini!" was the war cry of ⦠(Score:1)
"Ukrainians didn't collaborate with the Nazis at any higher rate than any other occupied people"
Sure, and the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgant Army) never existed for Azov and Privy Sector to take after, Bandera was NOT Ukrainian, he is NOT still worshipped left and right in Ukraine today, no nazis have been given medals in the last yeae by Jon Stewart or the Canadian parliament.. any more delusional falsehoods lile these that you want to add on? The summer counteroffensive failing seems to have broken some brains.
Re:"Slava Ukraini!" was the war cry of ⦠(Score:3)
Yet we've let them do that with the swastika, the sig rune, the German word "Zyklon" (cognate of English "cyclone"), and various other things.