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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Holy shit the article is far less tame than the title. They provided several ways to run commands as root and they can be generated as an over-the-air HTTP call. As per the article, if you buy the Jooki domain, it’s very likely you can control every single Jooki on the market. You can make the speaker do whatever you’d like. Pretty scary stuff. One has to wonder what nerds can do with that kind of tech: turn speakers into a low quality mic? Use them as bots for a DDoS attack? Just start blasting heavy metal music? Or just brick every device?

    It’s pretty wild what the devs have done here. I can excuse executing commands as root from a file on the SD card. It’s not exactly safe or smart but it’s also not the most dangerous thing to assume only people with access to the device would do that. Hardly a worry for most parents as long as you’re not especially reckless. But to allow OTA root level commands to be run? That’s a horrible design. At least setup a user that can only execute a few pre-designed scripts. Don’t just give them carte blanch to run havoc on your hardware.

    Just another reminder that every wifi enabled device is likely a ticking timebomb. Especially low quality devices meant for kids. Baby monitors, speakers, etc. have a history of being built cheaply and poorly. That’s why I bought non-wifi baby monitors for my family.








  • Software engineering is just what any “engineering” field would be if they didn’t have standards. We have some geniuses and we have some idiots.

    Mechanical engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, etc. are often forced to adhere to some sort of standard. It means something to say “I’m a civil engineer” (in most developed nations). You are genuinely liable in some instances for your work. You have to adhere to codes and policies and formats.

    Software engineering is the wild west right now. No rules. No standards. And in most industries we may never need a standard because software rarely kills.

    However, software is becoming increasingly important in our daily lives. There will likely come a day wherein similar standards take precedence and the name “software engineer” is only allowed to those who adhere to those standards and have the proper certs/licenses. I believe Canada already does this.

    Software engineers would be responsible for critical software, e.g: ensuring phones connecting to an emergency operator don’t fail, building pacemakers, securing medical records, etc. I know some of these tasks already have “experts” behind them. But I don’t think software has any licensing/governing.

    Directly opposed to “engineering” would be the grunt work which I do.