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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]."

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Firmware Prank Causes LED Curtain In Russia To Display 'Slava Ukraini'

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  • Rise up citizens and destroy the government.

    • 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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      The Soviet Union (CCCP) collapsed in 1991. It's already fucked.

      Do you mean fuck the gangsters now in charge of Russia?
      • Putin's stated objective is to reestablish Russia as a world power, with Russia exerting control over the former Soviet states.
        • Well, it seems one person has their head out of their ass. I really didn't realize so many people are ignorantly stupid.

          • 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."

        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          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

          • Indeed it is a Russian hegemony and the soviet socialist model died with the Soviet Union. The challenge today is that many Americans continue to regard socialism and communism, which they often conflate, as the preeminent threat to our way of life. I believe that is a catastrophic error. The United States has been in decline as a military and economic power ever since we overextended our forces in the second gulf war. China has transitioned from a state weakened by its communist economy to a capitalist
        • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          You mean the former Russian empire. But "Soviet Union" sounds better, because commies.

    • In Soviet Russia, LED curtains display you.

  • by davidwr ( 791652 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2024 @06:23PM (#64129105) Homepage Journal

    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.

    • 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.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      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.

    • 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

    • 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]

    • This is why I only get FOSS software that comes with the assurance "satisfaction guaranteed or double your money back".

    • 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'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.

    • by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2024 @06:49PM (#64129181)

      > 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.

      • 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

      • > 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.

    • by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2024 @07:00PM (#64129205)

      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.

    • 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

  • And people in the USA think they have no freedom of speech? You can almost say anything you want here. Do something like that in some countries, gets you arrested or shot.
    • Harvard tried to say Freedom of speech includes the right to offensive speech. Their President has had to resign and their donations are drying up.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Just imagine a couple of months after 9/11 some prankster reprogrammed Christmas displays to shows "Congratulations Bin Laden" messages. Just imagine what the US public response would be. After 9/11 US citizens in New York/New Jersey ended up in illegal detention/tortured just for being Muslim. 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
          • by Anonymous Coward

            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

            • by ghoul ( 157158 )
              On 9/11 the targets were Langley where assasinations of Al Qaeda leaders were planned (that plane was taken down by the passengers), Pentagon where the drone strikes were controlled from and WTC where the economic sanctions on Al Qaeda were implemented from. We can have an endless debate on who started it but Bin Laden was an US ally till US sent troops into Saudi.
            • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • Re:Bin Laden (Score:4, Insightful)

            by DodgyGeezer ( 83311 ) on Thursday January 04, 2024 @02:26AM (#64130009)

            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.

            • by ghoul ( 157158 )
              Same could be said about 9/11. US sent troops to Saudi which is why Bin laden did 9/11. If American population does not want 9/11s it should withdraw troops from middle east

              But thats not how great powers think. USA doubled down after 9/11. Russia is doubling down on Ukraine.
              • by Anonymous Coward
                You're confusing Russia with a great power...
                • by ghoul ( 157158 )
                  The MIC of 31 NATO countries is supplying Ukraine yet Russia is outproducing on tanks , artillery and Drones. I guess that qualifies as Great Power
                  • 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

                    • by ghoul ( 157158 )
                      You forgot to mention why Ukraine has no navy. The Black Sea Fleet was split in 1991 but Ukraine has not been able to maintain its portion due to the industrial infrastructure being consumed by corruption. And what was left was sunk by the Russians in 2022.

                      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
                    • by ghoul ( 157158 )
                      "Little Ukraine". Its literally the second largest country in Europe after Russia. Twice the size of Germany and 3 times the size of France with the fourth largest population in Europe after Russia ,Germany and France. Also the largest standing army in Europe. After 2014, they expanded their army with NATO training to be bigger than the Russian army. Also Ukraine has received 130 Billion in lend-lease in just 1 year. Entire WW2, USSR received 80 Billion in lend lease in todays dollars (16 billion in 1939 do
            • by ghoul ( 157158 )
              Are you sure Russia started this? The war in the Donbass has been going on since 2014. And that war started when there was a coup in Kiev and the local elected officials in the Donbass refused to take orders from the coup regime. The Maidanists first used military force to take control of Donbas from the local officials. Then a bunch of Iraq War vets took up arms against the Maidanists and were given Russian support. How did Russia start this? Why would they start this? They had a pro Russian President in p
              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                by Anonymous Coward

                Are you sure Russia started this?

                Yes. Quite. Everyone knew this. Russia has already admitted it by now.

            • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Anonymous Coward

    The LED curtain in Putin's window appears to be modulated to suit GBU-12 Paveway guidance.

  • Fe (Score:5, Funny)

    by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Wednesday January 03, 2024 @07:37PM (#64129289)

    LED curtains? Sorry, but I'll stick with my good old iron ones.

  • ÐÐÑоÑм ÑÐÐÐÐ

  • by deek ( 22697 ) on Thursday January 04, 2024 @02:54AM (#64130047) Homepage Journal

    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.

    • 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.

  • > arrested for discrediting the country's armed forces

    Well. Message was not discrediting Russian armed forces. They will have to change their laws.

  • 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.

  • "But comrade, it's not my fault! LED curtain device was hacked!" "Nyet traitor! tonight you will be on front line in glorious special military operation!"

Those who do things in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice are to be avoided at all costs. -- N. Alexander.

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