Disassembling an Amazon Blink Mini camera(astrid.tech)
astrid.tech
Disassembling an Amazon Blink Mini camera
https://astrid.tech/2022/07/07/0/blink-mini-disassembly/
100 comments
I was hoping this was going to end with "look, it runs embedded linux and here's how to get root, on a $20 camera". That would solve this problem:
Does anyone know of a good way to have a camera stream video over WiFi to my server, which can then forward it to the Internet, without passing through a third party? And, ideally, without opening ports. Burned too many times by buying cameras with streaming systems that are shut down two years later.
I think if I could get root on embedded linux on a WiFi camera, I could set up an SSH tunnel and go from there. But with the current IP camera I wasn't smart enough to get root (or a shell at all, IIRC) and it wouldn't take firmware updates.
So right now I have a terrible hacky solution where it FTPs an image to me every ten seconds, and then I put serve that... but a real stream would be way better.
Does anyone know of a good way to have a camera stream video over WiFi to my server, which can then forward it to the Internet, without passing through a third party? And, ideally, without opening ports. Burned too many times by buying cameras with streaming systems that are shut down two years later.
I think if I could get root on embedded linux on a WiFi camera, I could set up an SSH tunnel and go from there. But with the current IP camera I wasn't smart enough to get root (or a shell at all, IIRC) and it wouldn't take firmware updates.
So right now I have a terrible hacky solution where it FTPs an image to me every ten seconds, and then I put serve that... but a real stream would be way better.
Scrypted is what you want. I’m using it to stream an Amcrest AD410 doorbell camera to my NAS and forward it to HomeKit Secure Video with a local copy of the video saved on my NAS. It’s rock solid. It uses a plugin architecture and HKSV is just a Scrypted plugin (as is saving the video locally). The developer is very responsive.
https://github.com/koush/scrypted
https://github.com/koush/scrypted
Lots of RTSP cameras available - which would do exactly what you want and leaves you fairly open to whatever software you choose to implement on the server to share the feed.
I use lots of the Ubiquiti Cameras - I’ve had lots of success using them without the UniFi Protect controller app purely as RTSP devices.
I use lots of the Ubiquiti Cameras - I’ve had lots of success using them without the UniFi Protect controller app purely as RTSP devices.
Can you pull 4k from the Pro cameras without the controller?
I wrote this for Wyze v2 cameras: https://github.com/openmiko/openmiko
This is awesome, thank you! I have a few Wyze cameras and their hardware and pricing are great, but their app is pretty bad. Would be lovely to be able to use them outside the app.
This looks quite nice, I will give it a try. I mostly have v3 cameras and unfortunately it looks like these are not supported?
Wyze has an official RTSP firmware you can download from their support section for the v3. It’s beta, but has mostly worked for my needs.
The official rtsp firmware is garbage and outdated and of course still phones home. For v3 I have been playing with https://github.com/gtxaspec/wz_mini_hacks which seems very promising since it allows ssh root access.
> outdated
If it works, it works?
If it works, it works?
It’s also garbage and also phones home still.
The “outdated” knock on it is relevant because it points to Wyze once giving a nod to tinkerers, and apparently deciding it’s not in worth it to maintain that branch vs working on the firmware that drives monthly revenue.
The “outdated” knock on it is relevant because it points to Wyze once giving a nod to tinkerers, and apparently deciding it’s not in worth it to maintain that branch vs working on the firmware that drives monthly revenue.
> The “outdated” knock on it is relevant because it points to Wyze once giving a nod to tinkerers
The RTSP firmware for the v3 isn’t even a year old (was released after June 2021), so “once was a nod to tinkerers” combined the rest of your vitriol makes me wonder if you have an axe to grind. Did Wyze kick your dog or something?
The RTSP firmware for the v3 isn’t even a year old (was released after June 2021), so “once was a nod to tinkerers” combined the rest of your vitriol makes me wonder if you have an axe to grind. Did Wyze kick your dog or something?
My experience is with the V2 firmware. Read the notice at the top of this page:
https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026245231-Wyze...
I might have a small axe to grind. My Wyze cams were much more capable when I bought them 3 years ago than they are today. Now the app takes much longer to load, and has the uncanny ability to insert an advertisement under my finger just before I touch the camera feed I want to view. Scrubbing through saved footage is slower now than it used to be.
It all smells like feature bloat that I can’t opt out of. RTSP was how I tried to escape that, but as their own site says, they no longer offer it for my cams.
https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026245231-Wyze...
I might have a small axe to grind. My Wyze cams were much more capable when I bought them 3 years ago than they are today. Now the app takes much longer to load, and has the uncanny ability to insert an advertisement under my finger just before I touch the camera feed I want to view. Scrubbing through saved footage is slower now than it used to be.
It all smells like feature bloat that I can’t opt out of. RTSP was how I tried to escape that, but as their own site says, they no longer offer it for my cams.
> Now the app takes much longer to load, and has the uncanny ability to insert an advertisement under my finger just before I touch the camera feed I want to view.
Which platform? I’ve never once seen an ad in the official iOS app. The app was always slow to load for me in all the years I’ve used it, so that doesn’t have me riled up. My beef with them is the AI detection has taken a significant step backwards the last six months (why I flipped a bunch of my cams to the RTSP firmware).
Which platform? I’ve never once seen an ad in the official iOS app. The app was always slow to load for me in all the years I’ve used it, so that doesn’t have me riled up. My beef with them is the AI detection has taken a significant step backwards the last six months (why I flipped a bunch of my cams to the RTSP firmware).
Sorry, I should be clearer. The ads I’m referring to are for Wyze’s add-on features. “Try Cam Plus”, “Get Cam Protect”, “Home Monitoring”, etc. Not any third party ones.
And somehow I always seem to either click on the ad rather than my first camera, or click on a camera listed above my targeted one as the ad appears just as my finger lands on the screen.
And also to be clear, the axe I grind is small. I generally like these Wyze cams. For $20 each they’ve done a decent job. But knowing there is third party firmware out there is promising.
And somehow I always seem to either click on the ad rather than my first camera, or click on a camera listed above my targeted one as the ad appears just as my finger lands on the screen.
And also to be clear, the axe I grind is small. I generally like these Wyze cams. For $20 each they’ve done a decent job. But knowing there is third party firmware out there is promising.
> The ads I’m referring to are for Wyze’s add-on features.
Ah, gotcha. I’ve seen those before, but haven’t experienced same issue with getting in way. Maybe I’m just slow to click.
> And also to be clear, the axe I grind is small. I generally like these Wyze cams.
The reason why I bought so many of them is because they don’t upload to the “cloud” unless they detect motion (or sound trigger). Yes, they phone home like crazy, but at least they aren’t streaming 24x7 to Google or Amazon or worse like some competitors products do. Add on to that that they are cheap, and I’m mostly a happy person. If only they could tell the difference between a person and absolutely nothing (no shadow, no movement, nothing!) I might still have all my cams on the mainline firmware.
Ah, gotcha. I’ve seen those before, but haven’t experienced same issue with getting in way. Maybe I’m just slow to click.
> And also to be clear, the axe I grind is small. I generally like these Wyze cams.
The reason why I bought so many of them is because they don’t upload to the “cloud” unless they detect motion (or sound trigger). Yes, they phone home like crazy, but at least they aren’t streaming 24x7 to Google or Amazon or worse like some competitors products do. Add on to that that they are cheap, and I’m mostly a happy person. If only they could tell the difference between a person and absolutely nothing (no shadow, no movement, nothing!) I might still have all my cams on the mainline firmware.
I use a Reolink camera, my one supports a standard video stream or jpeg output accessible via a url on the device itself, no cloud required (though they’re iOS app presumably uses cloud for its connectivity, but it’s optional to use the apps). Combined with a Tailscale node in the house could provide external access without open ports.
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I'd start by looking at the esp32cam.
Wyze camera with it's official (but not supported) RTSP firmware. You have to flash it with the firmware and once done it's a rock solid RTSP cam in my experience.
You either open a port, or employ a third party (even if you run that yourself), no in-between.
If you'd like a secure setup, I'd advise a generic WiFi camera, accessible only on your LAN, and setting up OpenVPN or similar, to connect to your home network. This way you need to only trust your chosen VPN implementation, and I'd wager they are pretty secure.
If you'd like a secure setup, I'd advise a generic WiFi camera, accessible only on your LAN, and setting up OpenVPN or similar, to connect to your home network. This way you need to only trust your chosen VPN implementation, and I'd wager they are pretty secure.
This might interest you.
https://github.com/EliasKotlyar/Xiaomi-Dafang-Hacks
See Reolink+Neolink, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33091698
Pair with a coral (if you can find one) and you get decent home network AI detection as well.
Blue Iris, Frigate etc for a home NVR setup.
Blink cameras can run on battery for a year! A worthy platform to be liberated from app/cloud.
https://awesomeopensource.com/projects/camera/firmware
Thanks for the supply chain diagram: https://astrid.tech/_/2022/08/03/0/blink-companies.svg
Microsoft's ThreadX RTOS was also used on RPi GPU, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VideoCore#Linux_support
https://awesomeopensource.com/projects/camera/firmware
Thanks for the supply chain diagram: https://astrid.tech/_/2022/08/03/0/blink-companies.svg
Microsoft's ThreadX RTOS was also used on RPi GPU, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VideoCore#Linux_support
There are several security camera manufacturers making long battery life claims. I found Eufy's "6 month battery" claims to be grossly overstating the reality (1-2 months in normal conditions using various units) and would be suspicious of 365 day claims made by Eufy, Blink, and others.
Blink has custom silicon, which may be forcing competitors with generic SoCs to exaggerate. Blink's claims are precise, https://support.blinkforhome.com/en_US/f-a-q/how-long-do-the...
> Blink Video Doorbell, Outdoor and Indoor (gen 2), and XT2 cameras can expect battery life of up to 2 years, based on 5,882 seconds of Live View, 43,200 seconds of motion-activated recording and 4,788 seconds of Live View with two-way talk. This is roughly 70 seconds per day. For the Indoor (gen 1) and XT cameras, 2 years of typical use is defined as 40,000 seconds of Motion Clips and Live View. This is approximately 50 seconds per day.
> Blink Video Doorbell, Outdoor and Indoor (gen 2), and XT2 cameras can expect battery life of up to 2 years, based on 5,882 seconds of Live View, 43,200 seconds of motion-activated recording and 4,788 seconds of Live View with two-way talk. This is roughly 70 seconds per day. For the Indoor (gen 1) and XT cameras, 2 years of typical use is defined as 40,000 seconds of Motion Clips and Live View. This is approximately 50 seconds per day.
> 43,200 seconds of motion-activated recording
Ahh 6 hours of continuous recording. That's a lot more reasonable. You could build something similar by combining a low power PIR sensor with a camera
Ahh 6 hours of continuous recording. That's a lot more reasonable. You could build something similar by combining a low power PIR sensor with a camera
I have several Blink camera's, can attest they do indeed last more than a year. Front of house that gets more than usual traffic has lasted around 2 years between battery changes, back of house around 3 years so far. Using Duracell batteries if that makes a difference.
Same here. The squirrels in the backyard are definitely a drain on the batteries. Another reason to hate them (the main one is that they eat my nectarines).
I have a bunch in the roof cavity to monitor for roof rat incursion. They have been going for about 3 years now.
I found the Blink camera was the best for a battery camera in terms of startup on PIR detection. In comparison my newer Eufy and Arlo cameras take a second or two (sometimes more) and have much less battery life.
The downside on the Blink is that you have to buy high end lithium AA batteries
I found the Blink camera was the best for a battery camera in terms of startup on PIR detection. In comparison my newer Eufy and Arlo cameras take a second or two (sometimes more) and have much less battery life.
The downside on the Blink is that you have to buy high end lithium AA batteries
It depends on the level of activity. Some of my Blinks last over 1 year, and some last a couple months.
I use a Blink Camera in an semi active zone (backyard) and it lasted 1.5 years without battery change. Blew my mind since it offered almost the same functionality with better performance thank top of the market competitors.
Nice write-up. Still a lot to go through, I hope the author have the will to continue further (they already put a lot of courage in it.)
If I may, regarding the "BUND" magic. I'm sorry to disappoint, but it's likely just "fourcc" (as in, a stirng that fits in an int32) for "bundle".
If I may, regarding the "BUND" magic. I'm sorry to disappoint, but it's likely just "fourcc" (as in, a stirng that fits in an int32) for "bundle".
Internal Photos from FCC ID, available without disassembly https://fccid.io/2AF77-H1931660/Internal-Photos/Exhibit-C-In...
I really hate how no big tech company is just making excellent hardware/software that people buy cus it's excellent. Everything (by big tech) seems to be some sort of sleazy scam nowadays.
When the Linux port is ready, Apple M1 laptops will (relatively) qualify as excellent perf/watt and interop with non-Apple OS.
There are cheap used HP/Dell thin clients based on the venerable AMD Puma SoC family found in the coreboot-based PC Engines APU2 (an excellent classic device which even has ECC memory).
Hardkernel (small company from Korea) ODROID M1 is a capable Linux SBC /w NVME.
There are cheap used HP/Dell thin clients based on the venerable AMD Puma SoC family found in the coreboot-based PC Engines APU2 (an excellent classic device which even has ECC memory).
Hardkernel (small company from Korea) ODROID M1 is a capable Linux SBC /w NVME.
If you're a tech-nerd then of course you can use your expertise to cobble together something excellent in the current milieu.
My point is that big tech FAANG-like corps never seem to sell anything nowadays that's just simply good out of the box without any sleazy scam-like caveats. That's a pretty sorry state of affairs.
It feels like we've taken one step forwards, one step backwards. Like in 80's you could buy a C64 which was just pure excellent right out of the box, but you had to be a bit of a tech nerd to buy one in the 1st place. Nowadays if you're a regular person and buy some popular computer you're buying into some sort of scam. You need to be tech-nerd to avoid the scam and get something good.
In 80's tech nerds had C64 and bbc micro and so on, and everyone else had nothing and just missed out competely on the magic of computing. Nowadays tech nerds have their own pc's and everyone else has iOS and Android and almost completely misses out on the magic of computing.
My point is that big tech FAANG-like corps never seem to sell anything nowadays that's just simply good out of the box without any sleazy scam-like caveats. That's a pretty sorry state of affairs.
It feels like we've taken one step forwards, one step backwards. Like in 80's you could buy a C64 which was just pure excellent right out of the box, but you had to be a bit of a tech nerd to buy one in the 1st place. Nowadays if you're a regular person and buy some popular computer you're buying into some sort of scam. You need to be tech-nerd to avoid the scam and get something good.
In 80's tech nerds had C64 and bbc micro and so on, and everyone else had nothing and just missed out competely on the magic of computing. Nowadays tech nerds have their own pc's and everyone else has iOS and Android and almost completely misses out on the magic of computing.
Sadly, modern businesses are often selling services rather than hardware.
> everyone else has iOS and Android and almost completely misses out on the magic of computing
If some of the iOS/iPadOS/Android people bought a ~$100 used PC, RPi or Linux SBC, they could use it as a relatively libre home "server/cloud" for learning. With Ubuntu and search engines, it's still somewhat possible to take vacations from walled gardens to visit magic computing castles that are open to user mods.
> everyone else has iOS and Android and almost completely misses out on the magic of computing
If some of the iOS/iPadOS/Android people bought a ~$100 used PC, RPi or Linux SBC, they could use it as a relatively libre home "server/cloud" for learning. With Ubuntu and search engines, it's still somewhat possible to take vacations from walled gardens to visit magic computing castles that are open to user mods.
This still assumes the person in question has the time or desire to tinker around with stuff. Not everyone is a tech geek who wants to tinker around with stuff. What the parent post is saying is these things are off-limits to those people.
Freedom isn't free. See Tim Wu's book "The Master Switch", with early telecom networks as a precedent, to understand why the glory days of general purpose computing were always likely to end, https://archive.ph/9BJ20
> “History shows a typical progression of information technologies,” he writes, “from somebody’s hobby to somebody’s industry; from jury-rigged contraption to slick production marvel; from a freely accessible channel to one strictly controlled by a single corporation or cartel — from open to closed system.” Eventually, entrepreneurs or regulators smash apart the closed system, and the cycle begins anew. The story covers the history of phones, radio, television, movies and, finally, the Internet. All of these businesses are susceptible to the cycle because all depend on networks..
On a positive note, the current U.S. FTC has been making antitrust noises about tech companies and platforms, after years of relative inaction. There's a nascent global effort to enshrine "right to repair" in consumer hardware regulations, which aligns with circular economy initiatives and hardware shortages.
On a negative note, humans have deployed IoT "slave helmets" for realtime geofencing and control of construction workers with few legal rights, i.e. restricting not just the computing hardware, but the human body of the user, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33675370
On a cage match note, banks and tech companies are at a 2023 global regulatory crossroads on the future of digital currencies, including crypto and CBDCs. The music/film industries led to DRM restrictions on consumer hardware. Now we have bank-vs-tech competition to be legal and physical custodian of private keys for digital currency wallets. How will that change computing hardware and supply chain security regulation?
> “History shows a typical progression of information technologies,” he writes, “from somebody’s hobby to somebody’s industry; from jury-rigged contraption to slick production marvel; from a freely accessible channel to one strictly controlled by a single corporation or cartel — from open to closed system.” Eventually, entrepreneurs or regulators smash apart the closed system, and the cycle begins anew. The story covers the history of phones, radio, television, movies and, finally, the Internet. All of these businesses are susceptible to the cycle because all depend on networks..
On a positive note, the current U.S. FTC has been making antitrust noises about tech companies and platforms, after years of relative inaction. There's a nascent global effort to enshrine "right to repair" in consumer hardware regulations, which aligns with circular economy initiatives and hardware shortages.
On a negative note, humans have deployed IoT "slave helmets" for realtime geofencing and control of construction workers with few legal rights, i.e. restricting not just the computing hardware, but the human body of the user, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33675370
On a cage match note, banks and tech companies are at a 2023 global regulatory crossroads on the future of digital currencies, including crypto and CBDCs. The music/film industries led to DRM restrictions on consumer hardware. Now we have bank-vs-tech competition to be legal and physical custodian of private keys for digital currency wallets. How will that change computing hardware and supply chain security regulation?
Thats interesting. That theory seems to fit with my experience at least. I will read that book cheers.
This might be unpopular, but the Google/Nest WIFI pucks are pretty decent. I'd wish for a configuration other than the crappy mobile app, and better family controls, but compared to anything than a self rolled DDWRT it's really good out of the box, and it does its own FW upgrades.
I want to believe it will be great but even when apple was x86, linux was barely functional on the modern systems (2018-).
Proprietary drivers for radio/sensors/audio were incredibly hard to get working and the blackbox security module they have made it nearly impossible to boot and use any peripherals. I was following somewhat closely for a long while and outside of hobby hacking, it was never a useable system from what I saw.
Do you know if it’s looking better in that regard for M1? I’ve been out of the loop.
Proprietary drivers for radio/sensors/audio were incredibly hard to get working and the blackbox security module they have made it nearly impossible to boot and use any peripherals. I was following somewhat closely for a long while and outside of hobby hacking, it was never a useable system from what I saw.
Do you know if it’s looking better in that regard for M1? I’ve been out of the loop.
There are a few positive signs, but of course we won't know for sure until it's done. The Apple Silicon approach involves firmware blobs (not good) with relatively stable interfaces (good for Linux maintainance, after the cost of initial port). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33155585
... Apple? People are certainly buying iPhones and M1/2 laptops due to sheer hardware excellence. And whatever criticisms you might have of Apple, "sleazy scam" seems hard to apply.
As for software, that's more a matter of personal opinion that people just disagree over. One person's excellence is another person's hard-to-use, another person's super-secure is yet another person's too-locked-down. There's really no winning.
As for software, that's more a matter of personal opinion that people just disagree over. One person's excellence is another person's hard-to-use, another person's super-secure is yet another person's too-locked-down. There's really no winning.
Apple charges 30%! That's an even bigger scam for a typical app store user than the bink single camera upcharge.
At least with Bink you get a service for that. With Apple you still need to pay the remaining 70% for the apps themselves.
At least with Bink you get a service for that. With Apple you still need to pay the remaining 70% for the apps themselves.
Well I was talking about the hardware side.
But no, charging 30% isn't a "scam". I mean, is Microsoft scamming people on Xbox games by taking an equivalent 30%? Is Sony also scamming with their 30% for Playstation games?
30% is industry-standard for app store distribution tied to hardware. And while you can argue maybe the percentage should be different, it's not a scam.
But no, charging 30% isn't a "scam". I mean, is Microsoft scamming people on Xbox games by taking an equivalent 30%? Is Sony also scamming with their 30% for Playstation games?
30% is industry-standard for app store distribution tied to hardware. And while you can argue maybe the percentage should be different, it's not a scam.
Of course it's a scam. Until they're finally forced to allow alternative app stores, it's the sleaziest scam.
The other scams you listed are also scams.
The other scams you listed are also scams.
No... that's not what the word "scam" means. A scam is something fraudulent.
There's nothing fraudulent about 30% app store commissions. It's out in the open.
If your grocery store makes a 30% profit on a packaged dessert it sells, do you think that's a scam too...??
There's nothing fraudulent about 30% app store commissions. It's out in the open.
If your grocery store makes a 30% profit on a packaged dessert it sells, do you think that's a scam too...??
I think it's fraudulent to "sell" a phone, but then limit it's use to only functions that the manufacturer can monetize.
That grocery store analogy isn't remotely similar to hardware that is being arbitrarily crippled to suit the manufacturer.
I would think it was a scam if the grocery store could somehow stop me from shopping elsewhere.
That grocery store analogy isn't remotely similar to hardware that is being arbitrarily crippled to suit the manufacturer.
I would think it was a scam if the grocery store could somehow stop me from shopping elsewhere.
They're not scams, they created a platform and that's how they fund it. Would you say there is a fair percentage? What are your thoughts on retail stores?
I'm against the war on general purpose computing. I'll leave it at that.
everyone said it well here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33684776
Just build a product that is excellent, without fuckery and small print.
everyone said it well here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33684776
Just build a product that is excellent, without fuckery and small print.
I don’t trust Amazon Alexa’s privacy standard, let alone a video camera.
I sometimes wonder what would the great dystopian writers of the 20th century make of the fact that people would one day say "hey telescreen, show me recipes for spaghetti" after buying it for the low low price of 49.99.
Amazon's Blink motion-detecting cameras don't have a hardware power switch..
https://safetywish.com/how-to-disable-blink-cameras/
https://safetywish.com/how-to-disable-blink-cameras/
i mean that kind of makes sense for a security camera, right?
If you get close enough to a CCTV camera that you can remove the panel covering the reset switch and network connection, you can just put tape over the lens.
For an indoor camera used by consumers? Perhaps they only want the security camera turned on when they are not at home.
Is there any other camera without an off switch, consumer or enterprise?
Is there any other camera without an off switch, consumer or enterprise?
I have a bunch of different cameras, nest, Wyze, Amazon - none have on/off switches. Just plug in USB for power and they start up.
At least they can be unplugged.
Simplisafe cameras have a powered privacy cover that physically blocks the lens.
Can I ask why?
You have every reason not to want a smart speaker that learns about your questions and prompts to give you better targeted ads.
You also have every reason not to want to buy a piece of hardware fundamentally dependent on a server-side service the company could choose to turn off at any moment leaving you with a brick.
But people seem to treat these smart speakers with the kind of suspicion that would only be appropriate if you actually thought the speaker was listening all the time to your everyday conversations to truly INVADE your privacy.
Which - maybe you would think about a random piece of junk from a disreputable company (if you ignore the monumental amount of bandwidth this would involve that would likely be infeasible).
But I feel like you can probably trust weirdly enough companies like Amazon and Facebook NOT to do this because of the colossal news story it would be.
The other reason I can imagine technologists on here to not trust smart devices is that they might be used as a weakspot to hack into your network. Again - I can see not trusting that from a random 3rd party, but Amazon knows how to create strong secure systems. If you trust Cisco or Asus or 3Com to buy a router from them, it's really no different.
You have every reason not to want a smart speaker that learns about your questions and prompts to give you better targeted ads.
You also have every reason not to want to buy a piece of hardware fundamentally dependent on a server-side service the company could choose to turn off at any moment leaving you with a brick.
But people seem to treat these smart speakers with the kind of suspicion that would only be appropriate if you actually thought the speaker was listening all the time to your everyday conversations to truly INVADE your privacy.
Which - maybe you would think about a random piece of junk from a disreputable company (if you ignore the monumental amount of bandwidth this would involve that would likely be infeasible).
But I feel like you can probably trust weirdly enough companies like Amazon and Facebook NOT to do this because of the colossal news story it would be.
The other reason I can imagine technologists on here to not trust smart devices is that they might be used as a weakspot to hack into your network. Again - I can see not trusting that from a random 3rd party, but Amazon knows how to create strong secure systems. If you trust Cisco or Asus or 3Com to buy a router from them, it's really no different.
Because everything you said in your own home will be stored somewhere forever, ready for dragnet batch processing, just waiting for an appropriate witch-hunt, wrongthink prosecution or whatever. It's possible to verify that a router doesn't ship your (presumably encrypted when you care) traffic somewhere for permanent storage, with these devices it's their exact job.
HUH? you realize the device only enables the microphone based on the wakeword, and only then starts sending traffic out.
This is easily verifiable, and has been done so multiple times by independent parties.
This is easily verifiable, and has been done so multiple times by independent parties.
>enables the microphone
The microphone is always listening, waiting for the wake word. If it can discern a wake word, it can speech-to-text everything (or will be able very soon), good luck noticing your daily <10kb of compressed text in what it sends up.
And this camera is a security camera, it's designed to send up video and audio 24/7.
The microphone is always listening, waiting for the wake word. If it can discern a wake word, it can speech-to-text everything (or will be able very soon), good luck noticing your daily <10kb of compressed text in what it sends up.
And this camera is a security camera, it's designed to send up video and audio 24/7.
If we're going to enter the land of "if it's possible (or not possible today, but possible very soon)", are you concerned with your router embedding such a capability? Your phone has a microphone. Are you concerned that Google or Apple are sending 10kb of compressed text daily after recording you all day?
If not, why not?
If not, why not?
> And this camera is a security camera, it's designed to send up video and audio 24/7.
Definitely not blink.
These cheapskates only stream like 10 seconds before prompting you "continue?"
Definitely not blink.
These cheapskates only stream like 10 seconds before prompting you "continue?"
The problem isn't even intentional spying, it's what data about you becomes available via the metadata saved from every day filtering.
In part 4 they try to figure out what BUND means, and have some really odd thoughts. It's probably just Bundle.
Does it have some sort of "secure" boot? If it doesn't, I might pick up a few to try to de-amazon it. The hardware does indeed look pretty cool.
Try duckduckgo or other search sites - google filters a lot of info.
> visible and infrared light
Can this render a nude body like Sony's did (by accident???)
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ad99e1a3930185817a...
Can this render a nude body like Sony's did (by accident???)
http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ad99e1a3930185817a...
I have been working on small motion camera devices like this using off-the-shelf parts, and getting 1080p to stream over wifi with arducams is nontrivial. There's a lot of special MCU features you need or you're effed: enough GPIO for the camera and the SDCARD, h.264 acceleration, enough RAM to run the LWIP stack and TLS (or crypto accelerator), zero wait-state memory. Trying to get good battery life is a whole different ball of wax. Hats off the companies that finally nailed this.
EDIT: Part 3 of this is truly impressive. OP decoded the IP used, and it came from freaking EVERYWHERE.
EDIT: Part 3 of this is truly impressive. OP decoded the IP used, and it came from freaking EVERYWHERE.
Nice blogpost not withstanding I dunno why anyone would bother with these, all consumer CCTV cameras are garbage as far as the hardware goes and that's what produces the image you presumably want to be using. A nice 1/1.8" or 1/1.2" Sony sensor costs some money, and a high resolution, achromatic (vis to ~1 µm) and fast lens does not stand up to the fractional-penny-shaving applied to consumer products. So you get shitty 1/3" or smaller sensors made by some backwater company with the cheapest lens someone could come up with.
That's why HN rocks
I hope the author will make the firmware available to others for research.
The author hasn't been able to pull the firmware off, and it's unclear if they possess the technical ability to extract the firmware over SPI.
The later posts show binwalk output and there are certs at the top of the binary. He’s never getting his own firmware to run. Fun hobby project for him I’m sure though.
*she / her
What are the chances that the firmware is signed?
Near 100%. If you look at the binwalk output in his later posts you can clearly see certificates as one of the first things in the binary. I’ll be shocked if this guy ever actually gets his own firmware to run here.
Her.
I've never really understood why Amazon doesn't want people hacking with their devices. If I were them, making a Really Hacker Friendly Device would boost sales hugely, as people would start making 'cool things' with it. All of their devices are incredibly tied down, however, despite the promise of relatively cheap computing (I don't own any of them, out of privacy concerns).
They don't make a profit on device sales. They want you to use their cloud services.
Apparently they aren't making enough money elsewhere either, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33680904
Chances are the public key is stored on the same flash, preventing sideloading of an OTA update, rather than physical access.
The easiest thing would be to buy some flash, desolder the existing flash and install their own flash. Certs won’t matter then.
If some form of secure boot is used, then replacing the flash won't work either. There is one-time writable storage inside the SoC itself is used for verification. You won't be able to get it back into a state where it accepts non-signed firmware without also replacing the SoC.
Ah, I didn't know that. That's actually pretty neat.
You're assuming that flash storage is the only thing to be concerned about in a secure boot scenario.
Assuming that the platform is even secure boot capable, you'd blow a fuse or similar at the factory to put it into production mode.
However even then, secure boot isn't infallible. Either they're implemented shoddily, or you end up power glitching past verification.
(I've seen a certain vendor who's name starts with Qualco... fail because they didn't remember that u-boot was... configurable.)
Assuming that the platform is even secure boot capable, you'd blow a fuse or similar at the factory to put it into production mode.
However even then, secure boot isn't infallible. Either they're implemented shoddily, or you end up power glitching past verification.
(I've seen a certain vendor who's name starts with Qualco... fail because they didn't remember that u-boot was... configurable.)
Firmware signature verification is almost done in mask ROM exactly to prevent this.
The contents are gone. What happened?
part 3: https://astrid.tech/2022/08/03/0/blink-mini-fw-analysis/
part 4: https://astrid.tech/2022/08/06/0/blink-mini-4/