Ask HN: Can anybody please explain this hack?
23 comments
Also, (if it makes any difference): I've had hacks happen before where the method used was to instantly spike the processor's heat to force an emergency shut-off (couldn't find any indications of sudden spikes in application memory/processor usage that would have explained this).
But this time the laptop temperature was perfectly normal and there was no indication of sudden heat spikes.
But this time the laptop temperature was perfectly normal and there was no indication of sudden heat spikes.
Nice creative writing exercise. I hope you're not expecting serious answers though as this is rather daft, like a plot off a low budget film.
A response from an account created just an hour ago (at the time of this reply) for seemingly no other purpose than to respond to this post with low-effort, ad-hominem crap is definitely something I will be taking very seriously.
If this actually happened, the best defense is buying a carbon monoxide detector and making sure it's tested regularly
[deleted]
bigyabai(1)
- You hear what sounds almost like a power generator going off in the distance, except it's a "softer", more "bass"-boosted and buzzing sound and doesn't have that final "crackle" exploding sound at the end; more like a slowed-down version of the sounds leading up to that final "generator blew out during the storm" sound - During this, the light in your room noticeably dims for a brief moment, but then goes back to normal (the nearby cable TV box if fine, not rebooting or anything) - However, your laptop (Mac, if it makes a difference) that you reasonably recently updated the battery for at a reputable, licensed location inexplicably shuts off (no warning, no fan overheating sound (no fan at all, actually), not a lot of apps open to stress processor or memory - Your laptop at this moment was not just fully charged, but also plugged in - The laptop self-reboots, whereupon you notice your battery charge is now inexplicably "0%"; opening up the settings panel, the graph shows that your laptop was in fact fully charged until just a moment ago when the charge inexplicably nose-dived to "0%" (when that outdoor "power generator humming buzzing sound happened and the light dimmed) - This part didn't happen exactly this way and I don't want to go into details of how it did happen, but let's say something like this happened: Upon your laptop rebooting, let's say there is an open sticky note or a notepad app that inexplicably opens also and something like the following was typed in: "Hope you saved your work at (hour)(minute) on (day)(date)" – so basically you do not have doubts that "this was no accident"
My question is 2-fold: (1) How is it possible to instantly discharge your laptop's battery so that it goes from 100% to 0% in a split second, and, more importantly (2) how is it possible to rewrite your laptop's "whatever" so that if the battery suddenly has 0% charge, the hardware is reset to ignore the fact that it can draw power from also being plugged in?
I'm not expecting (though I'd love) any "As a hacker who used to do just this sort of thing to people, I know exactly how they did it" answers, but ANY ideas about how this may have been possible would be greatly appreciated, thank you.