Comment on Undocumented 'Backdoor' Found In Chinese Bluetooth Chip Used By a Billion Devices.

RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• embed_me@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The article is talking about the Espressif ESP32 micro controller (has Wi-Fi/Classic Bluetooth/BLE).

  I don’t know if the variants of this chip also have the same vulnerability (my guess is yes). As someone who works on this chip, I’m interested in more discourse on this matter.

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  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Yeah, I caught the ESP32 part and tried to search for what devices these chips were built into, but couldn’t find one. I was curious how widespread the flaw was.

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    • walden@sub.wetshaving.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The Tasmota firmware documentation has a decent list, but it’s limited to devices that are known to be flash-able so you can install custom firmware on them. templates.blakadder.com

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      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Thanks, that’s a pretty short list - as you said it’s limited.

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    • embed_me@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Oh those kind of devices. Its very popular for hobbyists and self-designed devices or cheap IoT products. Don’t know the market presence outside Asia but its quite popular in India due to its low cost.

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  • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’d also like to hear more. I have at least a dozen of these in my house.

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• ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  That’s like saying “I want a list of all devices with ATmega328P.” Anyone can make a uniqurdevice with this chip as the processor, in fact I have. It’s a chip with an extremely low barrier of entry thanks to extensive documentation, lots of dev boards and libraries. Not as low as the 555 (lots of people’s first IC) but WAY lower than anything you’d traditionally consider a 32-bit CPU.

  Anyway, even if you obtained the list magically, it would be of little use. To be clear: this is not an exploit. The chip just has more instructions than previously thought – instructions that you write into your program when building an ESP32 device. This can make some programs a little faster or smaller but you still need to flash them onto the microcontroller – using physical access, OTA (if you set it up in the existing FW) or some exploit (in someone’s OTA implementation, perhaps).

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  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    So your argument is what? We shouldn’t have a list because the chip is user friendly?

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    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      No. I’m saying you cannot have a complete list because the chip is user friendly. Look at all the “ESP32 project” results in the search engine of your choice if you want an incomplete list. Unlike say the Apple M1 processor, you don’t need a contract with the manufacturer to make a device with the chip so not even Espressif has a list of commercial products that ship with their chip.

      Anyway, there is no use of a list resulting from this news. Suppose I told you “LOOK! This device’s firmware was compiled before they knew the program might be .1% more efficient with this instruction discovered in 2025!” – would that really change how you feel about the device? Most software has way higher overhead that could be optimized away.

      However, lots of people will fail to realize that, again, this is not an exploit so I’ll enjoy lower ESP32 prices for future home automation projects.

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      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Dude, do I really need to pedantically qualify my question with “I would like a list of manufactured devices produced for sale with the chip already integrated, not hobbyist or ersatz devices in limited quantity? Nobody needs that, and a reasonable person would understand I’m not interested in what joe schmoe built in is garage.

        C’mon, it’s like you’re looking for an argument. No shit we can’t have a list of every device based on your criteria, but we can reasonably expect to know what manufactured large-run devices do have it, and I think that’s a reasonable take on my question.

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