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Ask HN: Tips for hacking a TV?

76 points fewgrehrehre | 3 comments | 16 Oct 24 03:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.02s | source

I've got a spare television lying around (specifically, a Samsung UN24H4500), and I thought it'd be fun to take a crack at seeing what I can do with it. The only hitch is that I've never really done any hardware hacking before, so I don't really know where to start!

Any tips and pointers would be much appreciated, in terms of common ways to search for and exploit vulnerabilities, or the exploitation of other televisions. Alternatively, if this is an absolute fool's errand, and the whole thing is locked down tighter than Fort Knox, a firm warning that this is not a good thing to dick around with over a weekend would also be appreciated.

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fph ◴[18 Oct 24 11:51 UTC] No.41878519[source]▶
Not an answer but a follow-up question: is there open firmware for TVs like Openwrt for routers? I have never heard of such a project, but it sounds like it would be useful.
replies(6): >>41878651 #>>41878663 #>>41878861 #>>41879017 #>>41884320 #>>41884336 #
1. jonwinstanley ◴[18 Oct 24 12:11 UTC] No.41878651[source]▶
Yes. I’d love this.

The software on tvs is awful. Plus many new tvs have ads baked in.

An open source OS would be a dream.

replies(1): >>41878942 #
2. phantomathkg ◴[18 Oct 24 12:49 UTC] No.41878942[source]▶
Software on TV (and worst, set top boxes) is awful is due to the fact that it is an under power CPU and limited memory. The app you saw is either web app in Webkit Embedded or similar embedded, Android app (Android TV) or Roku brightscript app.
replies(1): >>41879302 #
3. ◴[18 Oct 24 13:32 UTC] No.41879302[source]▶