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Ask HN: Tips for hacking a TV?

76 points fewgrehrehre | 1 comments | 16 Oct 24 03:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.215s | 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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pabs3 ◴[18 Oct 24 23:19 UTC] No.41884360[source]▶
First step would be to contact Samsung and ask for the Linux kernel and other open source code for your TV. Without it you won't be able to replace the original OS properly. Also mention to them that they have to allow you to update Linux on the TV or they have to stop using Linux on their TVs.

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/mar/25/install-gplv2/

replies(2): >>41884624 #>>41886242 #
cr3ative ◴[19 Oct 24 07:23 UTC] No.41886242[source]▶
And how many times has this worked?
replies(1): >>41892494 #
1. pabs3 ◴[20 Oct 24 02:40 UTC] No.41892494[source]▶
Many times. OpenWRT is the most prominent example. Apart from SFC, in Germany, Harald Welte at gpl-violations.org was enforcing the GPL too for several years.

https://gpl-violations.org/