“While hacking a wireless presenter doesn’t sound like something worthwhile or interesting, [Niels Teusink] demonstrates that these little devices often are a lot more powerful than we give them credit.With an Arduino, plenty of research, and some heavy sniffing of a wireless presenter’s SPI and then wireless interface [Niels] is able to emulate an entire keyboard. Sending commands as harmless as “next slide” to the devastating “[Win+R] Format C:”. Hopefully anyone planning such a project at the next Apple or Microsoft keynote just intends some gentle fun.”
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- NETGEAR RangeMax Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNDR3700 Review @ Madshrimps
- Insignia NS-WBRDVD Review @ Digital Trends
- Acer and Asustek complete digesting netbook inventory @ DigiTimes
- Microsoft Patch Tuesday for July 2010: four bulletins @ Ars Technica
- Google Voice @ Computing on Demand
- Micro SIM card cutters for imported iPhone 4 users @ FunkyKit
- Joby Gorillatorch @ CCE Reviews
- New Forums Giveaway! @ ThinkComputers
Should you trust that hand wireless presentation remote control?
If you weren’t aware previously, you definitely should realize that the signals wireless keyboards send are rather easy to intercept and crack. The way they are encrypted allows a dictionary attack to break the code within the character limit for a Tweet. In many cases that would only allow someone to know how often you circle strafe but can also be a major concern when it comes to passwords. Another recently broken encryption is the one protecting wireless presenters, those handy devices used to move PowerPoint slides in corporate presentations forward. A little gadget that is relatively easy to make and program will let you remap the keys on the presenter to something more interesting. While Hack a Day suggests that a mapping of “[Win+R] Format C:” is certainly possible , there are many other amusing and less destructive commands you could choose to use.