Fun_People Archive
29 Mar
A different kind of denial of service Mac Attack.

Date: Fri, 29 Mar 96 21:24:10 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: A different kind of denial of service Mac Attack.

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bsdi.com>
Forwarded-by: gknauth@BBN.COM
Forwarded-by: Gene Spafford <spaf@cs.purdue.edu>
Forwarded-by: hosking@netcom.com (Doug Hosking)

Hold onto your hats, Mac Technonerds!

1) Larry and Tracey came into the Mac Department today (3/24/96) at Micro
Center in Houston (Store #14), saying that their Sony TV Remote Control
turns their new Performa 6300 on and off.  The Performa was purchased at
this Micro Center last Thursday.

2) Also they reported that the sound on the Performa turned off on them
inexplicably last week, and now the menu bar blinks instead.

3) I asked them how far away from the store they lived, and could they bring
the remote and CPU in (service department is open on Sundays).  They did
that.

4) Their Sony remote turned on and off every Performa in the store, not just
their own!

5) Also, the "Mute" button on the remote clicked an "X" in the "Mute" box on
the Volumes submenu in the Sound control panel.  It took a little while to
discover this!

6) Store tech. guy (Lucas) says Infrared is not tunable, and disconnecting
it would also turn off the headphones and the volume control.  He taped
over the infrared port and is contacting Apple for further instructions.

7) The Sony TV Remote Control unit is Model # RM-V21.  It only powers the
Performa on and off when set to the "TV" channel.  But it mutes the
Performa on "TV," CBL," and "VCR."  Other channels are "AV1" and "AV2."
Of course YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

p.s.  If this info were generally known, think of the havoc that could be
played out in a lab of Performas by some miscreant with one of these remote
devices! Lots of unsaved ClarisWorks files would get lost, to say the least.

p.p.s Tracey thought at first it was a poltergiest, and was relieved that
there was a rational explanation.

p.p.p.s. Rumor has it that Sony makes the infrared assembly used in the
Performas.

© 1996 Peter Langston