3COM's Ergo Audrey Hacked

It looks like the 3COM Ergo Audrey hacking scene is finally taking off. A guy named Sowbug has hacked the 3COM Ergo Audrey to shell. He has pictures of it here(1) and here(2). Another site has opened to cover this hack, here(3). And of course the Linux Hacker messageboards are covering it quite a bit.

Audrey Discontinued

[canowhoopass.com]

I was on a search to figure out what an Audrey even was and found a discontinued notice on 3Com's site dated March 31. They say they discontinued all of their internet appliance line due to a lack of market.

Here [3com.com] is their End of Life Statement [3com.com].

Here [3com.com] is their product page [3com.com]

Here [3com.com] is their Q and A page [3com.com] regarding the discontinuation.

After looking at the specs I doubt I would have bought one anyhow.

Um

[sllort]

Ya, but what's an Audrey? [zdnet.com]

Sounds like 3Com has learned the lesson of the I-Opener. Nothing is impossible to hack, but at least this one is hard.

Proof?

[drc500free]

here [sowbug.com] is how he said he did it... Before we complain about borders not lining up, someone who understands this should give us a fair evaluation of his methodology

Re:Faked Screenshots

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks exactly like a QNX RTP pterm (photon term) to me...and that's what in the audrey. The top font is the default text font for all QNX windows (unless otherwise specified by the application).

The dirlist looks good too.

not to mention the fact that when he did some digging he came with QNX employees on the names of some binaries...which I know for a fact work there, since I'm also a QNX employee (and work with some of the names mentioned). The rest of the info he's put together looks pretty good as well (as in accurate).

Maybe you should check out the QNX RTP before claiming that these are faked up shots...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:hmmmm...

[variable]

Very easy, /proc on QNX Neutrino is not like /proc on Linux. In fact, on Neutrino the size of /proc is actually the amount of free physical memory in the system (looks like a little over 8M). And the shots are very "real" looking to me, install QNX somtime and checkout the normal terminal. And since the Audrey's look-n-feel is done via a UI plugin it is totally possible to get a window that looks like a normal QNX/Photon terminal.

Re:Faked Screenshots

[variable]

I doubt these are faked considering the fact that there is a directory named after the internal 3COM name of the project. :) I guess he could have worked @ QNX or 3COM and been smart enough to add that in - but I doubt it. :)

Re:Hey

[awx]

Right, I *know* this is redundant but as this is the first Wrong comment to reach +3 I will explain.

He did not install linux on his machine. He is using QNX.

He has got a shell running in QNX. It is natural for an OS with a GUI to put a title bar on its windows, is it not?

He got the shell running by adding a new web-page to the CF card which holds the Audrey OS, which had a link when clicked on bought up the shell.

For the people discussing "smudges" and 0-pixel misalignments: get a life. For the people that did not read the article: get a life.

It ain't Linux

[Innominandum]

I hate to break it to you, but this thing isn't running Linux. It's running QNX RTP which is a helluvalot better than that slow bloated dung pile Linux. So please don't add insult to injury by calling it that!

Some quick notes I made from a few links and about 2 minutes of reading:

- The fact that Audrey is 'hackable' is probably 3Com's (Audrey's makers) fault and not QSSL's (QNX's makers) fault. 3Com designed and packaged the system.

- If they used BeIA, Windows CE (or whatever) using the same design, it would be equally as easy to 'hack.'

- Doing this hack requires an Audrey flash ROM image. Something that is not widely available. So, unless you have connections like this guy did, it's probably not very easy to do.

Re:hmmmm...

[serial frame]

Also, under QNX, ls prints inodes that start with a '.' anyways.

A somewhat off-topic note, the proc filesystem drivers under QNX 6.0 are awkward--You can't chdir to a directory in /proc, and then ls. You must do 'ls /proc/dirname'.

disco'd

[linuxbert]

A search for the audrey on the 3com site reveals that the product has been discontinued, and will no longer be supported see http://support.3com.com/infodeli/tools/consumer/au drey/finalfaq.pdf [3com.com] so pickem up cheap now well you can