Hacker Finds Kill Switch For Submachine Gun-Wielding Robot Dog (vice.com) 44
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: In July, a video of a robot dog with a submachine gun strapped to its back terrified the internet. Now a hacker who posts on Twitter as KF@d0tslash and GitHub as MAVProxyUser has discovered that the robot dog contains a kill switch, and it can be accessed through a tiny handheld hacking device. "Good news!" d0tslash said on Twitter. "Remember that robot dog you saw with a gun!? It was made by @UnitreeRobotic. Seems all you need to dump it in the dirt is @flipper_zero. The PDB has a 433mhz backdoor."
In the video, d0tslash showed one of the Unitree robot dogs hooked up to a power supply. A hand comes into the frame holding a Flipper Zero, Tamagotchi-like multitool hacking device that can send and receive wireless signals across RFID, Bluetooth, NFC, and other bands. A button is pushed on the Flipper and the robot dog seizes up and falls to the ground. Motherboard reached out to d0tslash to find out how they hacked the robot dog. The power supply in the video is an external power source. "Literally a 24-volt external power supply, so I'm not constantly charging battery while doing dev," d0tslash said.
d0tslash got their hands on one of the dogs and started going through the documentation when they discovered something interesting. Every dog ships with a remote cut-off switch attached to its power distribution board, the part of a machine that routes power from the battery to its various systems. The kill switch listens for a particular signal at 433mhz. If it hears the signal, it shuts down the robot. Some of the Unitree robot dogs even ship with the wireless remote that shuts the dog down instantly. d0tslash then used Flipper Zero to emulate the shutdown, copying the signal the robot dog's remote broadcasts over the 433MHz frequency. Anyone with a Flipper Zero or similar device can shut down these robot dogs, thanks to the work d0tslash has shared on Github.
In the video, d0tslash showed one of the Unitree robot dogs hooked up to a power supply. A hand comes into the frame holding a Flipper Zero, Tamagotchi-like multitool hacking device that can send and receive wireless signals across RFID, Bluetooth, NFC, and other bands. A button is pushed on the Flipper and the robot dog seizes up and falls to the ground. Motherboard reached out to d0tslash to find out how they hacked the robot dog. The power supply in the video is an external power source. "Literally a 24-volt external power supply, so I'm not constantly charging battery while doing dev," d0tslash said.
d0tslash got their hands on one of the dogs and started going through the documentation when they discovered something interesting. Every dog ships with a remote cut-off switch attached to its power distribution board, the part of a machine that routes power from the battery to its various systems. The kill switch listens for a particular signal at 433mhz. If it hears the signal, it shuts down the robot. Some of the Unitree robot dogs even ship with the wireless remote that shuts the dog down instantly. d0tslash then used Flipper Zero to emulate the shutdown, copying the signal the robot dog's remote broadcasts over the 433MHz frequency. Anyone with a Flipper Zero or similar device can shut down these robot dogs, thanks to the work d0tslash has shared on Github.
Cap'n Crunch? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Cap'n Crunch? (Score:5, Funny)
What else would you use to tame a submachine-gun-wielding dog than a sub-sub-woofer?
Re: Cap'n Crunch? (Score:2)
Re: Cap'n Crunch? (Score:2)
Re: Cap'n Crunch? (Score:1)
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A 433 millihertz whistle would be really large.
Don't you mean 433 millihourzentner?
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emits the proper signal at 433mhz.
In Northern Calif they prohibit amateur radio operating the 70 cm band because it could interfere PAVE PAWS. I see 433 MHz, an amateur TV freq when using a Drake video modulator set to CATV Ch 59.
Silly (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a Chinese knockoff IP-stolen from the Boston Dynamics design. Anything field-tested and designed for the military: a. won't have such a simple vulnerability, and b. won't have an AR-15 duct taped to its back. The tape will be made of a custom-fabricated titanium chassis and mil-spec grey tape, costing literally 10,000x per cubic foot. Duct tape will be used in the field once the $50M design gets sand in it and breaks.
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It's a Chinese knockoff IP-stolen from the Boston Dynamics design. Anything field-tested and designed for the military: a. won't have such a simple vulnerability, and b. won't have an AR-15 duct taped to its back.
Right, it'll have a long-barreled QCW-05 on a custom bracket, with some kind of expanded mag. (They carry fifty rounds in a double-double stack layout as it is.)
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>Duct tape will be used in the field once the $50M design gets sand in it and breaks
lol, been there. Duct tape holds the universe together
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won't have an AR-15 duct taped to its back
It's a Russian 9mm submachine gun, not an AR-15.
An AR-15 would make much more sense.
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The 9mm is adequate [tactical-life.com] at many ranges and it's a lot cheaper, and you (or a robot dog) can carry a lot more of it. There are now a whole bunch of 9mm carbines [gundigest.com] on the market (and some of them are even designed to convert over to other cartridges with a barrel change.)
(All links chosen off the top of the results, no affiliation.)
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The 9mm is adequate [tactical-life.com] at many ranges and it's a lot cheaper, and you (or a robot dog) can carry a lot more of it.
9mm is not cheaper than 5.56mm, nor is it lighter. The mass of either cartridge is about 12 grams.
5.56mm has a much longer range, more accuracy, and better penetration.
If the robot is with an American military unit, every grunt will know how to clean and repair an AR-15, which is nearly identical to an M-16 standard service rifle. The ammo is readily available, simplifying logistics.
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9mm is not cheaper than 5.56mm
Except it is, 5.56 is about half again more expensive.
play dead (Score:1)
WTF (Score:1)
Not to be confused (Score:5, Funny)
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Yeah, that is the problem with kill switches on killer robots... You never know if it will kill it or you.
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Not to be confused with the other kill switch that triggers it to start killing.
Not a problem. Just send wave after wave of your own men at them until they reach their limit and shut down.
Dude! What are you doing? (Score:2)
The PDB has a 433mhz backdoor.
Now they're just going to change the frequency to, like, 435 MHz ... #DontTellEmWeKnow
[ Seriously, there's like a 1000 frequencies in existence. :-) ]
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah but we'll find the new frequency - and we know the code now:
Zero Zero Zero Destruct Zero
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Seriously the frequency is irrelevant, except that you have to match what they used. What matters is the proper encoding and modulation, and the correct code (presumably 1-2-3-4-5.)
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Sounds like they made it deliberately easy to turn it off. It's even documented in the manual. That seems like a great idea for a consumer product.
The real question is how easy is it to hack it to perform some other action, e.g. aim or shoot.
Pffft, kill switch (Score:2)
I don't want to turn it off, I want it to switch sides. Far more useful.
And ironic.
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It has an ethernet port on its butt.
Just go out there with a weaponized Pi, plug it in after kill switching it, and push new firmware.
Put some adhesive hardware cloth over the vulnerable power board, and give it a slap on the ass when youre done.
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Well, I got 'funny', but let's try for informative.
You can get self adhesive wire mesh patches at automotive stores, and your local walmart. [walmart.com]
Reasonably cheaply too.
Good for when you need a faraday cage in a hurry.
This is the butt of the robot, with its exposed ports, which include USB and Ethernet ports. [alicdn.com]
Putting this thing in some mesh panties after making it your bitch should be straightforward and easy.
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Why do I have this mental image of a robodog in fishnet stockings?
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And what a terrifying image it is too!
Put some Pride stickers on to go with those sexy mesh panties, maybe a spiked collar or two, and watch every military commander fall all over himself in abject horror at what science has wrought.
Call it Frankfurter, the killer weiner dog..
Re: (Score:2)
Why not Frankenweenie?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1... [imdb.com]
Not to be confused (Score:2)
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Why the heck does a killer robot need triple monitor capability? (three USB ports, an ethernet port, three HDMI, and something that looks like either a GPIO or maybe a PATA port). That's a ridiculous amount of IO for a killer guard dog.
shoot it with a paintball machinegun (Score:3)
Lets add other with-a-computer/robot crimes (Score:2)
- Murder with a gun strapped on a robot. ...
- Felony of subverting killer robot to actually kill.
What about the one with the acid spitting machine (Score:3)
spiders? [imdb.com] Maybe Tom Selleck's mustache can time travel.
dogs ship with the wireless remote shuts the dog (Score:5, Insightful)
Dogs? (Score:2)
What, there's a shortage of sharks?
So the definition of "hacker" these days... (Score:1)
merger rumor not true (Score:2)