Firmware is simply internal software for a particular component. Its “task” is the correct management of said component, making it possible to give the best possible performance. Within an SSD, it would be managing the reading and writing of data within the drive’s memory.
Despite the fact that for some years the security of processors has been investigated more, in a computer there are many other components. SSDs are not usually taken into account when looking for vulnerabilities.
music for storage
Nicholas Starke, a security researcher, has been investigating vulnerabilities in Kingston SSDs. You have opened the firmware of the KC2000 SSD drive, to see if there were any problems. But I know has found with an unexpected surprise, the Lyrics to a Coldplay song.
Faced with this unexpected surprise, Starke has contacted Bleeping Computer. The idea was to talk about the appearance of this song, by surprise, within the firmware of the SSD drive.
Starke told Bleeping Computer that “I have no idea why it’s in the firmware.” In addition, he has said that in his years as a security researcher and reverse engineering work “I have not seen anything like it.”
Obviously, Bleeping Computer could not shed light to this discovery. The only reason they have given is that it could be “sample data for testing”, but they cannot guarantee that either. Kingston has not commented on this curious find either.
Specifically, he has found part of the lyrics of The Scientist of the group Coldplay. This letter is inside the file S2681103.bin and when opening it with a hexadecimal editor, you can see the letter of the group.
About the Kingston KC2000, this was released in early 2020. The drive is characterized as offering “improved performance in some QD1 workloads”. Absolutely nothing is mentioned in the note the presence of Coldplay’s lyrics. It remains to be seen if it is something accidental or if it really is an “easter egg” inside this SSD.
We’re going to have to start digging
Last month it was announced that the Bitcoin Whitepaper was being included in Apple teams. Specifically, a copy of this document is included in versions of MacOS since 2018. Apparently, Apple has removed this file from their computers through an update.
Right now, most likely, many are starting to look for strange things within the firmware or their equipment. Chances are if the searches increase, we’ll see more weird stuff popping up out there.
As long as it is this “bullshit” there is no problem, it is fun and it serves to give us a laugh. Now, as sensitive data, leaks or security holes start to appear, the laughs will stop with a bang.
