HN Explorer

Ask HN: Can anybody please explain this hack?

2 points by GWBullshit ↗ HN
Suppose you were having a conversation with a demonstrably capable hacker and it doesn't go so well, after which, the following happens:

- You hear what sounds almost like a power generator going off in the distance, except it's a "softer", more "bass"-boosted and buzzing sound and doesn't have that final "crackle" exploding sound at the end; more like a slowed-down version of the sounds leading up to that final "generator blew out during the storm" sound - During this, the light in your room noticeably dims for a brief moment, but then goes back to normal (the nearby cable TV box if fine, not rebooting or anything) - However, your laptop (Mac, if it makes a difference) that you reasonably recently updated the battery for at a reputable, licensed location inexplicably shuts off (no warning, no fan overheating sound (no fan at all, actually), not a lot of apps open to stress processor or memory - Your laptop at this moment was not just fully charged, but also plugged in - The laptop self-reboots, whereupon you notice your battery charge is now inexplicably "0%"; opening up the settings panel, the graph shows that your laptop was in fact fully charged until just a moment ago when the charge inexplicably nose-dived to "0%" (when that outdoor "power generator humming buzzing sound happened and the light dimmed) - This part didn't happen exactly this way and I don't want to go into details of how it did happen, but let's say something like this happened: Upon your laptop rebooting, let's say there is an open sticky note or a notepad app that inexplicably opens also and something like the following was typed in: "Hope you saved your work at (hour)(minute) on (day)(date)" – so basically you do not have doubts that "this was no accident"

My question is 2-fold: (1) How is it possible to instantly discharge your laptop's battery so that it goes from 100% to 0% in a split second, and, more importantly (2) how is it possible to rewrite your laptop's "whatever" so that if the battery suddenly has 0% charge, the hardware is reset to ignore the fact that it can draw power from also being plugged in?

I'm not expecting (though I'd love) any "As a hacker who used to do just this sort of thing to people, I know exactly how they did it" answers, but ANY ideas about how this may have been possible would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

23 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 53.7 ms ] thread
[dead] bigyabai
[flagged]
GWBullshit
Assuming you're serious and not just trolling, could you at least describe if it's possible to protect against such things and how?
[dead] bigyabai
[flagged]
GWBullshit
Perhaps you can, but can we please stick to the subject?
GWBullshit
OK, "I see"; lmao and all that good stuff
bigyabai
You gotta relax. Your submission history suggests that you jump to conclusions as a chronic habit. It's harmless to people like me who like playing with gulliable folks, but probably quite debilitating for you whether you realize it or not. You might want to talk with a doctor about it.
GWBullshit
You're not helping out very much and quite frankly now you're sounding a bit immature and come off as bragging that you're on the peak of the Hill of Stupidity of the Dunning-Krueger curve ("*I'VE* never had such experience, therefore it can't be possible and you're probably delusional, so "take meds, lol"). Thanks for your replies, I guess, but I have certain experiences with certain things so I know what I'm talking about, despite it seeming like "jumping to conclusions" to you; honestly you come across as a know-it-all college sophomore with that reply.
GWBullshit
And speaking of "Jumping to conclusions", you know NOTHING about me and what I do and who I associate with, work with, and sometimes antagonize or the level of technical proficiency they have.

I've personally seen them do things WAY beyond what I describe in this post, some so far beyond what most people would think is technically possible that simply describing it (without proof) would come off as highly-delusional to I suspect most of HN's readers/users.

So despite "they benched 800 pounds" seeming as "You're jumping to conclusions, go see a doctor" material to you, you're talking to someone that has seen them bench 3,000 lbs. (as an analogy).

NOW who's "jumping to conclusions" about what happened and whether or not this was technically-feasible?

baobun
This comment is an example of what GP said. They're just a (self-admitted) casual troll and you'd do better to dismiss them instead of emotionally overinvesting in their comments.

In this case the troll is showing you a rare act of kindness in trying to teach you a legitimately healthy lesson by breaking the fourth wall.

On the internet nobody knows you're a dog etc.

GWBullshit
I get it and thank you, and maybe it's just me since my time investment in HN was mostly during the period of it's founding until 2015 or so at the latest (this account obviously not withstanding). And perhaps I'm an old fart now an "things have changed, old man" and all that stuff. But honestly the reason I came here in the first place is that during that period, this place would be the LAST place on the internet to expect to encounter such childish behavior and in the past such replies would have been downvoted into oblivion. I guess I made the mistake in assuming that "2025 HN" is the same as it was back then; clearly I was wrong as I'm looking at the feed and seeing tons of quality posts with zero-to-miniscule interactions, which would have been unheard of "back in the day". It would seem this place has fallen off from how I remembered it.
GWBullshit
Also, just out of curiosity, when you say, "Your submission history suggests that you jump to conclusions as a chronic habit." ... can you clarify how you yourself infer that from a small series of submissions, only 2 of which has anything to do with "drawing conclusions", both of which clearly suggest the establishment of some sort of system to methodically reach conclusions?

Because otherwise you're just debasing yourself by not only engaging in ad-hominem attacks, but making up the basis for doing so.

bigyabai
If it would help, most sane individuals consider gematria to entail "jumping to conclusions" too. Ask anyone. With that in mind, all but your first three posts are grounded in genuinely relevant context for discussion. Everything else is delusional and impossible for me to follow (if that makes me more mentally ill than you, so be it).

I also checked out your subreddit yesterday, which is just... more of the same, married with political conspiracy theories.

> Because otherwise you're just debasing yourself

I suggest you take what the other comment said to heart. This is the most genuine concern I've shown for someone on this site. If I wanted to fuck with you I could still have all sorts of fun, but I'm telling you as a gesture of courtesy that you are unwell.

Take it or leave it. Most of this website won't bother telling you since they perceive people like you to be job security.

GWBullshit
"If it would help, most sane individuals consider gematria to entail "jumping to conclusions" too." I guess I would agree that 1-2 results may very well be; but 1-2 THOUSAND results, all equaling the same number and pointing to the same message readily lends itself to probability analysis. Which is something YOU obviously never considered while YOU obviously jumped to conclusions about the point I was trying to get across. Having said that, you'd be surprised what sort of people in what sort of places I've managed to convince that "Yes, there definitely seems to be something weird going on with this". So I don't have to "ask anyone" anymore because since some of the older submissions of this account that you seem to be referencing, I've found people in positions of influence that I've been able to influence the thinking of with this vector of analysis answering more of their questions than many other, quite expensive tools at their disposal seem to do. So, "Thanks for the unsolicited and unfounded opinion based on the sheer ignorance displayed by those camped out on the Hill of Stupidity of the Dunning-Krueger curve", but you can go ahead and keep that to yourself because it's not only of no use but not even relevant anymore to where I'm at these days.

"Everything else is delusional and impossible for me to follow". I see. So, again, to illustrate the mentality of those on the left side of the Dunning-Krueger curve (displaying severe Narcissistic personality disorder encompassing both unfounded overconfidence and disdain for making an effort to actually dive in and learn): "*I CAN'T* understand it, therefore *YOU* must be "delusional". Many such cases of sophomoric thinking in the world, you're neither unique nor interesting.

Also, as a thought experiment, imagine if everyone took the same approach to everything as you do, for example: Skip more elementary math courses, then one day burst into the middle of a course on number theory in the middle of a semester, sit there with your arms crossed (no doubt with a sneering, skeptical grin on your face) for a few minutes, then interrupt the class only to imagine you're blessing everyone there with a drop of what you no doubt consider to be your profound personal brand wisdom: "*I CAN'T* understand this, therefore YOU'RE all crazy, take meds, LOL!" while you peace out and do a 360º, walking out with what you assuredly think is a major "Ha-ha – I sure showed them!" victory notch on your belt (while everyone in your wake just looks at each other and slowly shakes their heads, ashamed of your over-the-top ignorance).

I was once like you a long time ago; the difference is I actually found flaws in the logic presented that stumped professors who went on to ask other professors who couldn't come back with a reply to the objections I raised. Or, in one case, a well-known mathematician who wanted to convince a roomful of financial professionals that his contribution to math could easily be extended to financial analysis ... but failed to first come up with an answer addressing a small but important part of the technical transition in doing so (ie, the old "(1) Idea, (2) "Something, something, something which we'll surely figure out later sometime", (3) Huge profits!!" The point being, I actually gave what was being presented some serious thought and found errors in the very logic being used to present the ideas and used their own logic to illustrate flaws in their logic. As in "slightly more effort than, "*I CAN'T* keep up with this, so *YOU* must be crazy, go see a doctor, LOL".

"I also checked out your subreddit yesterday, which is just... more of the same, married with political conspiracy theories."

That's your opinion and you're certainly entitled to it and kudos to you for venturing that far in your quest to stalk me. Having said that, "...

GWBullshit
>"I also checked out your subreddit yesterday, which is just ..."

How may I ask did you manage that?

Does it have something to do with satisfying your stalking curiosity by abusing this part of HN:

"Only admins see your email below."

...?

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
GWBullshit
Also, (if it makes any difference): I've had hacks happen before where the method used was to instantly spike the processor's heat to force an emergency shut-off (couldn't find any indications of sudden spikes in application memory/processor usage that would have explained this).

But this time the laptop temperature was perfectly normal and there was no indication of sudden heat spikes.

azail
Nice creative writing exercise. I hope you're not expecting serious answers though as this is rather daft, like a plot off a low budget film.
GWBullshit
A response from an account created just an hour ago (at the time of this reply) for seemingly no other purpose than to respond to this post with low-effort, ad-hominem crap is definitely something I will be taking very seriously.
GaryNumanVevo
If this actually happened, the best defense is buying a carbon monoxide detector and making sure it's tested regularly