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Researchers say they have found a hardware exploit with Tesla’s infotainment system that could unlock paid upgrades for free, including Full Self-Driving (FSD) and heated rear seats. They used a technique called voltage glitching, which involves tinkering with the supply voltage of the infotainment system’s processor.

“If we do it at the right moment, we can trick the CPU into doing something else,” Christian Werling told TechCrunch. “It has a hiccup, skips an instruction and accepts our manipulated code. That’s basically what we do in a nutshell.”

Werling is one of three doctoral students at the Technical University of Berlin who found the exploit with the help of an independent researcher. The team will present its work at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference next week.

Since it’s a hardware exploit, the process requires physical access to a Tesla vehicle. The jailbreak could enable FSD and certain other features, including in regions where Tesla has not yet made them available, the researchers claim. However, they noted that more work would be needed to test those possibilities.

Still, the researchers claim to have obtained the encryption key that authenticates the car over Tesla’s network, which could lead to them being able to unlock more features. They noted that they were able to obtain personal information from the test car too, including its recent GPS locations, contacts, call logs and calendar appointments.

For several years, hackers have been attempting to unlock paywalled Tesla features, and some efforts have been successful. More recently, one discovered a so-called “Elon Mode” for hands-free FSD operations. Tesla has been playing a game of cat and mouse with these hackers for years.

However, it would be much more difficult for Tesla to revoke this exploit, according to the researchers, given that it’s a hardware-based approach. They claim the company would need physical access to the car. Tesla does not have a communications department that can be reached for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/researchers-reveal-tesla-jailbreak-that-could-unlock-full-self-driving-for-free-190431645.html?src=rss 

Patreon said today it has fixed the root cause of a problem that led to creators and patrons seeing widespread rejected payments this week, and it’s still working to solve the larger problem. The funding platform confirmed to Engadget that financial institutions have flagged “a slightly higher-than-normal number of patron payments” as fraudulent. In addition, some creators said they’re unable to access their funds, which Patreon describes as an unrelated problem stemming from a partner update.

The company describes the inability to access payouts as only affecting “creators using a single payment partner,” which its system status page identifies as Payoneer. It says it’s working “actively with Payoneer to restore payouts” and expects to see the transactions restored today.

The problem gained attention after various Patreon users posted on social channels about losing supporters en masse. Many reported that Patreon’s billing information appeared to have recently shifted to Dublin, which some users speculated was the root cause of banks flagging the transactions as fraudulent. “I just checked and have lost 80% of my patrons,” Dr. Brooke Magnanti, author of Secret Diary of a London Call Girl, posted on Bluesky today. “Awesome.”

Meanwhile, Reddit user u/Competitive_Fruit901 wrote on Wednesday that they lost 300 patrons. “Billing messed up way more than usual this month,” u/Koratl replied. “A lot of people’s cards flagged Patreon as fraudulent.” Redditor u/arzen 353 chimed in, “Not only that, there’s no way to re-try payment once you authorize it with your bank. People can’t re-subscribe even if they want to. Apparently you just have to wait for patreon to un-fuck itself.”

Patreon tells Engadget that the Dublin billing location is likely related to a recent upgrade. “We made a required upgrade with one of our payment processing partners,” company spokesperson Ellen Satterwhite wrote in an email response. “That may have changed the descriptors people are used to seeing in their statements. We are working closely with this payment processing partner to resolve the issue.” Patreon doesn’t expect the flagged payments to be a long-term issue. “As a matter of course, when payment declines happen for various reasons, and payments are retried, those patron relationships are restored,” the company told Engadget.

The company added that it didn’t want to speculate about a timeline or specific actions for flagged transactions until it’s fully rolled out a fix. However, it expects to restore the payout issue today.

We’ll update this article as we receive more information. You can also check on Patreon’s status blog and its X (formerly Twitter) support account for updates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/patreon-is-fixing-canceled-payments-and-inaccessible-funds-for-creators-175319787.html?src=rss 

Nothing has only been around a few years, racking up successes in that time frame, and now the company is launching a sub-brand dedicated to affordability. Speaking during the company’s latest community update video, CEO Carl Pei announced CMF by Nothing, which promises “a new range of products that make better design more accessible” via low pricing.

CMF stands for “Color, Material and Finish” and already has a couple of products in the works, including a smartwatch and a pair of earbuds. Both items are set to arrive later this year, with actual details promised for the coming months. Pei says that CMF will set itself apart from its parent brand by focusing on “clean design” that’s “accessible,” whereas Nothing prioritizes a “premium” feel and “design innovation.”

Pei also noted that CMF is being run by a different team, so it won’t take too much attention from the primary brand’s line of smartphones, earbuds and thingamajigs. This is not the CEO’s first rodeo in the world of affordable sub-brands. Back when he was with OnePlus, Pei kickstarted the Nord sub-brand, which is still around and regularly releases budget-friendly smartphones, earbuds and smartwatches.

It’s worth noting that Nothing already wades in the waters of affordability. The Nothing Phone 2 is $600, which is much lower than rival flagship offerings, and the Ear 1 earbuds originally launched for $100, before the price raised to $150 due to increased material costs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nothing-announces-budget-friendly-sub-brand-readies-new-smartwatch-183712114.html?src=rss 

Instagram is making it difficult to flood your DM inbox. The social network is rolling out stricter DM request policies that, among other things, limits senders to a single message if you don’t follow them. You’ll have to accept the chat request before they can send anything more. DM requests are now limited to text, too. Creeps and spammers can’t send photos, videos or voice messages, in other words.

The company started testing the new DM restrictions in late June. The company already has some tools to combat spam, including a “Hidden Words” tool that hides messages with objectionable keywords and emoji. There are now filters for scams and spam. You can also safeguard against surges in DM requests, although that won’t stop the occasional spammer from getting through.

Instagram characterizes the move as a safety measure, particularly for women. The firm explains to TechCrunch that women frequently receive unsolicited nudes in their DMs. This effectively halts the practice, although it won’t stop harassers from sending crude text.

The addition comes as parent company Meta is facing pressure from politicians and critics to improve its anti-abuse measures, particularly for teens. A Senate bill would require parental consent for teens wanting to use social media apps, for instance, while Arkansas recently enacted a law requiring age verification. That’s on top of longstanding concerns that its anti-harassment policies haven’t always done enough to protect some demographics. Efforts like this theoretically head off some of the complaints that Meta is letting abuse through.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-fights-dm-spam-with-limits-on-text-and-photos-165013992.html?src=rss