GPT-6 Astra Helped Me Jailbreak My Kindle

(nirajrajgor.com)

65 points | by nirajrajgor 1 hour ago

10 comments

  • tekacs 39 minutes ago
    While everyone has been worried about it becoming too easy to hack into things, something I've been worried about for the last few years is it becoming too hard to hack into things. Right now, all of these things are being broken into to be jailbroken and such, but the companies building these hardware devices have access to the models too.

    It seems like a distinctly possible and sad world that they might get so much better at keeping their devices locked down by hardening them with the support of LLMs that future devices become an absolute bitch to jailbreak, even moreso than they were before.

    • Zak 3 minutes ago
      If by "secure" you mean keep owners from using a device in whatever way they wish, then I hope whoever made that decision fails, and I wish them discomfort and inconvenience as karma for the attempt.
    • lwansbrough 29 minutes ago
      I don’t think it’s symmetrical. As a company, in a lot of cases, you get one shot to secure the thing. And then all owners collectively then get infinite time to jailbreak it.
    • SamInTheShell 20 minutes ago
      Nah, we just start opening the phones, cutting off some PBC patches, soldering some wires, and intercepting/synthesizing signals live. Keeping phones locked is just a zero sum game.
      • bigyabai 16 minutes ago
        Not to tempt fate here, but this is why eFuses were adopted at the SOC-level.
    • toddmorey 18 minutes ago
      Is it just entirely unprofitable to sell hardware devices unsubsidized without locking it all into restrictive ecosystems & services?
    • usernomdeguerre 5 minutes ago
      if so that seems to make 'right to repair' all that more of an imperative.
    • SaltyBackendGuy 22 minutes ago
      I would think the more viable path (in the US) would be the legal system. i.e. Amazon pressuring frontier labs to add "safeguards" to protect their IP.
    • Synthetic7346 26 minutes ago
      I'm all for allowing tinkering on a Kindle, but my pacemaker is off limits
    • dyauspitr 30 minutes ago
      What you’re essentially saying is right now we have weak human written code that might have some vulnerabilities, but something written by a frontier LLM may not have those.
      • theLiminator 24 minutes ago
        Not exactly imo, you could spend a crapton of money with white box pen testing with a bunch of frontier llms, and it might become a bunch harder to break into (it generally costs more to attack than it does to defend). Not to mention formal verification might become possible for more devices which might make it nearly impossible to find exploits.
        • airstrike 20 minutes ago
          I doubt management will throw away margins to harden every device
    • sieabahlpark 34 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • fn-mote 20 minutes ago
    The write up says it used an existing jailbreak.

    It sounds like most of the work went into getting the slideshow to work, setting up a feedback loop so Astra could work out / blunder into a solution with the desired characteristics.

  • 9cb14c1ec0 10 minutes ago
    Opus 5.5 has built Lineage ROMs for me for 3 different devices in the last couple of weeks, that do not have official Lineage support or any one else working on them.

    https://github.com/9cb14c1ec0/android_device_lenovo_sycamore...

    https://github.com/9cb14c1ec0/android_device_tcl_selene_vzw

    https://github.com/9cb14c1ec0/android_device_lenovo_clove_ro...

    Quite impressive what these models are capable of.

  • Feuilles_Mortes 3 minutes ago
    claude code helped me get access to the raw files from a scientific instrument we use in the lab all the time, but which won't give us raw data (only PDF reports). claude asked me for the .exe, which it promptly decompiled and reverse engineered the data format, and then helped me write my own analysis suite for the raw data. super cool.
    • boldlybold 2 minutes ago
      Hell yeah. What instrument?
  • brunomarinho 56 minutes ago
    I was able to do something pretty similar w Claude Code 4 months ago w Opus 4.8 (https://github.com/brunomarinho/labs-kindle-artframe). It took a few attempts as Claude understands that jailbreaking is not legal.
    • hectdev 15 minutes ago
      I find that fascinating because I was able to get Claude to jailbreak my Kindles and add them to my tech ecosystem at home. I also was able to get it to use jailbreaking hacks on my Spotify car thing and implement some alternative ways for my raspberry pi to drive it.
    • georgemcbay 53 minutes ago
      In the US, jailbreaking is generally legal.

      Claude is just a lil bitch.

      • iknowstuff 24 minutes ago
        Yes! I had it refuse on a similar claim of legality and when challenged to say what law forbids it it proceeded. Lil bitch.
      • arcanemachiner 24 minutes ago
        You just have to get it in the mood.
      • bigbaguette 27 minutes ago
        One more reason why regulation/market capture shouldn't be happening and leave the world reliant on one or two actors
  • kriskrunch 40 minutes ago
    This is what I used to jailbreak mine: https://kindlemodding.org/jailbreak-wizard.html
  • techblueberry 57 minutes ago
    It will be curious how anti regulation all these execs are when they start losing money.
  • areoform 39 minutes ago
    Just a quick reminder, you have the legal right to "jailbreak" devices that you own. This is a recognized exemption and a right that has been fought over in court.

    It is your device. It is your money. You own it.

    From the Federal Register, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/28/2024-24...

        > 9. Computer Programs—Jailbreaking [47] 
        > 
        > Multiple organizations petitioned to renew the four exemptions for computer programs that enable electronic devices to interoperate with or to remove software applications (“jailbreaking”). These exemptions permit circumvention for the purpose of jailbreaking (1) smartphones and other portable all-purpose computing devices, (2) smart televisions, (3) voice assistant devices, and (4) routers and dedicated networking devices. No oppositions were filed against renewal. The petitions demonstrated the continuing need and justification for the exemption and that petitioners have personal knowledge and experience with regard to this exemption. Petitioners described how users of a variety products in each of these categories rely on this exemption to maintain functionality and security of older devices, to install alternative operation systems, and to customize software applications on electronic devices. Collectively, the petitions demonstrated that without this exemption, TPMs installed on the enumerated products would have an adverse effect on various noninfringing uses.
    
    and

        > 11. Computer Programs—Repairs of Devices Designed Primarily for Use by Consumers [51] 
        > 
        > The Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”) petitioned to renew the exemption for computer programs that control devices designed primarily for use by consumers for diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of the device. The Office did not receive meaningful opposition to renewal.[52] 
        > 
        > The petitioners demonstrated the continuing need and justification for the exemption. For example, EFF asserted that “[m]anufacturers of these devices continue to implement technological protection measures that inhibit lawful repairs, maintenance, and diagnostics, and they show no sign of changing course.” [53] 
        > 
        > EFF has personal knowledge of this exemption, as it has been involved with the section 1201 rulemaking process since its inception and has specifically advocated for device repair exemptions.
    
        
    
    I jailbroke my Kindle with GPT-5.5 Sol and made an external e-paper display for the long batches of text AI models generate on a regular basis.

    Here's the project! I MIT licensed it. https://github.com/areoformed/Re-Kindled

    Please note, I say so in the human note on top, but "The project code was written by GPT-5.6 Sol xhigh. It has not been verified by a human for correctness, efficiency, or speed; i.e. ymmv and use this at your personal risk."

    In case you're wondering why I didn't write the code myself... I needed this as a tool to read long sequences of AI text output for work. Including code. Spending time making this tool would be counter-productive to that goal.

    I do plan on writing a text rendering engine some day. Hopefully, soon.

    Machine assistance also allows me to do things that would've been otherwise impossible.

    For example, I'm aware of NASA's 3001 standard for human-rated spaceflight systems has very specific findings related to readability of labels. There are also other standards for checklist and document readability. Asking software to support the standards wouldn't work. Most people just aren't going to use NASA's human rating checklist to design websites and terminal outputs. They either don't know about it, or don't care enough to do so.

    But machine intelligence makes it possible for me to extract NASA's learnings, turn them into requirements, and then have the machine custom build software that embeds it into my day-to-day life. I'm very grateful for that.

    The world is built to a very different tune, but machine intelligence allows me to re-fit it to me.

    • loloquwowndueo 27 minutes ago
      > The project code was written by GPT-5.6 Sol xhigh. It has not been verified by a human for correctness, efficiency, or speed; i.e. ymmv and use this at your personal risk.

      In an age where everyone has access to AI, AI-written code has zero value. You should share the prompt or ask your agent to write a document other people’s agents can use to reimplement the code from scratch and/or customize to their specific needs.

      • gmzamz 1 minute ago
        the ai can just read the code? when your prompt is 'jailbreak my kindle' (example) and it takes X hours, obviously the working code that jailbreaks the kindle is worth more than the 3 word prompt.
      • asa123 14 minutes ago
        come on man, it has significantly reduced value, but your comment assumes that if any two people input the same prompt (or sequence of prompts) they would get the same working answer, where its very much possible he had some sequence of guiding, and the thing he is sharing is a working product. which has more value than a prompt that may produce a working product some of the time...
  • zb3 1 hour ago
    Meanwhile Opus 5.5 didn't even answer my question about reading user memory in a linux die notifier, a question which had nothing to do with security, just low-level system programming..

    Oh wait, the author said:

    > The attempts with Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5 were both blocked by Anthropic's cybersecurity safeguards after two prompts.

    How unsurprising :)

    • 361994752 54 minutes ago
      I have the opposite experience.

      Whenever I start checking a dump, the conversation with Sol won't last five rounds before it flags the work as cybersecurity-related. No matter what I do, the conversation gets cut off in the middle.

      Astra is even worse. It starts saying nonsense and even refuses to run a test that we know will cause an AV (as a repro for a nullptr case).

      Whenever that happens, I just switch to Opus to continue my work.

      • internet101010 46 minutes ago
        I only keep an OpenAI sub for Daybreak Blue at this point. It's pretty easy to get access to, but requires a Yubikey.
    • drivebyhooting 1 hour ago
      This is why I’ve gone all in on codex. I got tired of being patronized and coddled by Anthropic.
  • liquidbase 54 minutes ago
    [dead]