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Subject: 
Re: Off topic: secure channel to the RCX
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Tue, 22 Feb 2000 13:09:42 GMT
Viewed: 
918 times
  
Stephen P. Gibbons <lego-robotics@crynwr.com> wrote:
What follows in this message will probably appear quite strange
to many of the readers on this list, and I apologize in andvance,
and encourage you to delete/skip this message if it seems too
whacky.

It occured to me that one of my favorite toys, the Lego
RCX has a horribly insecure data/code transfer mechanism
(plaintext over IR), and that if I ever entered my constructed-
of-Lego robot into a contest with serious competition (like the
NSA, or more likeley some equally well funded coompetition
with furiners that were backed by their own government),
that I might lose the competition because they had subverted
my software on the robot, and replaced my wizardly coping-
with-mazes code with "follow the wall on your right side" code.
(Hopefully they at least optimized the RHR better than I have,
and I might see an  improvement in the 'bot's performance...  ;-)

:-)))

Two ideas:
1) software protection: use legOS or pbForth or QC instead of standard
firmware.
2) hardware protection: build a barrier of solid bricks around the IR
receiver of your RCX to insulate it from intereferences. To be applied
*after* you downloaded your code and before entering the contest :-)

Mario

Web page: http://www.geocities.com/~marioferrari
LUGNET member page:  http://www.lugnet.com/people/members/?m=22
Proud member of ItLUG: http://www.itlug.org



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Off topic: secure channel to the RCX
 
(...) Yeah, that's what I was originally thinking of. (...) And since the barrier would be made of bricks, one _could_ say that this that this construct should be lumped in with everything else that calls itself a fire_wall_... :-) The drawback to (...) (25 years ago, 22-Feb-00, to lugnet.robotics)
  Re: Off topic: secure channel to the RCX
 
A better solution, Mario : Modify LegOS to be programmed not via IR, but directly by pressing the four buttons directly onto the RCX :-) Anyway, this lets open a discussion onto "how to" make changes to the RCX's IR protocol, and have a way to (...) (25 years ago, 22-Feb-00, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  Off topic: secure channel to the RCX
 
What follows in this message will probably appear quite strange to many of the readers on this list, and I apologize in andvance, and encourage you to delete/skip this message if it seems too whacky. It occured to me that one of my favorite toys, (...) (25 years ago, 22-Feb-00, to lugnet.robotics)

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