News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground. Parent comment

Re:Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile recept... by Polylactic_acid on Monday October 12, 2020 @11:03PM (#24761847)
Bricking has never had a solid definition. The most useful definition is a product is bricked when the owner does not have the skills/time/money required to get the product in a working state. The product is a brick to them.

If you flash bad firmware on a device and overwrite the bootloader used for flashing, many would consider this a bricked device since they don't know how to use an SPI flasher to restore a working firmware. For others simply having a device that isnt fixable via a factory reset is bricked because they don't know how to flash via usb.

A car that has become software locked without a way to restore it is bricked imo.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile recept... by parliament32 on Tuesday October 13, 2020 @01:25PM (#24767671)
>Bricking has never had a solid definition.

Yeah, the definition is "turn it into a brick"/paperweight, hence the name. A "brick" in unrecoverable, as the name implies.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile recept... by Polylactic_acid on Tuesday October 13, 2020 @06:09PM (#24770902)
Unrecoverable is relative. If I wipe out the bootloader on a phone its unrecoverable because I don't know how to flash it directly to the chip and I don't have a copy of the bootloader to even flash. Its a brick because I will never be able to use the device again. If I send it off to the factory in china they could certainly restore the device to working condition again but it would cost more than a new device if they even accept my one off job.

If a DRM system triggers on a car and I can't disable it its now bricked if the dealer won't come and fix it.

[ Parent | on HN ]