One of Zidoo X9S media center‘s key features is its HDMI Input port with support for PVR, picture-in-picture, and video broadcasting over UDP. The company has come a long way since the implementation of HDMI input on Zidoo X9 TV box, which would only support PVR function, and exclusively work in the foreground. For this review, I connected K1 Plus T2 S2 Android TV box to the HDMI input of Zidoo X9S, and started HDMI In app.The first good news is that HDMI input does work, as we can see K1 Plus user interface preview inside Zidoo X9S’ HDMI IN app. Before testing all features, let’s go through the options for Video, Audio, and Output. You can select various video resolution up to 1080p, but I left it to Auto, which for this test meant 1080p. Framerate cannot be changed and is set to Auto, while bitrate ranges from 1M […]
How to Write ESP8266 Firmware from Scratch (using ESP Bare Metal SDK and C Language)
CNXSoft: This is a guest post by Alexander Alashkin, software engineer in Cesanta, working on Mongoose Embedded Web Server. Espressif’s ESP8266 had quite an evolution. Some may even call it controversial. It all started with ESP8266 being a WiFi module with a basic UART interface. But later it became clear that it’s powerful enough for embedded system. It’s essentially a module that can be used for running full-fledged applications. Espressif realized this as well and released an SDK. As first versions go, it was full of bugs but since has become significantly better. Another SDK was released which offered FreeRTOS ported to ESP. Here, I want to talk about the non-OS version. Of course, there are third-party firmwares which offer support for script language to simplify development (just Google for these), but ESP8266 is still a microchip (emphasis on MICRO) and using script language might be overkill. So what we […]
Hacking ARM TrustZone / Secure Boot on Amlogic S905 SoC
Amlogic S905 processor used in many Android TV boxes and ODROID-C2 development board implements ARM TrustZone security extensions to run a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) used for DRM & other security features. However, Frédéric Basse, a security engineer, worked with others and managed to bypass secure boot in one Amlogic S905 powered Android TV box, namely Inphic i7, but any other device based on the processor would have made the same thing possible. He explains the steps they went through and how they managed to exploit vulnerability to bypass secure boot in a detailed technical blog post. They first started by looking for info in Amlogic S905 datasheet, but most info about TrustZone had been removed from the public version. So not that much help here except a potential address for BOM Root (ROMBOOT_START 0xD9040000). The next step was to connect the UART pins in order to access the […]
Routers, IP Cameras/Phones & IoT Devices can be Security Risks even with the Latest Firmware, and a Strong Admin Password
I’ve just read an interesting article entitled “who makes the IoT things under attack“, explaining that devices connected to the Internet such as router, IP cameras, IP Phones, etc.. may be used by Botnet to launch DDoS attacks, and they do so using the default username and password. So you may think once you’ve updated the firmware when available, and changes the default admin/admin in the user interface, you’d be relatively safe. You’d be wrong, because the malware mentioned in the article, Mirai, uses Telnet or SSH trying a bunch of default username and password. That made me curious, so I scanned the ports on my TP-Link wireless router and ZTE ZXHN F600W fiber-to-the-home GPON modem pictured below, and installed by my Internet provider, the biggest in the country I live, so there may be hundred of thousands or millions of such modems in the country with the same default […]
Xtream Codes IPTV Panel Review – Part 2: Movie Data Editing, Security, Resellers, Users and Pricing Management
Dear readers, after part 1 of Xtream Codes Panel v.2.2.0 EVO review, here is part 2. I tried hard to get all in two parts, but “to be exhaustive” there will also have to be a part 3… Movie Editing Section As we can see, it’s only possible to assign a movie into a single category, a SELECT BOUQUET Option under the Category would be more then useful. So while Movie Editor Section is useful right now, it still needs improvement. Also taking each movie by hand for editing, after, for example, a Main server crash or changing the Main, is really something, a waste of time. Some of the issues / possible improvements include: No mass edit of movies to bouquets If changing the category of a movie, I found no working method to change in a bulk.. Even if I tried to delete the “content” of a bouquet, […]
How to check HTTP Header and Connection Stats from the Command Line
A few days ago, I discussed with somebody whether a file was cached by Cloudflare or not, and this involved getting the HTTP header, and checking for CF-RAY field to see if data is going through one of Cloudflare data centers. This can be done with curl:
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curl -svo /dev/null http://www.cnx-software.com * Rebuilt URL to: http://www.cnx-software.com/ * Trying 104.28.19.95... * Connected to www.cnx-software.com (104.28.19.95) port 80 (#0) > GET / HTTP/1.1 > Host: www.cnx-software.com > User-Agent: curl/7.47.0 > Accept: */* > < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2016 09:57:17 GMT < Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 < Transfer-Encoding: chunked < Connection: keep-alive < Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d90ff49c11865e8fda1331c2977559f521475488637; expires=Tue, 03-Oct-17 09:57:17 GMT; path=/; domain=.cnx-software.com; HttpOnly < X-Powered-By: PHP/5.5.9-1ubuntu4.19 < Expires: Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT < Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0 < Pragma: no-cache < X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge < Link: <http://www.cnx-software.com/wp-json/>; rel="https://api.w.org/" < Server: cloudflare-nginx < CF-RAY: 2ebf876da273114d-SIN < { [2307 bytes data] * Connection #0 to host www.cnx-software.com left intact |
In the command above, -s stands for silent so that curl does not show the progress meter, -v stands for verbose to show the header, and -o /dev/null is used to discard the packet load. You can also use -I option (fetch the HTTP-header only) with curl, which – if all you need is the HTTP header – provides a cleaner output:
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curl -I http://www.cnx-software.com HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2016 10:06:51 GMT Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Connection: keep-alive Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d4dda8a9ec8370cf0950d26e5faf37cc21475489211; expires=Tue, 03-Oct-17 10:06:51 GMT; path=/; domain=.cnx-software.com; HttpOnly X-Powered-By: PHP/5.5.9-1ubuntu4.19 Expires: Wed, 11 Jan 1984 05:00:00 GMT Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0 Pragma: no-cache Set-Cookie: bb2_screener_=1475489211+1.1.174.2+1.1.174.2; path=/ X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge Link: <http://www.cnx-software.com/wp-json/>; rel="https://api.w.org/" Server: cloudflare-nginx CF-RAY: 2ebf9574c129081d-SIN |
I also came across httpstat Python script recently via n0where, doing much of the same thing, except it also adds transfer statistics. It can be installed by downloading httpstat.py, or better using pip:
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sudo pip install httpstat |
Let’s try it with this very […]
Rikomagic MK22 Octa-core Android TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown
Rikomagic became a much better known company when they launched MK802 TV stick in 2012, and over the years they’ve kept introducing new products, and I’ve just received a review sample of their latest Rikomagic MK22 octa-core Android TV box powered by Amlogic S912 processor. I’ve posted photos of the device and its accessories, and check out the hardware design in the first part of the review, before testing Android 6.0 firmware in the second part in a few weeks. Rikomagic MK22 Unboxing I received MK22 in its black and white retail package. The back of the package details the main features, and the hardware specifications. Instead of printing a user’s manual that anybody will hardly read, the company instead printed a QR Core to MK22 user’s manual download link. The TV box ships with a 5V/2.5A power supply, an HDMI cable, and an IR remote control that looks the […]
Review of Allo Vana Player Linux HiFi Audio System with Max2Play, SqueezeBox and Kodi
Last month I showcased what I called “Allo Sparky Audio Kit” with a DAC board (Piano), an amplifier board (Volt), and usually hard to find reclocker and capacitance multiplier boards (Kali & CM), all connected to Allo Sparky ARM Linux development board powered by Actions Semi S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor, and running Ubuntu 12.04. In the first post, I just described the boards, and showed how to assemble the kit, but now that I have received the user’s manual, it turns out the kit is actually called “Vana Player” and the provided Ubuntu firmware image runs Max2Play Browser based system that’s also available for Raspberry Pi and ODROID boards. Before starting the kit, you’ll need to connect speakers to Piano DAC board and/or Kali board, as well as a 19.5V power source such as a laptop power supply to connect to the CM board. I connected some USB […]