
- #High school story hack app software
- #High school story hack app code
- #High school story hack app password
- #High school story hack app Pc
- #High school story hack app tv
And a malicious hacker could have stolen data, moved through the systems, or used the access to try to cause harm. The students accessed networks they weren’t supposed to-a lawyer might call it “unauthorized access” under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. While the Big Rick was always intended as a high school prank-Duong says other pranks last year included students toilet-papering some trees-the hacking was very likely to be outside the law. The night before the Big Rick, the speaker system was set to automatically trigger in the afternoon.
#High school story hack app password
From here, the team discovered another admin account-the password was password-that could allow them to access the entire district’s speakers. Yes, the default had been changed-to a password example given in the user manual, which was available online. “I GOT THE PASSWORD TO THE PPA SYSTEM,” Shapes messaged the group on April 29. “The whole thing is script kiddies using default passwords and doing random stuff there.” But the defaults didn’t work. “It's not really like a sophisticated attack,” Duong says. Like the IPTV system, the group tried to access EPIC using default usernames and passwords. This controls the hallway and classroom speakers and is used for teacher announcements, fire alarms, and end-of-lesson bells. While scanning the district network (again) they found EPIC, the Education Paging and Intercom Communications system-the prank’s third component. Three days before the rickroll, with most of the setup prepared, the group had a breakthrough. “I would record a video to test if the projector displayed the stream correctly,” he says, posting a video of the setup.
#High school story hack app Pc
Duong says he would remotely connect to one PC in the school’s computer lab, which he remotely accessed through the computer club. He tested the streaming setup at night, so as not to disrupt classes. During the month before the Big Rick, the group sent the script to each of the media players in several batches, reducing the chances of school admins detecting them. Instead, he created a script to act as a payload, which could be uploaded to each receiver ahead of the rickroll. That’s going to make things very detectable.” “That’s going to generate a lot of traffic.

“Every time you make a request, it’s going to send a lot of requests to all the projectors,” Duong explains. However, Duong decided sending out the rickroll using the servers would be too risky. The system has receivers that directly connect to projectors and displays, encoders that broadcast video, and servers that allow products to be managed centrally by administrators. That’s when he decided to do the rickroll, which he says he picked because teachers would likely get the joke.ĭuong and his three friends managed to get some access to the projectors and TVs using default usernames and passwords, which hadn’t been changed. When the pandemic struck, Duong says, he mostly forgot about the access to the systems, which he had scanned years earlier, and the school didn’t go back to in-person learning until the end of his senior year. Next, he had access to the school’s IPTV system, which controls hundreds of projectors and TVs across the district.
#High school story hack app software
They used the software to run scans and exploit the systems while making them appear as if they were in one of the district’s other schools. First, he acquired a teacher’s version of LanSchool, a “classroom management” software that can track everything students do, including monitor students’ screens and log keystrokes.

The Big Rick involved three key components, two of which were originally accessed in Duong’s early high school years. As the countdown hit zero, a grainy, gyrating Rick Astley burst into the first notes of “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
#High school story hack app code
Duong sat pouring over his laptop, chatting with three other friends-Shapes, Jimmy, and Green-on encrypted messenger Element, making sure the last of his custom code executed correctly. Tucked in the corner of one classroom was Minh Duong, a senior on the verge of graduating. In classrooms and hallways, more than 500 screens displayed the countdown. The group speculated that it could be a message from President Joe Biden, failing that, “big brother.” The same scene was repeating itself across dozens of classrooms in Illinois’ school district 214-home to 12,000 students. “They overtook our projector,” the teacher, caught on video, told students. A five-minute timer, counting down to zero, sat under the ominous message.Ī teacher in one classroom tried to turn the projector off using the infrared remote, but it was useless. “Please standby for an important announcement,” read a message that flashed up on the displays. Projectors that were already on automatically switched to the HDMI input.
#High school story hack app tv
At 10:55 am on April 30, 2021, all the TV screens and classroom projectors at six schools in Cook County, Illinois, started controlling themselves.
