[HN Gopher] Reverse Engineering a Mysterious UDP Stream in My Ho...
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Reverse Engineering a Mysterious UDP Stream in My Hotel (2016)
Author : bayesnet
Score : 155 points
Date : 2025-12-23 15:21 UTC (7 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.gkbrk.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.gkbrk.com)
| kstrauser wrote:
| I LOLed at the ending. Nicely done!
|
| I appreciate people posting negative results, too. The journey is
| the interesting part, and I like the humanity of saying "welp, at
| least now I know".
| mingus88 wrote:
| Yeah 99/100 times it's gotta be mundane but wouldn't it be
| interesting to spoof that traffic and play anything you wanted
| in the elevator?
| kstrauser wrote:
| "That would be wrong. You totally should not do that."
|
| But yes, absolutely!
| gkbrk wrote:
| Author here, hi :^)
| contingencies wrote:
| Since you appear to be Turkish what's your favourite Turkish
| food that is poorly known outside of the country? Also don't
| miss https://subseacables.blogspot.com/2025/12/fully-
| diverse-100g...
| gkbrk wrote:
| "poorly known outside the country" rules out the main foods I
| like.
|
| I love a good Kuymak [1] though, I think that's not too well
| known.
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuymak
| contingencies wrote:
| Nice, haven't tried that. Found a local cafe which looks
| very well run where it's a feature. On the list for next
| year! Happy New Year!
| nicelunch wrote:
| Hi! Do you happen to have that elevator music saved? I'm
| curious what it sounded like.
| gkbrk wrote:
| I had it saved, but it was 3-4 computers ago. I don't think I
| still have it, and if I did I wouldn't know where.
|
| Aside from the article, I only found these scripts on my disk
| related to this project.
|
| listen_2046.py and send_2046.py
|
| https://gist.github.com/gkbrk/445929a854051203ee31afc7495c5a.
| ..
| bayesnet wrote:
| Thank you for writing one of my favorite blog posts of all
| time! I am curious: What is _your_ favorite thing you've
| written?
| dang wrote:
| Related. Others?
|
| _Reverse engineering a mysterious UDP stream in my hotel (2016)_
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34912300 - Feb 2023 (179
| comments)
|
| _Reverse engineering a mysterious UDP stream in my hotel (2016)_
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26633792 - March 2021 (86
| comments)
|
| _Reverse Engineering a Mysterious UDP Stream in My Hotel (2016)_
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16197436 - Jan 2018 (15
| comments)
|
| _Reverse Engineering a Mysterious UDP Stream in My Hotel_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11744518 - May 2016 (181
| comments)
| yunnpp wrote:
| It's just as good in 2026 - 2d. Imagine Santa delivering his
| goods and hearing a mysterious UDP stream and wondering, "Is my
| supply chain being disrupted?", only to then realize that it
| was just the owners' TV spying on him after it was left on
| standby instead being completely turned off.
| Dilettante_ wrote:
| This is the shortest, yet still fully complete example of an
| article that scratches _that_ itch. Awakening the "intellectual
| curiosity", documenting the steps, and finding the actual end of
| the matter. The mundanity of the revelation is like the icing on
| the cake.
| schmuckonwheels wrote:
| I was expecting to see a post bemoaning the lack of encryption on
| the elevator music...
| runtimepanic wrote:
| This is the kind of curiosity that leads to the most interesting
| findings. Hotels are a perfect storm of shared networks, opaque
| vendor integrations, and "it just works" assumptions. A
| mysterious UDP stream could be anything from Chromecast-style
| discovery to IPTV control or some half-documented vendor
| heartbeat. What's usually more revealing than the payload is the
| pattern: broadcast vs unicast, frequency, and who responds. Also
| a good reminder of how much ambient network noise we're all
| swimming in without noticing.
| 7e22v837278gb1p wrote:
| Good hotel room hacking entertainment is provided in-house, in
| this case.
| mikesale wrote:
| omg this is so my vibe! I used to read corrupted database files
| for a living and it was soooo much fun.
| naikrovek wrote:
| Site is down, I think. :(
| jiscariot wrote:
| I've read this one before, but this time it really hit home in
| how unlike most of the modern AI-emoji-filled-cringy-
| heading-20-page blog slop, it is. Very refreshing.
| VoidWhisperer wrote:
| Archive link as it seems the site is down:
| https://archive.is/afYvQ
| StayTrue wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20251230193736/https://www.gkbrk...
| cryptoegorophy wrote:
| Web server down? Can't access.
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(page generated 2025-12-30 23:00 UTC)