atrocious quality for the residents of the bushed federation —

Problem has been assigned an authoritative CVE ID, contempt deficiency of specifics.

Andrew Cunningham - Aug 18, 2022 4:54 p.m. UTC

Western Digital

It sounds similar thing retired of an municipality legend: Some Windows XP-era laptops utilizing 5400 RPM spinning hard drives tin allegedly beryllium forced to clang erstwhile exposed to Janet Jackson's 1989 deed "Rhythm Nation."

But Microsoft Software Engineer Raymond Chen stands by the communicative successful a blog station published earlier this week, and the vulnerability has been issued an authoritative CVE ID by The Mitre Corporation, lending it much credibility.

According to Chen, CVE-2022-38392 was primitively discovered by "a large machine manufacturer," and it tin impact not conscionable the laptop playing the opus but adjacent laptops from different PC companies arsenic well. The circumstantial hard thrust exemplary astatine issue—again from an unnamed manufacturer—would clang due to the fact that "Rhythm Nation" utilized immoderate of the aforesaid "natural resonant frequencies" that the drives used, interfering with their operation.

Anyone trying to independently recreate this occupation volition look respective obstacles, including the property of the laptops progressive and a full deficiency of specificity astir the hard drives oregon machine models. The CVE introduction mentions "a definite 5400 RPM OEM hard drive, arsenic shipped with laptop PCs successful astir 2005" and links backmost to Chen's station arsenic a superior source. And portion immoderate Windows XP-era laptop hard drives whitethorn inactive beryllium kicking retired determination somewhere, aft astir 2 decades, it's much apt that astir of them have died of earthy causes.

The contented was besides seemingly partially resolved by the PC shaper astatine the time. Chen says the institution addressed the occupation "by adding a customized filter successful the audio pipeline that detected and removed the offending frequencies during audio playback." This wouldn't wholly hole things since these laptops' hard drives would inactive clang if they were exposed to different instrumentality that was playing the song. But "Rhythm Nation" had seemingly declined capable successful popularity by the aboriginal 2000s that the contented didn't go a wide problem.

Sound frequencies can interfere with the cognition of spinning hard drives, arsenic demonstrated in this fashionable aged YouTube video of a antheral expanding disk latency and hurting show by screaming astatine a server rack. So adjacent if we can't corroborate firsthand that "Rhythm Nation" wrecks aged laptops, we tin decidedly accidental that alien things person happened.