A Coldplay Song Was Apparently Hidden In One Of Kingston’s SSD Firmware

Low Boon Shen
2 Min Read
A Coldplay Song Was Apparently Hidden In One Of Kingston’s SSD Firmware

A Coldplay Song Was Apparently Hidden In One Of Kingston’s SSD Firmware

Someone was definitely bored at work in the making of this firmware.

A Coldplay Song Was Apparently Hidden In One Of Kingston's SSD Firmware

We’ve all heard bad firmware, or even malicious ones propagated by hackers – but in this case, someone definitely wanted to just have some fun in the good old way: slipping what looks like an Easter Egg inside Kingston’s firmware responsible for SSD controllers. Specifically, it’s the version named β€œSKC2000_S2681103” that serves models such as the KC2000 SSD.

The firmware in question (which was released in 2020), when inspected by a security researcher Nicholas Starke turned out to contain lyrics from a Coldplay song aptly named β€œThe Scientist”. The researcher then reached out to BleepingComputer with his findings. β€œI’ve seen many many firmware images in my time and this just seemed out of place,” he told the website. He also admits he hasn’t seen anything β€œquite like it” prior to the discovery.

A Coldplay Song Was Apparently Hidden In One Of Kingston's SSD Firmware - 16
β€œThe Scientist” lyrics seen in hex editor. Image: @nstarke (Twitter)

Officially, the firmware is intended to provide performance enhancements on QD1-based workloads, so it’s pretty safe to say this is nothing more than either a sample text to test things out, or just an outright Easter Egg that someone in Kingston’s engineering department decided to put in just for a bit of that engineering humor. The company hasn’t commented on this matter at this writing, however.

Source: BleepingComputer

Pokdepinion: Perhaps that engineer is already buying tickets for the Coldplay world tour as we speak.

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