April 7, 2025

BAD DOGGIE: Remote Access Backdoor Discovered in Chinese Robot Dog Unitree Go1.

The discovery of the backdoor was made by cybersecurity specialists Andreas Makris (aka Bin4ry) and Kevin Finisterre (aka d0tslash), who published their findings in a detailed technical report late last week. The duo reverse-engineered firmware and conducted a hands-on analysis of the Unitree Go1 robot dog, revealing that each device ships with a preconfigured tunnel client that initiates a connection to CloudSail — a remote access platform developed by Zhexi Technology, based in China.

The researchers demonstrated that upon gaining access to the CloudSail API, which they did using a recovered API key, they could:

• List all connected devices and their IP addresses
• Establish remote tunnels to those devices
• Access the robot dog’s web interface with no authentication
• Use the robot’s cameras for live surveillance
• Log in via SSH using default credentials (pi/123)
• Move laterally within internal networks to which the robot is connected

Makris and Finisterre identified a total of 1,919 unique Unitree Go1 units that had connected to the CloudSail network. While most connections originated from Chinese IP addresses, a significant number were traced to academic and corporate networks abroad. Notable institutions included MIT, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Waterloo, among others. The researchers even observed some units connecting via Starlink, suggesting use in mobile or remote environments.

Exit quote: “Perhaps most concerning is the implication of deliberate design. The tunnel is not merely an overlooked debug utility; it appears fully integrated into the boot process and enabled by default.”

Robot dogs are just the tip of the Communist Chinese surveillance (or worse) iceberg.

Posted at 2:46 pm by Stephen Green

SURVEY: MOST SELF-IDENTIFYING LEFTIES SAY KILLING TRUMP IS JUSTIFIED.

The unhinged left, fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome and seething hatred for Elon Musk, is trending more violent, according to a new study that finds political violence targeting President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser is “becoming increasingly normalized.”

The report, produced by the Network of Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab, finds a broader “assassination culture” appears to be “emerging within segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left, with expanding targets now including figures such as Donald Trump.”

Less than a year after assassination attempts on then-presidential candidate Trump and the literally explosive violence against Musk’s Tesla electric vehicles, it’s no secret that leftists are ratcheting up violent rhetoric and actions. The more troubling trend is that an “assassination culture” isn’t just coming from the “fringe” left.

“These attitudes are not fringe — they reflect an emergent assassination culture, grounded in far-left authoritarianism and increasingly normalized in digital discourse,” states the report, titled, “Assassination Culture: How Burning Teslas and Killing Billionaires Became a Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence.”

…

“The reports found widespread justification for lethal violence — including assassination — among younger, highly online, and ideologically left-aligned users,” the authors of the latest study write.

James Carville asks: ‘Do You Know How This Ends?’: Carville Invokes Nazis, Opens ‘Nominations’ For Trump ‘Collaborators.’

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville invoked the Nazis and suggested that anyone who “collaborated” with President Donald Trump might eventually suffer the same fate as those who’d cooperated with brutal German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Carville made the comments on his Politicon podcast, where he referred to major corporations and law firms that were aiding the Trump administration as “traitors” and suggested they’d be ripe for “retribution” if the people were so inclined.

Notice that unlike January of 2011 when they whipped themselves into a moral panic over Sarah Palin’s clip art after the Giffords shooting, nobody in the DNC-MSM is calling for the left to dial back their rhetoric. No enemies to the left.

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 34

A TOUCHING MOMENT:

Posted at 2:31 pm by Glenn Reynolds 8

AILING PATIENT NOT FLATLINING YET: A Minecraft Movie Is the Hit Hollywood’s Been Waiting For.

The first three months of 2025 have been a disaster for the movie industry, with box-office disappointments including “Snow White,” “Mickey 17,” “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Novocaine” and “The Alto Knights.”

The total domestic box office in that period was $1.42 billion, down 12% from last year and 41% from 2019, the last year unaffected by the pandemic and 2023’s Hollywood labor strikes.

The first three months of the year “could not have been any worse for us,” Bill Barstow, chief executive of Main Street Theatres, a small chain of cinemas based in Nebraska, said at the CinemaCon industry convention in Las Vegas last week. Many theater owners were buzzing at CinemaCon about “Minecraft’s” potential to break out based on advance ticket sales.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s film business has been under growing pressure with two of this year’s biggest flops, “Mickey 17” and “Alto Knights,” and arguably the biggest box-office disaster of 2024 in “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Studio chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca have been spending large sums on risky projects at a time when the rest of their company is under pressure to cut costs.

Oh, and speaking of Snow White: The Last Straw: Snow White Production Slammed As Second Most Polluting Disney Film.

But do you want to know how we can tell now that the new “Snow White” and all seven vertically-challenged people have been well and truly tossed under the bus? The film is now being attacked for its carbon emissions.

By analysing more than 250 Disney film sets, Snow White was revealed to have created at least 4,258 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

This was the second most polluting Disney film, after The Little Mermaid live action remake which contributed to 5,983 tonnes, since 2019 when the environmental reporting requirement was introduced.

The combined emissions total more than Birmingham‘s and Luton’s annual CO2 contributions, according to The Observer.

Now, this information might have still been released, and the film production still criticized even had the movie been a roaring success, but I’m inclined to think not; as the old saying goes, “Success has a thousand fathers, while failure is an orphan.” On that basis, “Snow White” is the red-headed stepchild of a rented mule.

Here’s the giggle-inducing bit:

Snow White also created more greenhouse gases than the latest Fast & Furious film Fast X, despite the blockbuster principally being set around cars.

So, Vin Diesel and a bunch of hot cars roaring around the landscape produced lower carbon emissions than this Disney grenade. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

According to John Nolte, Snow White “no longer has any serious chance of reaching $100 million domestic.”

Well, I for one am happy to have done my bit to protect the environment by skipping the environmentally destructive Snow White, and am eagerly awaiting Fast & Furious X, a film that has an infinitely more Al Gore-approved message. (Actually, given that Gore tacitly declared global warming over when he sold out to oil-rich Qatar, and his reported love of gas-guzzling private jets, FFX really is a film that’s perfectly aligned with Al’s lifestyle!)

Related: The Critical Drinker on A Minecraft Movie: Pure Mindless Slop, And It’ll Make A Billion Dollars. “Minecraft is where filmmaking and imagination goes to die; the logical endpoint of lazy IP-exploiting Hollywood executives who are driven entirely by numbers and statistics.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 55

ESPECIALLY THAT LAST PART: The college admissions essay is absurd, unfair and cringe.

Mounk was inspired by the saga of 18-year-old Zach Yadegari, who posted that his very high grades and test scores — and his success as a high-tech entrepreneur — were not enough to get into 15 selective colleges. He was accepted by Georgia Tech, University of Texas and University of Miami.

When he posted his admissions essay on X, dozens of tweeters told him that he was arrogant, writes Mounk. “For every student with perfect scores like Zach, there’s a student with near perfect scores and more humility who’s overcome terrible circumstances and does not seem entitled,” a condescending professor tweeted. A former admissions director implied that the essay was “garbage.”

Yadegari — the name is Iranian — apparently didn’t have a family member to tell him to fake a little uncertainty or apologize for his privilege.

He is very confident, but he has good reason to feel that way. You’d think a non-victim would add diversity to most college campuses.

That last line is stellar.

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green 72

CHANGE:

There hasn’t been a GOP president with this much working-class appeal since Reagan. Trump’s methods are different but then so are the times.

Posted at 12:54 pm by Stephen Green 148

SHE DID THE MEME: NYC woman who punched pro-life activist Savannah Craven accuses her of ‘antagonistic’ behavior.

The woman caught on video punching pro-life activist Savannah Craven during a street interview in Harlem has issued an apology but claimed the incident was provoked by Craven’s “antagonist” behavior.

Brianna Rivers, who was identified as the individual involved in the assault, admitted wrongdoing in a post on Facebook, according to a report by the New York Post.

“To Savannah, I sincerely apologize but cannot sit around and allow you to continue pushing this one sided narrative. I understand hands being put on someone is never the answer, but throwing rocks and hiding hands is worse,” Rivers wrote. “She knows the truth and she needs to release the footage in its entirety. Savannah is a professional antagonist not a ‘reporter’ and the truth will be told.”

However, Rivers accused Craven of intentionally antagonizing her during the man-on-the-street interview. She also accused Craven of editing the footage to remove “relentless antagonization” leading up to the act of violence.

Your speech is violence. The Left’s violence is speech.

Posted at 12:42 pm by Stephen Green 98

DAVE BARRY: Yoga Trauma.

This will be a short emergency Substack. I just wanted to draw your attention to an alarming recent occurrence in New York City, which I found out about from a story in the Sunday New York Times.

What happened was — prepare to be horrified — a woman took a sip of water during a yoga class. Yes. According to the Times story, which is not a brief story, and which I am not making up, this resulted in a “firestorm.”

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

(Via SDA.)

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 98

YES, PUBLIC TRANSIT DEPENDS ON A FUNCTIONING HIGH-TRUST CIVIL SOCIETY. WHICH LEFTIES HATE AND UNDERMINE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.

Posted at 12:02 pm by Glenn Reynolds 50

NOT JUST ASTROTURF, SUPERTURF:

Posted at 11:57 am by Glenn Reynolds 72

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: A price tag on gun rights; Gov. Polis should veto Senate Bill 3.

On March 28, Colorado Senate Bill 25-003 reached Governor Polis’ desk, and if he doesn’t veto this bill within ten days it becomes law, going into effect Aug 1, 2026.

Originally presented as a firearms magazine enforcement bill, Senate Bill 3 has evolved into a far more restrictive piece of legislation these past few months. Despite repeated assurances from its Democrat sponsors—Senator Tom Sullivan, Senator Julie Gonzales, Representative Andrew Boesnecker, and Representative Meg Froelich—that this is not a gun ban, it still is, but now only if you’re underprivileged and can’t afford an eligibility card.

If this bill becomes law, purchasing a semi-automatic rifle, shotgun, or gas-operated handgun would require the following steps:

  • Schedule an appointment with Colorado Parks and Wildlife
  • Undergo a background check by a third party
  • Locate a certified instructor and complete the required training course. A 12-hour class must be taught in two days, not one.
  • Pass a test with a score of at least 90% and be able to demonstrate that you can use the firearm safely. It’s unclear what firearm will be used for this as students cannot purchase a gun before class to bring with them and even if the instructor has a rifle, it most likely won’t be the same as the one they plan to purchase because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of variations.
  • Schedule an appointment with the local sheriff’s office for final approval.
  • Upon receiving approval, when purchasing the firearm, complete another background check and comply with a three-day waiting period.

    • Each step of this process has fees, amounting to at least $300 total to get an eligibility card that is only valid for five years.

    Gov. Polis has yet to indicate whether or not he’ll sign the bill, veto it, or let it go into effect without his signature.

    Posted at 11:40 am by Stephen Green 116

    LORD, I HOPE NOT: China Will Launch An Invasion Of Taiwan In Next Few Months: Intel Sources.

    The ambassador’s statement has been interpreted as Beijing now deciding that the time may be ripe for a move against the ROC as the opening round in a direct conflict with the US.

    Intelligence sources who have spoken to 19FortyFive about this story now state that they believe an attempt by China to do just that is no less than six months away.

    The same intelligence sources elaborate further that the “six months from now” time frame is being prompted by the belief among the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) senior leadership that the US administration in Washington will either be unwilling or unable to prevent an invasion by the CCP and its military arm, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

    Previously: How DC became obsessed with a potential 2027 Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

    Why the sudden rush?

    Posted at 10:38 am by Stephen Green 557