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.

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 “SKC2000_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 “The Scientist”. The researcher then reached out to BleepingComputer with his findings. “I’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 “quite like it” prior to the discovery.

“The 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.