American researcher and hacker (born 1975)
Andrew "bunnie" Huang
(born 1975) is an American researcher and
hacker
,
[1]
who holds a Ph.D in
electrical engineering
from
MIT
and is the author of the freely available 2003 book
Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering
. As of 2012 he resides in
Singapore
.
[2]
Huang is a member of the
Zeta Beta Tau
fraternity, and a resident advisor and mentor to hardware startups at
HAX
, an early stage hardware accelerator and
venture capital
firm.
[3]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Huang was born in
Kalamazoo, Michigan
,
United States
to
mainland Chinese
parents who fled to
Taiwan
at a young age during the
Chinese communist revolution
. Huang's father was born in
Central China
. Huang's mother was born in
Beijing
to a
Han Chinese
father and a
Mongol
mother. Huang has two sisters and is the middle child of his family.
[4]
Huang attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, earning a Ph.D in electrical engineering in 2002.
[5]
He stated that he had "flipped a coin" to determine whether to pursue biology or electronics.
[6]
The nickname "bunnie" is short for "vorpalbunnie", a reference to the creature in both
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
and
Moria
, that he used as a
BBS
screen name.
[7]
Projects
[
edit
]
Huang was the hardware lead at
Chumby
; his responsibilities included the design and production of Chumby devices, as well as the strategic planning and ecosystem development of the broader Chumby hardware platform.
As a leader at the Ministry of Mobile Affairs, Andrew Huang oversaw the ambitious
MoMA Eve
handheld game console.
[8]
[9]
He has completed several major projects, ranging from hacking the
Xbox
, to designing the world's first fully integrated photonic-silicon chips running at 10 Gbit/s with
Luxtera, Inc.
, to building some of the first prototype hardware for silicon nanowire device research with Caltech. Huang has also participated in the design of
wireless
transceivers for use in
802.11b
and
Bluetooth
networks with
Mobilian
, graphics chips at Silicon Graphics,
digital cinema
codecs
at
Qualcomm
, and autonomous robotic submarines during the 1999 competition held by the
AUVSI
that the MIT team won. He is also responsible for the "un-design" of many security systems, with an appetite for the challenge of digesting silicon-based hardware security.
[5]
Huang was scheduled to appear as an
expert witness
in the trial
United States v. Crippen
to determine whether or not
modding
an
Xbox
violates sections of the
DMCA
.
[10]
The case was dropped suddenly on the third day of trial before the
jury
sat by the US federal authorities who had initiated the action.
[11]
The case was dismissed before Huang was called to give testimony.
He also created the
open hardware
Safecast Geiger Counter Reference Design, as a volunteer effort in response to the
2011 T?hoku earthquake
,
tsunami
, and ensuing
meltdown of Fukushima Daiichi
.
[12]
[13]
A project in collaboration with Jie Qi of the
MIT Media Lab
is Circuit Stickers, a peel-and-stick circuit system for crafting electronics.
[14]
Huang was interviewed on
Dave Jones
'
The Amp Hour
in episode #84, where he talked about his electronics work in China and reverse engineering.
[15]
Huang is a member of the advisory board for
Crowd Supply
, the crowdfunding platform that he used for
Novena
and
The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen.
[16]
Reverse engineering
[
edit
]
- Xbox
Huang has a long and noted history with the
reverse engineering
and
hacking of consumer products
. His 2003 publication
Hacking the
Xbox
: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering
was one of the first published works regarding the reverse engineering of a high end consumer product. He faced significant legal pressure from
Microsoft
to not reveal the details of his exploits, and the book itself reveals that he had received a letter from
MIT
, where he was at the time a student, informing him of their disavowal of any association with his project. Additionally, his publisher
John Wiley & Sons
had rescinded their intent to publish the book.
[17]
In part because of this response by MIT to his work, when the Institute was again put at the forefront of controversy in their handling of the criminal prosecution brought against
Aaron Swartz
, and his subsequent suicide, Huang released the book for free through
No Starch Press
, remarking that "Without the right to tinker and explore, we risk becoming enslaved by technology; and the more we exercise the right to hack, the harder it will be to take that right away".
[18]
[19]
- Printer steganography
In 2005, Huang worked with a team from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
to develop code that interprets
printer steganography
markings.
[20]
- Digital Content Protection
Huang created the NeTV in 2011, which was the first known public use of the
High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)
"master key". The device uses the master key to implement a video overlay on existing HDCP-protected links, in a fashion which purportedly does not violate the
DMCA
.
[21]
Both the hardware and
firmware
for the NeTV are openly available under the
CC BY-SA
license.
[22]
- MicroSD card vulnerabilities
He has also used reverse engineering techniques to reveal why certain
MicroSD
cards are poor in quality.
[23]
[24]
In 2013, he presented results in collaboration with fellow Singapore developer Sean "xobs" Cross revealing methods to load arbitrary code into microSD cards via
backdoors
built into the
embedded controller
.
[25]
[26]
- Cell phone privacy
On 21 July 2016, Huang and
Edward Snowden
, in a talk at
MIT Media Lab
's Forbidden Research event,
[27]
[28]
published research for an outboard computer embedded in a smartphone case, the so-called "Introspection Engine", that would monitor electrical signals received and sent by that phone, to provide an alert to the user, if their phone is
transmitting or receiving information when it shouldn't be
(for example, when it's turned off or in airplane mode), a feature described by Snowden to be useful for journalists or activists operating under hostile governments that would want to track their activities through their phones.
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
Novena
[
edit
]
In 2013, Huang announced that he, again in collaboration with Cross, was at work developing a
laptop
called the
Novena
. The laptop is the first of its kind, in that the hardware and software are entirely
open
and only include components where the manufacturing companies do not require
non-disclosure agreements
to obtain the documentation necessary for design.
[34]
In addition to the normal laptop components, the
Novena
motherboard also includes an
FPGA
, dual Ethernet ports, a three-axis
accelerometer
, and easily augmentable hardware.
[35]
On May 7, 2014 the Novena's
crowdfunding
campaign reached its goal of $250,000 and went on to raise a total of $722,880 without taking subsequent pre-orders into account.
Writing
[
edit
]
Huang is a contributing writer for
MAKE magazine
, as well as being a member of their technical advisory board. He has also written for
Gizmodo
and
IEEE Spectrum
.
He has also written extensively about
manufacturing in China
.
[36]
[37]
In March 2016, Huang successfully completed the crowdfunding campaign for his book
The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen
, a manual written to enable the English-speaking electronics community to be able to navigate
China
's
Huaqiangbei
marketplace in
Shenzhen
,
[38]
widely regarded as one of the world's premier electronics marketplaces and production hubs.
[39]
He also appeared in
Wired's
2016 documentary
Inside Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of hardware.
[40]
DMCA lawsuit
[
edit
]
In July 2016, Huang became a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) that challenges the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA). In the complaint, the EFF argue on behalf of Huang (and his company AlphaMax LLC.) that the "anti-circumvention" and "anti-trafficking" provisions of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threaten free speech.
[41]
[1]
The lawsuit,
Green v. Department of Justice
, is shared with plaintiff
Matthew D. Green
, a cryptography researcher whose work has a similar obstacle within Section 1201.
[42]
Huang and AlphaMax were seeking to develop the NeTV2, a digital video processing device that allows a user to record and modify video data from various sources, including streaming services and video games. The extant version of the device does not allow for the modification of encrypted video streams, but Huang and AlphaMax intended to add this as a feature by reverse engineering Intel's
High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection
copy protection system. Their concern, however, was that this would qualify as a breach of Section 1201 of the DMCA. In this capacity, the EFF's lawsuit is a preliminary injunction against that portion of the DMCA.
[43]
[44]
Discussing his motivations behind the suit, Huang said, "When I was a graduate student, I saw a generation of younger engineers growing up stunted and fearful under [the DMCA's] shadow ... In multiple startups since, I saw numerous, legitimate business opportunities stymied by the statute."
[45]
In July 2019, a federal judge ruled that the lawsuit could proceed.
[44]
[46]
In 2021,
District of Columbia Court
Judge
Emmet G. Sullivan
denied the preliminary injunction put forth by the EFF, citing that the Department of Justice, who were brought forth to defend against the case in 2016, had sufficiently demonstrated that the DMCA is a necessary amendment to existing copyright law, and that to this end it does not place undue or unwarranted restrictions on free speech. The specific assertion by the EFF and Huang that code qualifies as speech, and thus qualifies for the protections given to free speech, was not explicitly rejected in the decision, though Sullivan did remark that the Department of Justice "makes a compelling argument" against that assessment within the purview of the EFF's proposed injunction.
[43]
Awards
[
edit
]
In 2007, Huang received the Lewis Winner award for Best paper at ISSCC 2006 (A 10 Gbit/s photonic modulator and WDM MUX/DEMUX integrated with electronics in 0.13 um SOI CMOS, Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2006. ISSCC 2006. Digest of Technical Papers. IEEE International)
[47]
In September 2012, Huang received the 2012
EFF Pioneer Award
for his work in hardware hacking, open source and activism.
[48]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Publications
- Huang, Andrew (1999).
An Implementation of Guarded Pointers with Tight Bounds on Segment Size
(PDF)
.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
- Huang, Andrew (May 26, 2002).
"Keeping Secrets in Hardware: the Microsoft XBoxTM Case Study"
(PDF)
. AI Memo 2002-008
. Retrieved
April 19,
2008
.
- Huang, Andrew (2002).
ADAM: A Decentralized Parallel Computer Architecture Featuring Fast Thread and Data Migration and a Uniform Hardware Abstraction
(PDF)
.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.
- Huang, Andrew; et al. (2006).
A 10Gb/s photonic modulator and WDM MUX/DEMUX integrated with electronics in 0.13/spl mu/m SOI CMOS
. pp. 922?929.
doi
:
10.1109/ISSCC.2006.1696133
.
ISBN
978-1-4244-0079-9
.
ISSN
0193-6530
.
S2CID
30678835
.
- Huang, Andrew (March 31, 2015).
"The Death of Moore's Law Will Spur Innovation"
.
IEEE Spectrum
. Retrieved
April 5,
2015
.
- Huang, Andrew (July 21, 2016).
"Against the Law: Countering Lawful Abuses of Digital Surveillance"
.
Pubpub
. The Journal of Open Engineering.
doi
:
10.21428/12268
. Retrieved
July 13,
2020
.
Books
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Thomson, Iain; Apple (September 30, 2016).
"Crypto guru Matt Green asks courts for DMCA force field so he can safely write a textbook"
.
The Register
. Retrieved
October 9,
2016
.
- ^
Lesnet, Ian (August 23, 2012).
"Workshop Video #36: Beers in Bunnie's Workshop"
.
Dangerous Prototypes
. Retrieved
March 16,
2014
.
- ^
"Bunnie Huang - Advisor & Hardware guru"
. Hax Team.
- ^
"A Brief History of Me"
.
web.mit.edu
. Retrieved
August 15,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Torrone, Phillip (April 30, 2012).
"MAKE's Exclusive Interview with Andrew (bunnie) Huang - The End of Chumby, New Adventures | Make"
.
Make
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
"An interview with Andrew Huang"
.
The Blueprint
. Archived from
the original
on August 19, 2016
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
"Interviews: Andrew "bunnie" Huang Answers Your Questions - Slashdot"
.
Slashdot
. August 21, 2014
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
"VIA Technologies, Inc"
. October 23, 2004. Archived from
the original
on October 23, 2004
. Retrieved
November 4,
2020
.
- ^
Hachman, Mark (May 12, 2004).
"New "Mobile Console" Plays PC Games - ExtremeTech"
.
Extremetech
. Retrieved
November 4,
2020
.
- ^
Kravets, David (October 21, 2010).
"Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online Previous post Next post Prosecutors Seek to Block Xbox Hacking Pioneer From Trial"
.
Wired
. Retrieved
May 1,
2011
.
- ^
Kravets, David (December 2, 2010).
"Prosecutors Dismiss Xbox-Modding Case Mid-Trial"
.
Wired
. Retrieved
May 1,
2011
.
- ^
Doctorow, Cory (March 15, 2012).
"Bunnie Huang's open Geiger counter: design notes and reference"
.
Boing Boing
.
- ^
Sythe, Dan (September 27, 2012).
"Inside the Heart and Soul of a new Geiger counter"
. Geiger Counter Bulletin.
- ^
Chibitronics.
"Circuit Stickers"
. Crowd Supply.
- ^
"The Amp Hour #84 - An Interview with Bunnie Huang - Bunnie's Bibelot Bonification"
.
The Amp Hour
. February 28, 2012
. Retrieved
December 22,
2013
.
- ^
"Launch"
.
Crowd Supply
. Archived from
the original
on November 11, 2016
. Retrieved
August 2,
2016
.
- ^
Ziccardi, Giovanni (2012).
Resistance, Liberation Technology and Human Rights in the Digital Age
(PDF)
.
Springer Science+Business Media
. p. 110.
- ^
"Xbox hacker "bunnie" Huang makes book free in Aaron Swartz tribute"
.
SlashGear
. March 11, 2013
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
Huang, Andrew (March 2013).
"An open letter from bunnie, author of Hacking the Xbox"
.
No Starch Press
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
"DocuColor Tracking Dot Decoding Guide"
.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
. Archived from
the original
on January 14, 2016
. Retrieved
December 7,
2015
.
- ^
Goodin, Dan (September 16, 2011).
"How gizmo maker's hack outflanked copyright trolls"
.
The Register
. Retrieved
September 17,
2011
.
- ^
Source code links at
http://kosagi.com/w/index.php?title=NeTV_Main_Page
- ^
Doctorow, Cory (February 16, 2010).
"Sleuthing uncovers the mystery of Kingston MicroSD cards' crappy QA"
.
Boing Boing
. Retrieved
May 1,
2011
.
- ^
Huang, Andrew.
"On MicroSD Problems"
.
bunnie's blog
. Archived from
the original
on August 25, 2014.
- ^
bunnie and xobs (December 29, 2013).
"The Exploration and Exploitation of an SD Memory Card"
. 30c3. Archived from
the original
on July 10, 2014.
- ^
Huang, Andrew.
"On Hacking MicroSD Cards"
.
bunnie's blog
.
- ^
Andrew Huang. Edward Snowden. 'Against the Law: Countering Lawful Abuses of Digital Surveillance'
on
YouTube
- ^
"Forbidden Research"
.
- ^
Snowden, Edward; Huang, Andrew (bunnie) (July 21, 2016).
"Against the Law: Countering Lawful Abuses of Digital Surveillance"
.
PubPub
.
doi
:
10.21428/12268
. Retrieved
August 7,
2016
.
pdf
pdf
- ^
Lee, Micah (July 21, 2016).
"Edward Snowden's New Research Aims to Keep Smartphones From Betraying Their Owners"
.
The Intercept
. Retrieved
August 7,
2016
.
- ^
Greenberg, Andy (July 21, 2016).
"Snowden Designs a Device to Warn if Your iPhone's Radios Are Snitching"
.
Wired
. Retrieved
August 7,
2016
.
- ^
Mott, Nathaniel (July 21, 2016).
"Edward Snowden designs phone case to show when data is being monitored"
.
The Guardian
.
ISSN
0261-3077
. Retrieved
August 7,
2016
.
- ^
Palazzo, Chiara (July 22, 2016).
"Edward Snowden co-designs an iPhone case that alerts user to surveillance activity"
.
The Telegraph
. Retrieved
August 7,
2016
.
- ^
Bunnie Huang (January 8, 2014).
"Building an Open Source Laptop"
. Makezine. Archived from
the original
on March 16, 2014.
- ^
bunnie (March 14, 2014).
"Novena Main Page"
.
- ^
Doctorow, Cory (July 13, 2007).
"Bunnie Huang's blog-series on Chinese manufacturing"
.
Boing Boing
. Archived from
the original
on May 29, 2010
. Retrieved
May 2,
2011
.
- ^
Huang, Andrew 'bunnie' (June 12, 2015).
"Why It's Often Easier To Innovate In China Than In The United States"
.
Gizmodo
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
"Bunnie Huang's "Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen"
"
.
Boing Boing
. February 4, 2016
. Retrieved
June 8,
2016
.
- ^
Arthur, Charles (June 13, 2014).
"Huaqiangbei: the mega market with every smartphone part ? in pictures"
.
the Guardian
. Retrieved
June 9,
2016
.
- ^
Reynolds, Matthew (June 7, 2016).
"Inside Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of hardware"
.
Wired UK
. Retrieved
August 26,
2016
.
- ^
"EFF Lawsuit Takes on DMCA Section 1201: Research and Technology Restrictions Violate the First Amendment"
.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
. July 21, 2016
. Retrieved
July 21,
2016
.
- ^
"Green v. U.S. Department of Justice"
.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
. September 1, 2016
. Retrieved
November 17,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Gardner, Eriq (July 16, 2021).
"A Hacker's Plan to Make Digital TV More Useful Hits Legal Setback"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
November 17,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Huang, Andrew (September 18, 2019).
"Bugfix and DMCA Lawsuit Progress"
.
Crowd Supply
. Retrieved
November 17,
2021
.
- ^
Powers, Melissa (February 17, 2017).
"
'I've felt my rights chilled': Hacker 'bunnie' Huang is challenging the government"
.
NBC News
. Retrieved
May 18,
2020
.
- ^
"Will a Federal Judge Unleash Hackers on the TV Industry?"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. September 20, 2019
. Retrieved
March 15,
2021
.
- ^
"ISSCC 2007 / Session 1 / Plenary Awards". IEEE. February 12, 2007.
doi
:
10.1109/ISSCC.2007.373576
.
- ^
"Hardware Hacker, Anti-ACTA Activist, and Groundbreaking Anonymity Group Win EFF Pioneer Awards"
(Press release).
EFF
. September 27, 2012.
External links
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