Chromecast Hack Lets You Rickroll Your Neighbor's TV

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Rick Astley performs live on stage during a concert at the Acceleration 2014 - Celebrate the 80's and 90's with the Hoff open air festival on July 04, 2014 in Orechova Poton, Slovak Republic.

Image: Tomas Benedikovic/isifa

By Karissa Bell2014-07-22 03:59:04 UTC

One of the biggest draws of Google's Chromecast is how simple it is to set up and use. But the streaming dongle also comes with a bug that may hinder its usability — one that a security researcher has hilariously exploited in the name of rickrolling

Dan Petro built a "Rickmote Controller" that can hijack a Chromecast, and play an endless loop of Rick Astley's "Never Going to Give You Up."

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Petro built the device using a Raspberry Pi, along with a touchscreen and a few Wi-Fi cards, according to RaspberryPi.org , which documented the hack.

The Rickmote Controller works by sending the Chromecast a command that temporarily kicks the dongle off of its Wi-Fi network. Once disconnected, the Chromecast will automatically revert to setup mode, which turns the dongle into a Wi-Fi hotspot; this allows the Rickmote Controller to connect to the Chromecast, and endlessly stream Rick Astley's greatest hit.

The whole hack takes less than a minute to pull off, though it will only work if you're within the same Wi-Fi range as the Chromecast. For now, the Rickmote Controller is a one-off proof of concept, but would-be Chromecast hijackers can see a detailed tutorial on how the controller was built in this video.

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Topics: chromecast, dev and design, Dev & Design, Gadgets, Raspberry Pi, rickroll, Tech