Devices, Linux, Open Hardware, and Android

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 30, 2026

• Science Alert ☛ Scientists Identified Hundreds of New Vulnerabilities in Cars, And They're Not Mechanical

  That attack targeted a system built into the car. A recent study examines a wider network, including the apps and online services connected to vehicles.

  Researchers at Sweden's University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology analyzed 413 previously reported automotive software vulnerabilities. External applications accounted for the largest share, at 36.2 percent.

• Springer Nature ☛ Mapping the landscape of software vulnerabilities in connected vehicles | Software Quality Journal | Springer Nature Link

  The increased level of connectivity for vehicles leads to sophisticated and challenging software security concerns for automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers. With a Connected Vehicle (CV) communicating with multiple entities (road infrastructure, other vehicles, OEMs, cloud, etc.), new attack surfaces are exposed to intruders. For instance, in 2023, ethical hackers demonstrated remote access to critical vehicle controls like steering and braking through vulnerabilities in infotainment and telematics systems. Several OEMs also reported production disruptions due to ransomware targeting software development infrastructure. Additionally, the current state of the art fails to provide a holistic view of a secure software development process for CVs. This paper presents a survey of automotive software vulnerabilities and associated attack vectors and analyzes the significant changes in security trends. Moreover, the vulnerabilities are tracked across the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). We include 413 new automotive software vulnerabilities identified within the last 2 years and 9 months in our study. Additionally, 20 automotive software repositories with 827 vulnerable libraries are identified by scanning sources such as repositories, SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials), images, and manifest files. We provide several security recommendations for software engineering teams based on the findings. Our findings are a step forward to support the maintenance of automotive software quality in terms of security across its entire life cycle.

• Synthtopia ☛ Will Open Firmware Become the Next Big Trend in Electronic Music Gear?

  For decades, most hardware synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines have operated within the limits of their manufacturers’ software. Users could customize presets and sequences, but adding fundamentally new capabilities usually depended on an official update—or purchasing a different instrument.

• Open Hardware/Modding

  • CNX Software ☛ $2600 LattePanda Sigma 2 single board server features 180 TOPS defective chip maker Intel Core Ultra X7 358H SoC for local Hey Hi (AI) applications

    The LattePanda Sigma 2 is a compact single board server/computer powered by an defective chip maker Intel Core Ultra X7 358H Panther Lake-H processor with defective chip maker Intel Arc B390 graphics and a 50 TOPS NPU delivering up to 180 TOPS of combined performance for local Hey Hi (AI) workloads. The board features up to 64GB of LPDDR5X-8533 RAM, three M.2 M-Key slots, one M.2 E-Key slot, and an OCuLink port for storage, wireless, and accelerator expansion, as well as two Thunderbolt 4 ports, dual 10GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and eDP 1.5 display interfaces.

  • CNX Software ☛ $26 Banana Pi BPI-RT2 WiFi 6 router board features Realtek RTL8198D dual-core MIPS SoC

    Just last week we wrote about the GL.iNet Mango 2 (GL-MG1300), a low-cost mini travel router built around a MediaTek MT7621A dual-core MIPS SoC. Now, Banana Pi has introduced another MIPS router: the BPI-RT2 router board built around a Realtek RTL8198D dual-core MIPS SoC. The BPI-RT2 ships with 256MB DDR3 RAM, 128MB SPI-NAND flash, four Gigabit Ethernet ports (one WAN and three LAN), and a USB 3.0 port. It also supports dual-band WiFi 6 with 2×2 MIMO on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The board measures 97 × 65mm and is designed for home networking, wireless access points, and small business routers.

  • Arduino ☛ Inside the winning Arduino® UNO™ Q projects from Hackster’s Invent the Future competition

    Arduino, Qualcomm Technologies, and Edge Impulse recently teamed up with Hackster to host the Invent the Future competition. The competition attracted 4,028 registrants and 1,202 hardware applications, culminating in 153 final project submissions across a wide range of real-world applications.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Tiny Linux box packs Panther Lake, Arc graphics and dual 2.5GbE

    The Nano Pro Gen15 is a compact Linux mini PC powered by Intel’s Core Ultra X7 358H processor with integrated Arc B390 graphics. Developed by TUXEDO Computers, the system supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory, dual NVMe SSDs, four 4K displays, and dual 2.5GbE connectivity. It can be used for software development, local AI workloads, and home server applications.

  • Linux Gizmos ☛ Xerxes Home Lab adds Jetson support, NVMe, and PoE

    Australian company Rapid Analysis has launched a new Kickstarter campaign for its Xerxes Home Lab platform, featuring updated carrier boards for Raspberry Pi Compute Modules and NVIDIA Jetson systems. The lineup includes the Xerxes Pi 2026, Xerxes Nano, and an RK3566-based compute module, targeting home servers, embedded systems, and local AI applications.

  • Raspberry Pi ☛ Powered by Raspberry Pi – from Stockholm to Sydney, South Korea to Slovakia

    These three examples illustrate the flexibility of Raspberry Pi hardware and how readily Raspberry Pi has been adopted by both industrial and consumer clients, as well as how the market for high-quality Raspberry Pi products has gone global.

  • Hackaday ☛ Putting A MiSTer Marquee On A Better Display

    Some MiSTer users put a small secondary “marquee” display on the FPGA board that can show information about the system such as the currently loaded core and what game it happens to be running. Generally these take the form of a small monochrome OLED display, likely the one most of us have sitting in a parts bin somewhere.

  • Arduino ☛ How about a Hallowuino half-dozen?

    It’s almost that time of year again! No chance to 3D print your Arduino®-powered pumpkin project? Didn’t get around to animating the LEDs on your costume? There’s still time, and here’s a half-dozen Hallowuino-themed projects to get you inspired.

  • Chris ☛ Extremely brief history of PDP computers

    I don’t know why I started to put this together. These machines fascinate me, because so much of early computing/hacker type culture happened on them. I started writing a table, but realised a timeline would be more intuitive. In this graph, the price is for a minimal configuration and adjusted for inflation. The time is the memory cycle time, a decent proxy for speed.

• Mobile Systems/Mobile Applications

  • Make Use Of ☛ Android’s Linux Terminal can now run desktop apps, so I tried to replace my laptop for a day

    Replacing a laptop with a phone is all fun and games until there's actual work to finish. Answering emails is one thing, but editing documents, preparing images, and moving between applications without having to fight the interface is what really matters.

    Android's built-in Linux terminal has been improving for a while now, to the point where it can run desktop apps. Desktop software like LibreOffice and GIMP can now run locally inside your phone's Linux environment. Whether that's a setup you can depend on while chasing a deadline, or just another screenshot to share, is a different story entirely.