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Neywinyyesterday at 5:24 PM3 repliesview on HN

I think it's about being a configuration management nightmare. If every device has a unique password, you need the decoder ring for serial number to password. However, not all processors have unique IDs. So you either need to find a way to reliably serialize each board during manufacturing and hope it stays (like a sticker/laser/printer/etc) or add a serial number chip which is cost and complexity. It's not impossible, it's just extra work that usually goes unrewarded.


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HFguyyesterday at 5:28 PM

I'm a long way from embedded development. But I was under the impression a lot of microcontrollers these days have some ID capability built in, even some relatively low-end ones. This strikes me more as laziness than anything.

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NegativeKyesterday at 7:08 PM

> It's not impossible, it's just extra work that usually goes unrewarded.

That sounds like profit motivated negligence, and it sounds like a standard justification for why Europe is going to hold companies liable.

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Msurrowyesterday at 5:46 PM

I have not knowledge of this kind of software dev/hw production, so can you please explain why the units cant just be born with a default pass and then have the setup process (which is always there) Force the owner to set a new password?

Knowledge or not, this..

> It's not impossible, it's just extra work that usually goes unrewarded.

.. is just not an acceptable way for business to think and operate i 2026, especially not when it comes to internet connected video enabled devices

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