alt Hacker News>I had Claude write a tool to patch out the table entry for camera activity, fix up the integrity hash, and flash it to the camera. A quick test showed that the green LED that normally illuminates while recording no longer turned on. Horrifying!
Oof. Apple claims this is not possible for macbook cameras because the LED can't be controlled from software. Wish more manufacturers would do the same.
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One of my old Logitech webcams have its recording light wired up to V4L2 protocol directly. I can change its recording light mode (on/off/blink) from software by changing recording light mode directly. Wonder whether that Insta360 also had that.
I'd have tried that first before diving into the firmware head-first.
Apple also claims that iMessage is end to end encrypted. Their privacy stance is 99% posturing.
> the LED can't be controlled from software
If you look at tear downs apparently it is connected to the webcam so it is energized when the webcam receives power making it nearly impossible to defeat.
You can say a lot about Apple but the engineering is clever at the hardware level.