
GE Fridge DRM Workaround - crmrc114
https://gefiltergate.com/
======
beloch
We're used to the idea of this happening when companies sell printers, game
consoles, etc. at the slimmest of margins and rely on the sale of associated
consumables (e.g. ink) to make a profit.

We're starting to see this kind of practice on an increasing number of big-
ticket items where the consumables (filters in this case) represent a tiny
fraction of the overall cost. GE isn't making the majority of their money off
of selling you replacement filters, yet they've gone and done this to make a
few extra bucks. I have a Samsung TV that tries to show me postage stamp sized
ads when I'm in it's interface. I spent thousands on the thing and Samsung
will be lucky to get pennies from those ads. I add filters to block the
domains those ads are coming from to my router periodically, but Samsung keeps
coming up with new ones.

The next TV I buy will not be a Samsung, and I suspect the author of this
article has bought his last GE appliance. Why are companies driving away
people who make multi-thousand dollar purchases with scummy behaviour that
nets them spare change? Do the vast majority of people just not care? That's
the only way the math makes sense.

~~~
tiernano
easy way to solve the problem: disconnect the TV From the internet... do you
really need a smart TV? i got my samsung a few months back, and when setting
it up, never connected it to the wifi or ethernet. I have an AppleTV, XBox One
and NVidia Shield all plugged in and they are the smarts... The TV is JUST A
SCREEN. It shouldnt be any more. It also means that 3 years down the road,
Netflix changes something and your "Smart TV" looses access, your not "forced"
to buy a new one... Apple change something and the AppleTV needs replacing?
its $150 quid. Your TV is $1000+...

~~~
fsflover
Except that I _paid_ not just for the screen, but also for the additional
advertised "smart" features.

~~~
beervirus
Smart TVs are cheaper, not more expensive. You didn’t pay for those
features—you saved money by having them foisted on you.

~~~
fsflover
Even if true, maybe I liked those features (not advertising) and wanted to
have them?

~~~
beervirus
Then the advertising and the spying/telemetry are part of the bargain that you
struck.

~~~
fsflover
According to the GDPR, they cannot be.

------
bronco21016
This is one of those ‘features’ you’ll never discover on the showroom floor,
only after 6 months when it decides to rear its ugly head and the return
policy is long expired. It’s among the most disgusting money grabs I’ve ever
seen in a product.

I ran into this when I bought a set of GE appliances and was furious. I was
happy to find the bypass method after some googling but I’m still holding out
hope that someone hacks the board and just disables the check all together.

When my friend bought his house he was lucky enough to have a refrigerator
with the same ‘feature’. Luckily I was able to warn him right away so he could
gather supplies for the bypass.

Never again will I ever consider GE Appliances and I’m always sure to warn
people.

------
rrmm
Wow this is timely for me. Just ran into this issue a few weeks ago when my
mother's refrigerator needed a filter. I bought the bypass kit and figured I'd
switch the RFID chips in eventually, but I haven't had a chance to due to
everything going on at the moment.

Stuff like this is trash. So often you only find out you have this technology
after it's too late and own an appliance with it.

I am not a fan of more regulations, but if large companies are going to insist
on acting like unprincipled jerk-ass immature children about things, more
regulation is exactly what they're going to get. And I'll gladly vote for
them. If companies show again and again they can not act responsibly without
regulation, I don't have time to listen to them whine about it any longer.

~~~
wu_187
The worst part is often people don't buy their refrigerator, it comes with
their house/apartment as a package deal. So you would literally have no clue
that this is a thing until it happens. And in the case of an apartment, you
literally have no choice in the matter (cant use your own refrigerator) if the
apartment maintenance wont replace the filter.

~~~
greggman3
Where is this? I've been in > 25 apartments. Only once did it come with a
fridge. It was easily 20yrs old, still worked, but 100% sure the landlord
would have let me replace it with my own

~~~
qppo
The only place I've lived where refrigerators weren't the norm in a unit was
Los Angeles.

~~~
vertis
Very rare in Australia for the fridge to be in a rental property unless it's
furnished.

------
fsflover
As the author suggests, please support anti-DRM [0] and right-to-repair [1]
movements!

[0] [https://www.defectivebydesign.org/](https://www.defectivebydesign.org/)

[1] [https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-
Repair/Intro](https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair/Intro)

------
kwhitefoot
Just refuse to buy anything from GE and make sure you tell everyone why. Sony
lost me as a customer when they tried to install a rootkit on my computer. Now
that I know about this sort of thing happening at GE I can cross them off my
list of potential suppliers too (not a big deal of course because GE don't
sell much, perhaps nothing at all, here in Norway).

~~~
kls
I will throw my hat in with you, I have never, ever, ever bought a Sony
product after that incident. Had you or I done the same thing (hacking and
exploiting that many computers) we would probably just be seeing the light of
day now from our stint in prison. They got what amounted to a slap on the
wrist and no one was criminally prosecuted. Therefore I will never purchase
another of their products so long as I live.

As far as the main point of the thread, honestly, the older I get, the more of
a Luddite I become when it comes to home electronics and appliances. I
purchased and restored an older model Viking range due to it being mostly
straight electronics, mechanics and pneumatic. I was able to rebuild the whole
thing in 2 days. Anymore the appliance repair guys don't want to deal with
repairs, unless the appliance is throwing a code and all they have to do is
replace a logic board. Usually they just come out and tell you to buy a new
one from them. So I have gotten to the point where, I just want simple stuff
that I can repair myself. I have a commercial refrigerator and a commercial
stand up freezer for this reason, they are built with repair in mind and
generally use stock interchangeable parts that are simple and durable. If a
person really wants to opt out of this appliance DRM game, buy used commercial
equipment or boutique semi-pro home appliances. They really are better quality
and most are built to be repaired and last a lifetime.

~~~
grogenaut
So sony lost 2 customers. And won the recent console generation.

If you play games are you now boycotting pubg (battleye), riot (valorant
denuvo), Bethesda (doom denuvo), blizzard (warden), or many many other rootkit
anticheats/antipiracy?

~~~
snuxoll
These anticheat systems are not root kits, they do not attempt to conceal
their presence from you nor attempt to prevent their removal.

Are they potential security and stability headaches? Yes, as with anything you
load into your OS kernel. But rootkits they are not.

Valorant’s Vanguard sucks because the thing insists on running 24/7 and
requires a reboot to disable or re-enable. During operation it causes a whole
host of issues from blocking programs to causing BSODs - but it sits there in
plain sight.

Denuvo anti-cheat’s major issue is for whatever godforsaken reason they
decided to bypass ntdll to make some syscalls breaking WINE. Presumably they
did this because ntdll can be hooked like anything else, but this speaks of
poor design more than anything as the kernel-mode driver should be more than
capable of detecting this.

Battleye is...fine. As is Easy Anti-Cheat.

Blizzard’s warden has been a privacy mess over the years with it scanning
window titles and reporting them back. But AFAIK it does all of its work
usermode.

I’m not a huge fan of the level of access modern anticheat packages have on my
system - but with the widely open platform that is PC gaming it’s no surprise
that gamers and developers alike want cheaters to be dealt with. Valorant can
kiss my ass right now though, at least everything else has the decency to only
run when I’m playing a game.

------
gandalfian
I wonder if it is actually made by GE or just rebranded? It's a shame they
could have been the USA Miele but they didn't think it was worth it I guess.
Do you think they ever go to bid for a nucleur power station and the guy goes
"nah, not after that fridge you sold me"?

~~~
nickt
GE Appliances is no longer part of General Electric Company. It’s 90% owned by
the Chinese company Haier and 10% owned by the US-based PE company KKR.
According to Wikipedia [1], they have the right to use the GE branding until
2056.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Appliances](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Appliances)

[Edit: typo]

~~~
nybble41
You think that should make a difference? You sell someone the right to use
your name on their products, _you_ suffer the reputation damage when they
misuse it. If they wanted to preserve the value of their brand then they
should have insisted that the buyer use their own name on all future products.

~~~
nickt
Yes, I agree. My response was more of a response to "they could have been the
USA Miele", which I assume was based on the thought that GE Appliances is an
American company.

------
otterpop
Absolutely losing my shit at "General Electric's Integrated Führer Board(IFB)"

------
Reelin
I make it a point to always expand DRM as digital restrictions management. The
world hardly needs more doublespeak.

> This website is best viewed with proper web browsers such as Lynx or Elinks.

I love it!

~~~
dingaling
One of the few achievements of which I am proud from my time with ${BIGCORP}
was getting 'digital restrictions management' into a C-level deck.

------
TwoBit
Does Consumer Reports not shame them and reject their refrigerators for this?

------
thr0w__4w4y
Serious question: does anyone here know specifically what data is transmitted
such that the filter authenticates correctly to the refrigerator? Guessing it
can't some kind of challenge-response (no processing element on filter)?

I know a little bit about RFID and know a decent amount about DRM in general,
but I'm specifically wondering what type of cryptography (presumably?) is used
here.

I've got to imagine the RFID tag provides some kind of signed data (e.g.
serial number) that can be verified by the fridge's "Führer board" (poster's
term, not mine).

BTW this kind of stuff is everywhere, not just water filters and Keurig
coffee. IMO sometimes perhaps it's justified for safety reasons (consumable
parts of medical devices, laptop batteries[fires], etc.). Not so much maybe
for inkjet/laser printer cartridges, coffee refills, etc.

Side note: I consulted with a printer company maybe 5-6 years ago, and they
pretty much convinced me (brainwashed me?) that their big concern wasn't
revenue stream, but customer experience / damage to the printer. The one and
only time I've owned an inkjet, I bought a cheap ink refill and it printed
like shit and eventually ruptured and damaged the printer, so perhaps I was
pre-disposed to believing the printer company.

------
baybal2
Product as a Service at its finest

You buy a thing, but still don't own it after the purchase.

Think of having to pay rent to live in your own house.

~~~
bb123
> Think of having to pay rent to live in your own house.

So land taxes?

~~~
lordofgibbons
I hope you enjoy roads leading up to your house, and schooling for your
children because that's what your land tax is paying for.

This is more like "protection" racket

~~~
bb123
I'm in the UK, which doesn't have land taxes. Stamp duty is one time payment.

~~~
daveoc64
So you pay Council Tax then, which is pretty much the equivalent.

------
jotm
Haha, the Swap-a-roo method used to work with some old HP inkjets. You needed
3 old cartridges iirc, install one, power on, install the second, install the
third.

That's it, the next one you install would be considered "new" and would work.
Apparently the printers kept track of the cartridge IDs but had a short
memory.

Refill all of them and use until they start leaking (so, years of constant
refills). Simpler times.

------
wil421
Love the low tech method of taping the RFID to the sensor.

My whirlpool fridge just makes an annoying high pitched beep when the filter’s
been there for ~3 months. I get used it the noise but my wife hates it. It’s
been beeping for 3 months now.

~~~
xtracto
Cant you like disconnect the buzzer?

------
cosmodisk
This kind of stuff is really FU to customer's face. Phones with apps you can't
delete even if you just paid $1K for it. laptops with soldiered RAM so you
won't buy more. TVs with some useless preinstalled junk nobody needs.

I could understand when they do it on so called loss leaders,where money comes
from support or refills ( e.g printer), but when you pay a premium for what
you think would be a high quality product and you get some weird crap,it just
makes you hate brands.

------
dotCOMmie
How long before the fridge will "protect" us from "choice of milk".

I'm sorry Dave, I cannot refrigerate unauthorized milk for you.

~~~
jpindar
See Cory Doctorow's story "Unauthorized Bread".

------
rkagerer
_Only our water filters are made to xyz magical standards with pure unicorn
piss and rainbows._

------
ed25519FUUU
Cheeky post. We decided to bypass our fridge filter entirely, and instead run
water from our under-sink 3M filtrate filter directly to the filters output.
We just change that every six months or so and it’s used for tap water.

------
yellowbuilding
>From the patents it looks like I can thank inventors Mr. Krause and Mr.
Chernov for their freedom sucking, major appliance disabling, communist,
1984-esque idea.

GE is, historically, among the most anti-communist of all American companies.
Its role in breaking and/or corrupting major unions and collective bargaining
rights in the post-war era had few equivalents. GE, as well as the US patent
system, exists in absolute service of the capitalist system.

~~~
netsharc
The author throwing all sorts of names (Hitler was mentioned too) made me
think he's quite childish and immature..

------
TwoBit
I thought you could avoid having a filter by using the bypass plug you get
with the fridge. "If you do not want to use a water filter in the
refrigerator, the filter can be replaced by the filter bypass plug that came
with the refrigerator."

~~~
seszett
It's the solution mentioned in the article, lifting the RFID from the bypass
cartridge to install it directly on the receiver circuit board. It allows you
to keep using an "expired" filter rather than no filter at all.

~~~
Reelin
But why would I filter potable tap water?

If it really tastes that bad in a particular region, central filters that you
install where the pipe enters the house are cheap. Just make sure to get one
that you can use generic filter media with (ie it's basically just a tube of
some standard size).

~~~
cesarb
We're taught since childhood that one should only drink filtered or boiled
water. It's not a matter of taste, it's a matter of pathogenic microorganisms.
I would feel very uncomfortable drinking water directly from the plumbing
without it going through a filter.

~~~
seszett
Most people in western countries drink straight tap water without filtering
and certainly not boiling it.

Those things are absolutely not needed in countries with a modern water
distribution network, they just bring added comfort.

~~~
cesarb
I live in a large city in a major western country (Brazil), and I don't know
anybody who drinks straight tap water without filtering. Every house or
workplace has one or more water filters, normally connected to the plumbing
(that is, there's a separate filtered tap for you to drink from), though there
are also standalone filters (which are filled manually). Water for cooking is
usually boiled (as a normal part of the cooking). We certainly learn in school
that, to prevent diseases, water must be filtered or boiled (or bottled
mineral water).

~~~
jameshilliard
Brazil doesn't have effectively universally safe to drink tap water like the
US and most western countries have.

------
jhallenworld
This must be the new way to make fridges go obsolete. The old way is to have
some part burried in your fridge which is guaranteed to wear out.

I'm in the middle of fixing my old GE fridge. Buried in it is a condensation
trough made out of galvanized steel sheet metal. Eventually it rusts away and
fridge will make a puddle. Replacement part is $60. Of all the things that
could be made of plastic, this should be it..

------
protomyth
At this point lobbying for a set of laws like the car part and repair laws for
appliances and electronics probably would be the best. Its a older generation
in Congress so they understand those laws. You can also make some damn
embarrassing commercials if you frame it that they want to make Jiffy Lube
illegal then relate that to your appliances.

------
xrd
This is so funny, the author has a great voice.

It would be even funnier if there was a note at the top that said: "Note: this
article was published posthumously by his wife. He died of contaminated water.
The fridge tried to warn him."

------
mwexler
No dates on the post. Anyone know date range this applies to? Is it still
happening today?

And does this happen to other fridges (I see Samsungs in a few stores, for
example, are they similarly crippled)?

~~~
bronco21016
My GE refrigerator is 2 years old. I’m fairly certain this is still happening
as I see it mentioned on various forums related to DIY, home repair, etc
pretty frequently.

------
pojntfx
Imagine posting this article and claiming this is communism.

Another gem from this site:

This website is best viewed with proper web browsers such as Lynx or Elinks.

C'mon. Don't make us Anti-DRM people look like utter lunatics.

------
milindss
The chip on the Filter-bypass simply pops out. You can mark where the filter
chip aligns on the refrigerator wall and stick it there with a tape, no need
to get to the circuit board.

------
forgingahead
"Fridge DRM" was never something I thought I would see

------
driverdan
Is there a site with a list of hardware that uses DRM like this?

------
carlyfan
> From the patents it looks like I can thank inventors Mr. Krause and Mr.
> Chernov for their freedom sucking, major appliance disabling, communist,
> 1984-esque idea.

I know it’s just a figure of speech. But having DRM on a fucking fridge filter
is the most capitalistic idea that I have ever seen. Communists don’t do this.

~~~
dfox
From my childhood memories, appliances requiring payment to work is literally
the first example of why capitalism is bad in somewhat propagandist children's
book Dunno on the Moon.

~~~
specialist
Great tip, thanks.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunno_on_the_Moon#Lunar_capita...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunno_on_the_Moon#Lunar_capitalism)

I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress as a teenager. Part of the techno-anarchy-
libertarian (or whatever we call it) corpus for us nerds.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress)

Now I want to read both, compare and contrast, against each other, and against
the real world.

------
davexunit
This is good info, I have a GE fridge with DRM filters, but the author's anti-
communist interjections are really strange.

~~~
kortex
Right? DRM water filters is about one of the most neoliberal ideas out there.

------
ertemplin
It looks like GE sells a bypass kit for $20 now:
[https://www.amazon.com/GENERAL-ELECTRIC-Plug-Bypass-
WR17X236...](https://www.amazon.com/GENERAL-ELECTRIC-Plug-Bypass-
WR17X23645/dp/B072DX2MQ2)

~~~
rtkwe
That bypass kit is a critical part of the work around the whole page is about.

------
watertom
John Deere

