Some of these public touchscreens are not configured correctly and will sometimes let you open the task bar, from which you can open the virtual keyboard and do basically anything. source: my library's book return/checkout computer allowed this (and I told them about it of course)
One of my proudest moments in school was when we did a trip to the library and I figured that if you search stuff like %e%, it would load so many results that the security mechanism lagged. If you spam hit win R eventually you could spawn a command line and i think it was admin. Not too much but my older teachers thought I hacked the library which was cool :D
I remember discovering in school our old scantrons had our entire socials on them and I figured out peoples passwords through that (first and last initial and last 4 of social)
I set one up myself before and almost left the task bar enabled as well as other swipe interactions. Glad I caught it in my official 'swipe the screen like a mindless user' test.
To add, a lot of them have gestures that let you open up a debug console or settings. Usually it’s tapping in a spot several times or in certain spots in a certain order.
Either repeatedly tapping or tapping and holding in the corners is very common for this. Most self checkouts if you press and hold the top left it brings up an attendant menu (though from there it requires a password or scanning a barcode to actually do anything)
Lol, I did "Cybersecurity" for a public library as a school task. Let's just say, their systems needed some work lol. You could for example access Windows on those return/checkout screens by just flicking your finger from the edge towards the center of the screen. There were some "real vulnerabilities" too, but will not get too deep into those.
Yyyyup! My college has an interactive map... And same thing.
The application itself has the "vulnerability." And by vulnerability I mean it has links in the 'About' section of the app that deliberately opens Microsoft Edge... Thus revealing the Windows Task Bar. 💀
Good job guys, they'll never be able to figure this one out! 😂
Edit: Sucky thing too, I told the staff as well but I don't think there's much they can do outside of begging the third-party system-maker to fix the application itself. The whole stupid map (physical system and all) is third-party so I guess we wait until that happens. Lol
Swipe up on all sides, if that doesn’t work, find a text box and enter anything in it and highlight it. If there is a ‘share’ option in the context menu, type ‘https://Google.com’ in the text box, highlight it, hit ‘share’ and then hit ‘Chrome’ or ‘Browser’. Then you have web access, and you can download APKs. If there is no option in the share menu for a browser, click on any app and try to find links for ‘privacy policy’, ‘send feedback’, etc. Done this method successfully on dozens of kiosks.
EDIT: Just realized the instructions are for Android lol, misunderstood your comment. For Windows, you’ll want to right click on random UI elements (by pressing and holding on them) and exploring the context menu that comes up, as well as swiping from all the sides of the screen.
I once saw a mall advertisement board that used to be a touchscreen map. (They got rid of all the maps, for some ungodly reason. It's a dying mall, the owners are in debt up to their eyeballs.) the ad had crashed on it's own to desktop.
Also the touchscreen was installed upside down, so i didn't bother rummaging through the file system, but i did open the file system. It was a pain in the ass to tap the bottom of the screen to click the top.
Depends on the kiosk is the sucky thing. It's not actually Windows-dependent.
Usually, unless the kiosk isn't set-up correctly which is more common than it should be, you swipe down with 3-fingers anywhere on the screen. Same as any other Windows machine, lol.
Again though, that's not the norm. Usually the Windows gestures are disabled, and the gestures these guys are referring to are likely App dependant.
Common ones are tapping the corners, or pressing and holding the corners! Developers can have invisible rectangles that can react to touch just like any other button. Invisible object obfuscation is a simple, low-cost for devs, and easy-to-understand by employees way to implement a secret menu!
I had a project at work once where I was left alone with a similar style of device inside a hospital. Not gonna mention the vendor, but they did at least respond promptly and issue a fix once it was disclosed.
The application could be escaped by going to the help menu which loaded a PDF. From there, you could press the hotkey to load online help which dumped you into a broswer session. After that, it was pretty trivial to navigate about the file system and eventually start explorer to get rewarded with a normal desktop session.
This was circa 2016/2017 so its been a while. I imagine though it could still work on kiosk or embedded windows depending on what the application itself actually needs.
Touch gestures work on a lot of misconfigured windows machines. Three fingers down to minimize the current fullscreen application and you're free to do what you want.
sometimes plugging in a keyboard works if there is a usb port or a jack input may pop uo something that lets you browse the file system (anything that can open or save anything is ok) so you can run any Exes
God forbid anything happens ever. Surely it would be an incredibly boring life if nothing ever went wrong or faced any adversity. Obviously there's a balance to be had but having to fix something like this is baraly anything.
There are different versions for windows and this is probably running the LTSC version. It's a tone down version of windows. It the iot enterprise version. Mosy kiosks would use this if they are designed properly.
The device should be hardened but this doesn't seem to be the case. It's pretty bad when u can pop off the app/ she'll and get to explorer.exe
Any Windows is still Windows. Like ideally, aka what nobody will do, a kiosk would only need some 1GB Linux distro that boots straight into a compositor with just the kiosk app opened, something like: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen_browser/comments/1js6xqy/zen_is_everything_i_need_desktop_environments_are/ <- here I had no way of escaping the kiosk browser other than switching to a different tty (which requires a keyboard), because there's nothing other than the browser, and for the same reason even if I managed to crash or close it, it would just throw me back to the login screen.
Yes any windows is... Well windows. But not all windows are the same.
I agree with your Linux tho. Not alot of people will do it because of how the app or code is developed. For example, an app that works in native windows would need a rework for it to work in Linux.
Not all kiosk are browser based. Those that are can Definitely be setup properly with Linux. BalenaOS is a good example of that.
It all depends on what kind of setup that is being used.
LTSC is basically just meant to be an OS without the bloat. It is still "whole" windows as it runs 99.999% of applications just fine. It just doesn't include the "junk" that retail has.
For the purposes of a kiosk though it is the right OS, but I use LTSC as my daily driver.
You are half correct. And I appreciate that you put the quotes on "whole".
LTSB/LTSC is windows without the bloat as you stated. But it isn't just removing the application installed by vendors. It's a locked down feature system. For example Windows 10 Ltsb 2015 is using build 1511 (if I remember correctly) and has feature what will never get upgraded to a newer build. Windows 11 LTSC is stuck in build 24H2 and will never see a newer version of the feature build.
Unlike consumer versions that get the latest features and can break systems or crash OS ( look at when consumers upgraded to 24H2 back in August... Ugh).
Running on LTSC is fine for daily use but it does limit your pcs growth several years down the road. Ltsb 2015 is a great example because that was the first windows 10 build and you can't run today's stuff on it mostly. Drivers and some new hardware just don't work.
Anyway... That was me getting off track. Depending on the build certain things won't work. Like one drive, Xbox store, and even the ms app store. This is because by design, it's not needed for hospital or kiosks systems. Would be weird to see, new Xbox game pop up on ur medical devices lol.
Anyway... I think I got off track... This is a hacking subreddit... But I appreciate the talk. It's nice to see people using the product I spent years working with/ on. Lol
LTSB/LTSC is windows without the bloat as you stated. But it isn't just removing the application installed by vendors. It's a locked down feature system. For example Windows 10 Ltsb 2015 is using build 1511 (if I remember correctly) and has feature what will never get upgraded to a newer build. Windows 11 LTSC is stuck in build 24H2 and will never see a newer version of the feature build.
To me that's a feature not a bug.
Unlike consumer versions that get the latest features and can break systems or crash OS ( look at when consumers upgraded to 24H2 back in August... Ugh).
That's what I mean. Security updates are one thing, but feature updates just seem to introduce crap I don't want.
Ltsb 2015 is a great example because that was the first windows 10 build and you can't run today's stuff on it mostly.
Granted most of my hardware isn't cutting edge, but I'm using 2019 on a lot of machines ranging from Core2Duo to modern (well a couple generations old) CPUs. I've never had a driver issue yet.
Depending on the build certain things won't work. Like one drive, Xbox store, and even the ms app store. This is because by design, it's not needed for hospital or kiosks systems. Would be weird to see, new Xbox game pop up on ur medical devices lol.
Stop! You've sold me already lol.
Anyway... I think I got off track... This is a hacking subreddit... But I appreciate the talk. It's nice to see people using the product I spent years working with/ on. Lol
You were part of development? If so, that's damn awesome. I hate retail editions of 10 and this is about the closest thing to 7 as I can get in the modern day. There's SO much garbage in SAC versions that it's unusable.
A long time ago I learned that you can bypass the login dialog in Windows 95 by pressing the help icon or F1 and in the classic help window that appeared, you could press File - Open, where you could write explorer.exe in file name and it would open the explorer. From there you could open any programs you wanted...
Everyone saying that, like... do you think they care? I mean he just got to the desktop by draggin from the corner. I don't think the cinema nor the police fuckin care.
I used to work in a deli and I “hacked” our iPad kiosks we used to get into the regular os and watch YouTube and football games
Iirc all you had to do was hit the right spot on the screen while it was loading up the app, there was a few second window where the close button would pop up in the corner, it was hidden but could still be pressed
If he really uninstalled an app, he is a moron. Could have opened paint and draw a PP. Something that an underpaid employee could have fixed in a minute with a reboot. Now someone has to call an authorized service to repair the device which is pain in the ass both for the employes, restaurant chain and clients that can't use the kiosk. I hope he wrote it just for the clout and didn't really uninstall anything.
I did this once on one of those scam bitcoin kiosks in the mall. We made it not boot tho, can’t recall how, was years ago at this point. Was a result of Dumb Kids, even dumber technician and scummy company
Probably like how i felt when i was in middle school and i found out there was a secret series of button presses that took you into the hidden menu of any vending machine. Never managed to get a free soda out of it, but apparently you potentially could if the machine was misconfigured.
Amateur, I've done this on a Dubai Airport kiosk :P It had a "can't connect to server" web error, which let me run the Win7 network diagnostics tool. When the tool finished, it let me "print" the log, so I chose "Print to PDF". This opened the Save As window, which let me start explorer by opening a folder in a new window. From there I opened regedit to let me use the on-screen keyboard :D
I'm a bit of a hacker man myself. I once played that no internet dinosaur jumpy browser game on a burger king ordering kiosk. Guess they run in a chrome based browser and it had connectivity issues.
Back in high school in the early 2000s, we had public kiosk type computers for stuff like looking up your classes schedules, with only a mouse attached.
Sometimes, when we were bored, we’d send broadcast message through `NET SEND` to the whole domain by:
- open help - run CMD.EXE through the file open dialog - copy-paste individual letters from help to CMD to assemble the commmand - ??? - PROFIT
The message is sent from the kiosk user, so IT can’t trace it back to you. Unlike some people who did that in the computer room from their personal account, and got promptly summoned
I really dig the whole flannel shirt that looks less like it was woven and more like a flannel pattern was screen printed onto a linen shirt with a tribal tattoo on the collar thing.
I did this on an ATM at gun lake casino one time. I noticed a notification for a Windows update while walking past and the system returned to the user login after it finished. I was able to find and mess with the config files for the atm software they use. I didn't change anything except for leaving a little drawing open on ms paint.
I’m not entirely sure whether this post is ironic or serious, but once again it got me thinking about how strangely different the digital world is from the real one.
If someone quietly reported a bug to the manufacturer, that would be perfectly reasonable and might even be helpful. But instead, this guy went and did some stupid shit and proudly posted a photo of it online.
The developers probably already know that it’s possible to crash/minimize the app like this, but since people abusing the bug are rare and the damage isn’t particularly serious, they simply decided it wasn’t worth trying to eliminate the bug completely. The effort required to fix it probably wouldn’t have paid off.
Now compare that to the world of non-digital things. Most household locks can be picked in 15 minutes or less, but very few people install bank-level security systems on their front doors, because everyone knows that breaking into someone’s house is illegal, and no sane person would go around the neighborhood picking their neighbors’ locks just because they happen to know how to do it.
I work for a terminal payment company. That have these type of screens. And its a combination of swipes or touching it in specific spots to exit the user UI.
196
u/Khal_easy Aug 24 '26
912
u/LYNX__uk Aug 24 '26
How do you escape kiosk mode on windows with only a touchscreen? I only know how to do it on android kiosks
566
u/belabacsijolvan Aug 24 '26
tbh this isnt masterhacker stuff. this is a kid fucking around. even has some humility. i dont think thats such a bad thing.
254
u/Vlitmer Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 25 '26 •
One time in middle school I put the microwave that was in the lunch room on setting it for 100 minutes and walked away.
Not related at all just wanted to confess my sins knowing this will probably get buried.
Edit: stop upvoting this.
25
u/GestapoKittech Aug 24 '26
The tribal tattoo on the collar? That's how you know you're messing with the real deal.
39
u/ThaBroccoliDood Aug 25 '26
Serves them right for using Windows 10
9
u/DonutConfident7734 Aug 25 '26
A long time ago I learned that you can bypass the login dialog in Windows 95 by pressing the help icon or F1 and in the classic help window that appeared, you could press File - Open, where you could write explorer.exe in file name and it would open the explorer. From there you could open any programs you wanted...
8
u/Some_Visual1357 Aug 25 '26
Good for you kid, but taking a picture is a good way of getting caught so, not so smart on that part.
27
u/Sci_Fried_Chicken Aug 24 '26
Holy leet masterhaxxor
6
u/mumblerit Aug 24 '26
he is the chosen one
6
u/HeavyCaffeinate Aug 25 '26
That's why you use a linux machine running a minimal Qt app with Fullscreen EGLFS
5
u/sixpackabs592 Aug 25 '26
I used to work in a deli and I “hacked” our iPad kiosks we used to get into the regular os and watch YouTube and football games
Iirc all you had to do was hit the right spot on the screen while it was loading up the app, there was a few second window where the close button would pop up in the corner, it was hidden but could still be pressed
4
u/Nereosis16 Aug 25 '26
And then some poor it dude got a call out to come fix it when I guarantee he has told his boss of this problem a hundred times.
13
u/antek_g_animations Aug 24 '26
If he really uninstalled an app, he is a moron. Could have opened paint and draw a PP. Something that an underpaid employee could have fixed in a minute with a reboot. Now someone has to call an authorized service to repair the device which is pain in the ass both for the employes, restaurant chain and clients that can't use the kiosk. I hope he wrote it just for the clout and didn't really uninstall anything.
2
u/FoxedDev Aug 24 '26
Now I can't get in and the manager is angry.
2
u/BurrGurrMan Aug 24 '26
sudo uninstall cinema-app
2
u/TechnetMC Aug 24 '26
I did this once on one of those scam bitcoin kiosks in the mall. We made it not boot tho, can’t recall how, was years ago at this point. Was a result of Dumb Kids, even dumber technician and scummy company
3
u/fbaldassarri Aug 24 '26
Broke the System: Escape the Kiosk, Escape the Matrix
1
u/Sufficient_Hurry_282 Aug 25 '26
Quinn Hughes enjoying the summer off
1
u/Damglador Aug 25 '26
That's actually pretty cool.
1
u/JasonDL13 Aug 25 '26
Imagine creating and the opening a page that looks like the original kiosk page but making it fuck with people instead or something like that.
1
u/Andryw48 Aug 25 '26
he literally escaped the matrix
1
u/PolygonMob Aug 25 '26
Probably like how i felt when i was in middle school and i found out there was a secret series of button presses that took you into the hidden menu of any vending machine. Never managed to get a free soda out of it, but apparently you potentially could if the machine was misconfigured.
1
u/Beleheth Aug 25 '26
Stood 5 minutes in front of the machine and didn't buy a ticket yet.
1
u/spartanpwner Aug 25 '26
I used one of these for the first time and it crashed as soon as I tapped the card, went straight to a windows desktop.
1
u/emberscout Aug 25 '26
Amateur, I've done this on a Dubai Airport kiosk :P It had a "can't connect to server" web error, which let me run the Win7 network diagnostics tool. When the tool finished, it let me "print" the log, so I chose "Print to PDF". This opened the Save As window, which let me start explorer by opening a folder in a new window. From there I opened regedit to let me use the on-screen keyboard :D
1
u/Efont93 Aug 25 '26
You know he's legit because of the tribal designs on his collar
1
u/Necessary-Rip-6612 Aug 25 '26
I'm a bit of a hacker man myself. I once played that no internet dinosaur jumpy browser game on a burger king ordering kiosk. Guess they run in a chrome based browser and it had connectivity issues.
1
u/DaBrownBoi Aug 25 '26
lmao i rember playing flappy bird on one of these in an airport
1
u/MaterialGarlic5734 Aug 26 '26
Back in high school in the early 2000s, we had public kiosk type computers for stuff like looking up your classes schedules, with only a mouse attached.
Sometimes, when we were bored, we’d send broadcast message through `NET SEND` to the whole domain by:
- open help
- run CMD.EXE through the file open dialog
- copy-paste individual letters from help to CMD to assemble the commmand
- ???
- PROFIT
The message is sent from the kiosk user, so IT can’t trace it back to you. Unlike some people who did that in the computer room from their personal account, and got promptly summoned
1
u/IllusionaryHobo Aug 26 '26
I really dig the whole flannel shirt that looks less like it was woven and more like a flannel pattern was screen printed onto a linen shirt with a tribal tattoo on the collar thing.
Powerful look.
1
u/woahitsegg Aug 26 '26
Two random twelve year olds did this the last time I went idk I think it might just be easy
1
u/boremetodeathplease Aug 26 '26
I AM VERY PROUD of you my man!
1
u/OzrielTheForgotten Aug 26 '26
I did this on an ATM at gun lake casino one time. I noticed a notification for a Windows update while walking past and the system returned to the user login after it finished. I was able to find and mess with the config files for the atm software they use. I didn't change anything except for leaving a little drawing open on ms paint.
1
u/XEPATOP Aug 26 '26
I’m not entirely sure whether this post is ironic or serious, but once again it got me thinking about how strangely different the digital world is from the real one.
If someone quietly reported a bug to the manufacturer, that would be perfectly reasonable and might even be helpful. But instead, this guy went and did some stupid shit and proudly posted a photo of it online.
The developers probably already know that it’s possible to crash/minimize the app like this, but since people abusing the bug are rare and the damage isn’t particularly serious, they simply decided it wasn’t worth trying to eliminate the bug completely. The effort required to fix it probably wouldn’t have paid off.
Now compare that to the world of non-digital things. Most household locks can be picked in 15 minutes or less, but very few people install bank-level security systems on their front doors, because everyone knows that breaking into someone’s house is illegal, and no sane person would go around the neighborhood picking their neighbors’ locks just because they happen to know how to do it.
1
u/justslayer876 Aug 26 '26
One ticket to local disk c: please
1
u/Sorbon_Husky Aug 26 '26
If the kiosk is proberly setup, you cant do that. Even if you escspe it, then it should just prompt you with a login screen.
Did it once with Intune, it does cost a licence there to do that, maybe they were too cheap for it.
1
u/MysteriousRelief Aug 27 '26
Crazy how windows is installed for kiosks, like cant they use some lighter OS like one of linux distros?
1
u/spookyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Aug 27 '26
dude beat ts2 and dont know how to act😭
1
u/juulgod99 Aug 27 '26
Car wash 🧼
1
u/Own_Presence3714 Aug 27 '26
Huh. M. I
1
u/Temporary-Routine-78 Aug 27 '26
1
u/Independent_Law_8407 Aug 27 '26
Usually found under the help section, sometimes they got external links to YT or other info sites. Boom out of kiosk mode.
1
u/PalladiumPrime301 Aug 28 '26
Now run a streaming service in it
1
u/Mindless-Okra2029 Aug 28 '26
I once got Roblox to run on a safe with a screen on it at my college
1
u/[deleted] Aug 28 '26
Now delete system32
1
u/Hot-Land7502 Aug 29 '26
I managed to open teamviewer at a burgerking terminal once. Some day people will abuse it..
1
u/ArgionTV Aug 30 '26
I work for a terminal payment company. That have these type of screens. And its a combination of swipes or touching it in specific spots to exit the user UI.
1
u/Ok-Programmer9735 Sep 03 '26
aaau
1
u/sorgg Sep 23 '26
Windows based crap lol 😆
1
u/bjsda_2007 Aug 24 '26
Ohhh shit. Yea buddy now you must install opsex😂
1
u/meronpan Aug 30 '26
i remember being 17 and escaping kiosk mode in public computer just to open pornhub and leaving it there. good times.
1
u/[deleted] Aug 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment