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posted by janrinok on Wednesday April 15 2020, @03:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the takes-your-breath-away dept.

Medical device "jailbreak" could help solve the dangerous shortage of ventilators:

[...] Security researcher Trammell Hudson analyzed the AirSense 10—the world's most widely used CPAP—and made a startling discovery. Although its manufacturer says the AirSense 10 would require "significant rework to function as a ventilator," many ventilator functions were already built into the device firmware.

Its manufacturer, ResMed, says the $700 device solely functions as a continuous positive airway pressure machine used to treat sleep apnea. It does this by funneling air into a mask. ResMed says the device can't work as a bilevel positive airway pressure device, which is a more advanced machine that pushes air into a mask and then pulls it back out. With no ability to work in both directions or increase the output when needed, the AirSense 10 can't be used as the type of ventilator that could help patients who are struggling to breathe. After reverse-engineering the firmware, Hudson says the ResMed claim is simply untrue.

To demonstrate his findings, Hudson on Tuesday is releasing a patch that he says unlocks the hidden capabilities buried deep inside the AirSense 10. The patch is dubbed Airbreak in a nod to jailbreaks that hobbyists use to remove technical barriers Apple developers erect inside iPhones and iPads. Whereas jailbreaks unlock functions that allow the installation of unauthorized apps and the accessing of log files and forensic data, Airbreak allows the AirSense 10 to work as a bilevel positive airway pressure machine, a device that many people refer to as a BiPAP.

"Our changes bring the AirSense S10 to near feature parity with BiPAP machines from the same manufacturer, boost the maximum pressure output available, and provide a starting point to add more advanced emergency ventilator functionality," Hudson and other researchers wrote on their website disclosing the findings.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Wednesday April 15 2020, @09:22PM

    by Barenflimski (6836) on Wednesday April 15 2020, @09:22PM (#983231)

    I love finding new ways to use our current equipment. I enjoy hacks and alternate uses. In our legal environment today, how does this help though?

    These certainly aren't going to be certified by any agency that we know of for many reasons. Insurance companies aren't going to insure these. Liability laws make each part of the chain wholly responsible for the resulting complications. The company that owns these isn't going to apply for a new certification. If someone dies on one of these, some lawyer will file a lawsuit on their behalf for negligence against every piece of the chain, and possibly even the various parts makers for anything inside the device. Yes, this may save 1 extra person, and I'm all for that, but with the threat of bankruptcy and the never ending lawsuits, what large company will ever stand up to that? Anyone that goes outside of this will be called unethical and may very well lose every certification they've ever received in life. Ventilators great. System bad.

    Now if we're going to discuss changing liability laws, insurance agencies and some basic tenants of the realities of life, I'm down for that. Otherwise, I'm going to enjoy the hack and hope a good writer ads this to a good science fiction movie.

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