---
title: "A Monitor Darkly - Red Balloon Security"
description: "See how Red Balloon Security demonstrated methods of exploiting on-screen-display controllers in a computer monitor by loading and executing arbitrary code."
date: "2021-11-19T17:18:01+00:00"
language: "en-US"
canonical_url: "https://xckd6kzuxte054o.onstatic.studio/research/a-monitor-darkly/"
source_url: "https://xckd6kzuxte054o.onstatic.studio/research/a-monitor-darkly/"
content_type: "text/markdown"
---

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# A MONITOR DARKLY










## IS YOUR MONITOR DISPLAYING
THE TRUTH?










Reversing and exploiting ubiquitous on-screen display controllers in modern monitors.
























## A MONITOR DARKLY










## IS YOUR MONITOR DISPLAYING
THE TRUTH?










Reversing and exploiting ubiquitous on-screen display controllers in modern monitors.























## CLIENT





Internal R&D










## YEAR





2017














On-screen-display (OSD) controllers are ubiquitous components in nearly all modern monitors. OSDs are typically used to generate simple menus on the monitor, allowing the user to change settings like brightness, contrast and input source. However, OSDs are effectively independent general-purpose computers that can: read the content of the screen, change arbitrary pixel values, and execute arbitrary code supplied through numerous control channels. This internal research demonstrates multiple methods of loading and executing arbitrary code in a modern monitor and discusses the security implication of this novel attack vector.

 

[https://github.com/RedBalloonShenanigans/MonitorDarkly](https://github.com/RedBalloonShenanigans/MonitorDarkly)























## CLIENT





Internal R&D










## YEAR





2017














On-screen-display (OSD) controllers are ubiquitous components in nearly all modern monitors. OSDs are typically used to generate simple menus on the monitor, allowing the user to change settings like brightness, contrast and input source. However, OSDs are effectively independent general-purpose computers that can: read the content of the screen, change arbitrary pixel values, and execute arbitrary code supplied through numerous control channels. This internal research demonstrates multiple methods of loading and executing arbitrary code in a modern monitor and discusses the security implication of this novel attack vector.

 

[https://github.com/RedBalloonShenanigans/MonitorDarkly](https://github.com/RedBalloonShenanigans/MonitorDarkly)















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