Rickmote Controller Rickrolls All Nearby Chromecasts

If you're using a Chromecast one day, only to have Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up video start playing on its own, you now know who to blame. Dan Petro has posted a write up over on the Bishop Fox blog detailing the Rickmote Controller, a DIY project that your Chromecast-using friends and neighbors likely won't find as amusing as you do.

The Rickmote Controller allows someone to rickroll nearby Chromecast users with a single press of a button, which disconnects the Chromecast from its WiFi. Once disconnected, the Rickmote steps in and offers up an alternative, pulling up the music video on YouTube.

If you want to make one of your own, Bishop Fox has made the code available on GitHub, where you can also download instructions leading you through the processor. Full details on the project won't be revealed until HOPE X in New York, however, where it'll be explained in the talk "Rickrolling your Neighbors with Google Chromecast."

At the heart of it all is a Raspberry Pi and "a lot of Wi-Fi shenanigans". The biggest issue with the remote right now is that it de-authenticates every WiFi network it has access to, which "is generally very rude." A work is in progress that the makers say will make it less intrusive to unsuspecting victims.

VIA: Digital Trends