"A Janet Jackson Song Could Crash Windows XP Laptops"

According to a Microsoft software engineer, a sound frequency in Janet Jackson's famous Rhythm Nation song could disrupt a laptop hard drive used in a number of Windows XP notebook models. In a blog post, Microsoft software engineer Raymond Chen described the incident, saying he heard it from a colleague in Windows XP product support. Jackson's 1989 hit song has the potential to disrupt a model 5400rpm laptop hard drive that was used in a variety of notebooks. Playing the music video on one laptop caused another laptop nearby to crash, despite the fact that the other laptop was not playing the video. This discovery led Microsoft to the conclusion that the problem was with laptop hard drives, which had a natural resonant frequency. When an object is subjected to a certain external force, it will naturally vibrate at this frequency. Glass, for example, can vibrate and even shatter when a soundwave with a high enough amplitude bombards it with its natural frequency. This song contained a frequency matching the natural resonant frequency of the hard drive used by the laptops. As a result, playing the song would cause the moving disks on the hard drive to vibrate excessively, resulting in a crash. To address the issue, the laptop manufacturer added a custom filter in the audio system of the device that could remove the resonant frequency during any audio playback. The Rhythm Nation-hard drive issue has been assigned its own cybersecurity vulnerability designation under CVE-2022-38392. This article continues to discuss the potential crashing of Windows XP laptops using Jackson's famous Rhythm Nation song and the issue becoming a cybersecurity vulnerability. 

PCMag reports "A Janet Jackson Song Could Crash Windows XP Laptops"