Watercolor cyberpunk close-up of a Raspberry Pi 2 held between glowing pink and purple fingers.

The Xenon Death Flash: How a Camera Nearly Killed the Raspberry Pi 2

I’ve seen plenty of weird computer bugs in my time, but nothing quite like what Peter Onion discovered in February 2015. He was proudly photographing his brand new Raspberry Pi 2 when something bizarre happened—every time his camera flash went off, his Pi instantly powered down. At first, Peter thought it was just a coincidence. But after it happened three times in a row, he realized he’d stumbled onto something unprecedented. His post to the Raspberry Pi forums with the innocent title “Why is the PI2 camera-shy?” would soon reveal one of the strangest hardware vulnerabilities in modern computing history. ...