ATMs & Kiosks

Hackers unlock secret repair menu for McDonald’s self-serve ice cream machines

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April 26, 2021

A hacker team has created a device that will allow a McDonald's franchisee to unlock information about the self-service ice cream machines that have a reputation for not working, according to a Wired report.

Twitter comments relay the frustration that some customers claim to have had with the machines. There are also tweets from people who claim they have never had this problem with McDonald's machines.

Taylor, an equipment manufacturer, sells the machines to McDonald's restaurant owners, and has a distributor network that offers maintenance contracts for the machines.

Hackers Jeremy O'Sullivan and Melissa Nelson have been selling a device called Kytch for two years that a franchisee can install inside their Taylor ice cream machine and connect it to their Wi-Fi to gain access to otherwise unavailable information. Kytch intercepts and eavesdrops on communications between its components and sends them to a different interface. The Kytch displays all of the hidden internal data and suggests troubleshooting solutions via an app or the web.