How one user ‘hacked’ the OnePlus 2 invite system
Part of the strategy that keeps OnePlus different to its rivals is in the supply of its handsets; while other companies let you buy one as easily as possible, OnePlus claims to keep its inventory in check by using an invite system.
OnePlus in video:
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Its first handset, the OnePlus One, debuted the invite system and a fair amount of issues including poorly conceived marketing campaigns and a lack of supply resulted in several tweaks to invites for the OnePlus 2. The company said they had 30 to 50 times the amount of inventory at the launch of OnePlus One available for its successor but despite this, there’s still some confusion over the invite system as there’s several ways to get an invite to buy the handset.
While some users can gain invites having been one of the early backers of the OnePlus One, many have had to sign up to OnePlus’ registration list, which currently sits at over 1.5 million registrations. A user found that despite signing up and being number 9,000 on the list, he was pushed back down to 70,000 after other users climbed above him by through referrals.
What did he do? As Jake Cooper says, he took it to OnePlus:
You wanna dance OnePlus? Let’s dance.
To simplify what appears to be a long process, Cooper used Python to run a series of scripts that fooled the invite system into thinking he was referring users. As a result, he jumped from position 334,633 (out of 1,639,895) to 1,694 (out of 1,590,221). Jake hasn’t shared the exact script and has told OnePlus about the vulnerability but if you’re handy with scripts and want to know more, you can read Cooper’s in-depth explanation at the source link below.
AIVAnet 