#remote code execution

[icodeforlove]

It's been quite a while since I last posted here, but I just created a new video that I think WordPress users will find pretty informative. So, I wanted to share it here on Tumblr as well.

In the video, I discuss the potential pitfalls of using tools like SlickStack and walk you through how to investigate a project to help avoid common issues. I hope you find it helpful!

[channeledhistory]

[knightofburgers]

Yo this is legit

This month, Apple Security Engineering and Architecture (SEA) and The Citizen Lab at The University of Toronto's Munk School opened a pair of Critical vulnerabilities relating to maliciously formed WebP images which could be used to exploit the Chrome browser, as well as the webmproject/libwebp library from Google.

The vulnerability identified in the WebP library libwebp extends to more than just browsers, and Chrome-powered applications (e.g, 1Password for macOS). This is particularly significant because the libwebp library is used by many operating systems and popular application frameworks to render .webp images, including the popular Electron framework. As such, the libwebp vulnerability extends to software general-purpose software that includes Pillow and other applications such as ffmpeg, and Gimp. Note that some of these applications and software components are bundled into container images.

Versions of webmproject/libwebp from 0.5.0 up to and including 1.3.1 are affected. You must ensure your operating system and software projects require at least version 1.3.2 to remediate the vulnerability. However, note that libwebp is mostly used indirectly by other software that bundles it, which contributes to the wider software ecosystem impact of this vulnerability.

Attacks against this vulnerability can range from denial of service (DoS) to possible remote code execution (RCE). As an example, closely related attacks such as the 0-day BLASTPASS exploit (Apple CVE-2023-41064,CVE-2023-41061) showed that malicious .webp images sent through the iMessage system could compromise a victim’s iOS device without any interaction by its owner.

TL;DR — there's a new way for malware to exploit your devices. Do not open untrusted videos or images.

thought this is important

[prokopetz]

Some highlights for those who haven't been following the Portal 2 patch notes lately (these are all verbatim):

March 14th, 2023: Fixed several remote code execution and crash exploits against co-op partners.

March 25th, 2023: Fixed two remote player crash exploits.

April 26th, 2023: Fixed several crash and remote code execution exploits.

January 5th, 2024: Fixed several remote code execution and crash exploits against co-op partners.

February 2nd, 2024: Fixed several exploits that could crash a coop partner's game.

June 3rd, 2024: Fixed some exploits that could lead to crashes or remote code execution against a co-op partner.

June 24th, 2024: Fixed a remote code execution exploit and out-of-memory exploit in cooperative mode.

January 20th, 2025: Fixed exploits used to crash remote players.

TL;DR:

Valve has evidently spent the last two solid years trying to fix a bug or series of bugs which permit hostile remote code execution against one's co-op partner in Portal 2, seemingly without success.

What the fuck is going on in the Portal 2 co-op scene?

[tardigrade-gaming]

Realizing how many cool speedrunning glitches are caused by memory bugs has made me realize something critical.

Y'know the "write/rewrite everything in Rust" types?

We must keep them away from videogames at all costs. We cannot have our sick-ass strats be removed.

This is a very neat in-depth explanation for how the FF7 "Cloudsurfing" glitch works, which lets speedrunners walk across the ocean.

[digitalcreationsllc]

IZ1H9 Campaign Enhances Its Arsenal with Scores of Exploits

The campaign leverages multiple vulnerabilities, including command injection, remote code execution, and arbitrary command execution, to gain control of targeted devices and incorporate them into the botnet.

[christianstepmoms]

Not to downplay the persistent 10 month long carpet bombing of an entire city, but there's something particularly insidious about making a tens of thousands of civilians Pagers remote detonate simultaneously. like that requires an obscene amount of coordinated knowledge to infiltrate a countries entire phone network, reverse engineer tens of thousands devices to cause their batteries to overload and fucking explode, all at the same time.

In the minutes it takes to deploy long range explosives you can almost see how somebody would be able emotionally distance themselves from causing mass slaughter, but this took time to prepare. Every single minute, hour, day, month a year it took to plan, code, hack and coordinate this was done with persistent unbridled malice and intent to hurt and kill as many people as possible with particular consideration and subsequent disregard for collateral.

Israel must be destroyed. Every single Israeli soldier and government employee, bottom to top needs to be executed.

[technofeudalism]

The startup Eight Sleep Inc. makes a temperature-controlled, water-filled mattress cover system popular with Silicon Valley execs and body optimizers who say that sleeping at the perfect temperature gives them the ideal rest. The bed cover costs more than $2,000 and requires an internet connection to work. To power the temperature adjustments – which the company now says can be finessed with AI insights – Eight Sleep beds need to be online. But one researcher says he’s found ways that Eight Sleep’s engineers can theoretically snoop on customers’ bed activity. He says it’s just the latest example of the way tech companies today are often pushing everyday products to be overly engineered, unnecessarily internet-connected and reliant on a recurring subscription. Dylan Ayrey, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Truffle Security Co., said he initially bought an Eight Sleep system to help with insomnia. He joins users such as Meta Platforms Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, biohacker Bryan Johnson and Andrew Huberman, the tech industry’s favorite health guru. Elon Musk has also praised the bed. (The admiration is apparently mutual: Eight Sleep CEO Matteo Franceschetti shipped bed covers to DOGE this month and wrote on X, “@eIonmusk us if you need more.”) When Ayrey looked at the bed’s firmware, he was surprised to see that it appeared to have a backdoor that would allow the company’s engineers to remote into any bed and run code on it without oversight. Ayrey hypothesized that, for example, if your ex worked at Eight Sleep, they could find out when you’re sleeping at home – or when you’re not – and whether you’re sleeping alone or with someone else. He compared it to Uber Technologies Inc.’s controversial “God View,” an internal system in which employees previously could track individual riders using their service. It also evokes the way thousands of Amazon.com Inc. employees could listen to sound clips recorded through Alexa devices.

[ Source ]

[gremlinmodetweeker]

König Alternate Universes

Masterlist

Konig Dump

Art from This Post

ONESHOTS

ONESHOTS ART

All the oneshots set in alternate universes.

Happy Tails:

KorTac decided to rent some space in a small animal adoption cafe to provide an animal therapy program for their agents. König came for the snacks.

Summoned!CoD AU

Reader, or Summoner, was forced by the military to summon a beast of war to use in battle. Unfortunately, Summoner isn't great at controlling themselves, so they accidentally summoned a being far too powerful for any of you to control.

Nice Kidnapper!König

To live is to suffer. Your existence feels meaningless, and you know that if you dropped off the face of the earth, nobody would remember your name. Your one chance of happiness was speaking to a nice masked man at a bar, but your 'friends' had cut off your time and stolen you away. Little did any of you know, he'd steal you back soon enough.

A/B/O Government Appointed Wife!Reader [COMPLETE]

In a world where military soldiers are forcibly paired up with partners to produce more soldiers, König is paired with an omega O, and has to deal with the new changes in his life.

A/B/O Sci-Fi Dystopia Slavery AU

When your grandmother died, you were set to inherit her caretaker slave, an alpha A named König. You struggle to figure out if you like keeping a slave or not. These questions are further complicated when you get wrapped up in a political plot heralding great change through the nation.

Ghostbusters AU:

Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!

Monster Trainer!Cod

Reader, code name Handler, is assigned by higher ups to be the Designated Operator of König, a rowdy and difficult-to-control jotunn/nachtkrappe shifter hybrid with a strange history of 'accidents' with his previous handlers. Your best bet to get by is to speak to others on base, but nobody is forthcoming with information

Phantom of the Opera!AU

Inspired by a glorious ask, a version of Phantom of the Opera where König is our beloved phantom trying to save reader from the horrible fate of being seduced by a lover from the past with a dangerous agenda. König is a twisted man, but it takes a dark soul to recognize another, and so he will do whatever he can (from the shadows) to save his beloved songbird.

Frankenstein König

When you lost König in a car accident, you dedicated your entire life to bringing him back. Now that he's back, you're realizing you never actually figured out what you'd do if you brought him back.

Cannibal King!AU

Taking place in the world of Sons of the Forest, reader is trapped on a remote island. Soon she is kidnapped by a cannibal king. Once by his side, she learns that life in the woods isn't as painful as expected, and that humanity comes in many forms.

Local Executioner!König

Living in a small village leads to a tight-knit community. When you father left to be an adventurer after your mother passed in childbirth, you were taken in by the village baker, your uncle. You always avoided the public executions, but your uncle gets sick and can't go out to market to sell his buns on the very day an execution is slotted. You must go, and there you find a cursed outsider who sparks your interest.

Cat Hybrid!KorTac

Horangi and König are sick and tired of roughing it on the streets. They were born and bred to be soldiers, but the batch of kittens that were meant to be made into KorTac's next greatest soldiers escaped into the city, they had to grow up on the streets. They made their little gang, but Horangi and König always wanted more. One day, reader comes along and finds two sick kittens on the street. Unable to stop herself, she brings them in and nurses them back to health. She immediately regrets her decisions.

Giant Squid!König x Flapjack Octopus!Reader [COMPLETE]

In the darkest depths of the ocean, few creatures find life. However, one giant squid mer takes pity on a small little flapjack octopus mermaid. It seems even in the coldest places, warmth still blooms.

[artbyblastweave]

One fun thing to encounter on here is when someone gets through like six paragraphs of reasonably cogent criticism of some simplistic or unexamined trend in the baseline assumptions of fandom, OC culture, shipping culture, yadda yadda yadda, and then throws it onto sharp relief towards the end that their criticism isn't of unexamined and unconsidered execution, it's that everything isn't being done in lockstep accordance with their specific morality and values, the specific Hays Code that they've whipped up in their own heads. To be clear this isn't hypocritical so much as the inevitable result of taking any kind of morality whatsoever remotely seriously- if you think you're right, than anything less than a desire for total obliteration of all other modes of thought comes across as some kind of posturing, to me- but it's usually astonishingly un-self aware. And I detest a lack of self-awareness. And too much self awareness. But that can be it's own post, we can do one thing at a time

[posttexasstressdisorder]

California’s oldest and most infamous prison, San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, is undergoing a groundbreaking transformation into a Nordic-inspired rehabilitation hub. Spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the $239 million renovation is expected to be finished by January 2026.

Once home to notorious figures like cult leader Charles Manson and serial killer Richard Ramirez, the prison is now at the forefront of California’s evolving approach to incarceration. This new direction was solidified by Assembly Bill 1104, introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Mia Bonta and signed into law by Newsom in October 2023, redefining the purpose of incarceration as “rehabilitation and safe and successful reentry back into the community.”

The project draws inspiration from Scandinavian incarceration models that prioritize dignity, autonomy and reintegration. This approach has been linked to lower recidivism rates, as Norway’s two-year rate is 17.6%, compared with 61.5% in the U.S.

Jesse Vasquez, executive director of Friends of San Quentin News and the Pollen Initiative, told SFGATE he supports a shift in the prison model from punishment toward rehabilitation. “For the first time in California history, the governor decided, ‘OK, we’re gonna change the penal code. We’re gonna change the mission of the Department of Corrections, and we’re gonna solidify it with a monumental structural investment,’” he said. 

Unlike more remote prisons, San Quentin’s location in Marin County — just outside San Rafael — offers close proximity to Bay Area resources and a well-established volunteer network, enabling a wide range of rehabilitation and educational programs. Mount Tamalpais College, which operates within San Quentin, offers an associate degree in liberal arts, with courses taught by volunteer faculty from top Bay Area colleges and universities.

A view of San Quentin seen from a ferry boat on San Francisco Bay.Susanne Friedrich/Getty Images

Central to the transformation are three new buildings replacing former industrial facilities that will house vocational training areas, multimedia education centers and restorative justice programs. The 2024 report from the San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council outlines plans to reimagine the prison environment through additions like a library, grocery store, cafe and communal spaces reflecting life outside prison.

“If you can imagine like a college campus vocational training center inside of the institution,” Vasquez said, emphasizing plans for open-access programming.

Additionally, the renovation includes significant improvements in inmate living conditions, particularly advocating single-cell occupancy — a direct response to inmate requests, Vasquez noted.

“The incarcerated first and foremost wanted single-cell living,” Vasquez said, noting that renovating existing facilities wasn’t viable. With the new model, the prison can better accommodate more humane living conditions aligned with rehabilitation goals. 

Newsom’s San Quentin initiative is part of broader criminal justice reforms, including his 2019 moratorium on California’s death penalty and the dismantling of San Quentin’s death row announced in January 2022. These foundational changes paved the way for the current rehabilitation-focused transformation.

According to a 2023 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation report, nearly half of California inmates released in 2018 faced reconviction within three years.Vasquez hopes San Quentin’s new approach will serve as a replicable model nationwide to reduce recidivism.  

“We’ve tried incarceration in terms of warehousing with no programming or minimal programming and minimal investment for more than 180 years, and it hasn’t worked,” Vasquez said. “This is the one time that we have a chance to provide investment and create opportunity so that the thing does work.”

Local editor Kasia Pawlowska contributed to this story. 

[starqueensthings]

We need to talk about Echo (and by talk I mean screm). S3 E13 + 14 Spoilers!

FRIENDS, I'M GOING TO EXPLODE. I need to talk about Echo for a minute. We need to talk about Echo for a minute,  because he has spent the last two episodes in the absolute thralls of complete and total danger, and I personally don't feel like there's been enough of a celebratory uproar for me to be satisfied with the level of appreciation and love that man deserves. (Remember when Hunter ran face first into a colossal exhaust pipe and we all collectively lost our minds because it was so impressive and so sexy? Remember when Tech drove a speeder really fast through a tunnel and we all fainted? I'M A TECH GIRLY. IT WAS ME! I FAINTED!!) but, Y'ALL, Echo deserves that right now!! And for all eternity!!! Because he is wholly submurged in the harrowing potential of torture and execution, and he didn't even bat an eye to put himself there. My awe of him is all-consuming, so please forgive me if this rant reads as nothing but incoherent screaming. 

Echo haters (first of all, we can't be friends....) come on this journey with me! Let's back pedal to the beginning of the last episode (13). He stole an imperial shuttle. Let me repeat, he stole an imperial shuttle. And not just an attack shuttle. Not just a lil one-pilot transport. Bro somehow stole a Rho-class medical transport, which is very large, obscenely conspicuous, and very easily tracked. And, to use his own words, it was "the best he could do on short notice." The man stole a shuttle on short notice. ON SHORT NOTICE? HELLO, HOW DID HE DO THAT. WHY AIN'T WE LOSING OUR COOL ABOUT IT. 

Next stop on this I-love-Echo journey through my mind: not only did he provide his brothers transportation in the complete void of their own (RIP havoc bb), but he also came equipped with intel and clearance codes, and, as Rampart stated, those things change DAILY. Echo somehow procured top secret imperial clearance codes, and a fkn SHIP, within hours of the Batch requesting his help. Not to mention, the ship had yet to be reported missing (which means it was only-freshly commandeered), and the clearance codes worked. Of course they did. Echo never fails. Never doubt Echo. "Echo's on it."  

Choochoo, next stop! Once they arrived on that station orbiting Coruscant, and made their way to the control room (lookin sexy as heck in his armour-au-noir), he broke imperial encryption, hacked into the Imperial database, almost instantly found them the location of a ship departing for the prison that holds their daughter Tantiss, AND THEN DIDN'T EVEN HESITATE TO CLIMB ABOARD AND STOW AWAY.  

He didn't even remotely have a plan, or have time to make a plan. He didn't know who or what else would be on board that mysterious vessel. He didn't know where it was going other than the name of the fkn mountain (which has proven to be nothing but unhelpful thus far). He just ARC-troopered his way through that crowded hangar, dodging aggressive astromech's and inconsiderate loader droids, shirking from the perspective eyes of highly trained commandos, and snuck his way onto a heavily guarded, extremely unknown science vessel. Then, of course, he wasted no time, hacking into the ships control system (may I gently remind- there were at least three pilots and an officer prepping the ship for jump and closely watching all aspects of its controls), disabling the proximity sensors without being detected, and then seamlessly covered the troopers absence by pretending to be him (which we all know is what should have happened on Serenno but... hindsight is 20/20.)  

So... SO.... now we're at Episode 14. Here we at fkn terrified station because HULLO ECHO IS ALONE ON A SCIENCE DIVISION TRANSPORT; we have literally seen them carry around Zilo beasts in that shit. What the heck else could be on there that they don't know about? Literally anything. Because THEY KNEW NOTHING before attaching themselves to it. Echo knew NOTHING before sneaking onto that thing and creepin' around. Thank heck he didnt come across a fkn fresh wave of slither vines ok?  

NEXT, Echo shoots (not stuns- lol) a sassy fkn droid (they had it coming, not sorry), then another trooper. AND THEN discovered his only option for departing the ship once it enters atmosphere is going completely undercover, because (in true "we improvise everything" CF99 fashion that gives me heart burn just thinking about it), they had zero fkn plan to get off the ship. I will repeat: completely undercover. On Tantiss. COMPLETELY UNDERCOVER ON TANTISS. NO COMMS, NO BACK UP, NO RECON, NO PLAN, BARELY ANY GEAR, and I would just like to stress... no neuro brace. He left his neurobrace on that ship. Left it. LEFT IT AND TOOK A HAND INSTEAD. PLEASE FKN SEDATE ME.  

We can't leave this station yet... This I-love-Echo train needs to linger at this point for a sec because I think it's lost on some people how wild this is. Echo without his neurobrace is huge. It's a bigger deal than Echo without his armour. Armour is, in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential (one can find more- see Howzer). Echo's neurobrace is not armour, it's a computer and it's so so so crucial to how his mind processes information and events. Don't forget, the Technounion HIJACKED HIS BRAIN. They took every memory from him and manipulated it for their gain. Pruned it, tweaked it, blanched it, poached it, turned it into scrambled eggs, and then fkn ate it up and used it to defeat their enemies (Echo's family- I'm sobbing). They implanted him with an unfathomable amount of information; they changed the way the neurons in his brain fire in relation to stimuli. That neurobrace is so so critical for him. Now, we know he can operate well enough without it, we saw it in the last episode of the TBB arc in season 7 of Clone Wars, but... please.... to what extent? We don't know what an extended time without that neurobrace looks like for him... especially when all other aspects compliing his surroundings foreign, unknown, and dangerous, and that scares me.

AND NOW HE'S ABOUT TO RUN AMOK IN TANTISS with Emerie who, (I'm sorry) is wishy-washy as heck (who are you loyal to!!!!! What is your history!!! Are you trustworthy and what are you looking to gain!!!), trying to adopt a collection of Jedi children whove spent maker-knows how long playing space tetris, WHILST ALSO ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE AND ESCAPE WITH HIS BROTHERS UNDER THE EYE OF THE GALAXY'S SECOND MOST DANGEROUS MAN. 

So yes, short of d-d-d-di... can't say it... short of THE WORST CASE, Echo has made the ultimate sacrifice to save not only Omega who is literally the only person we've seen able to make him truly laugh, but all the clone brothers that he's been desperately trying to locate and rescue. His bravery and determination are literally unrivalled, and he did it while feasting on nothing but humble pie because that man wouldn't know arrogance if it danced naked under his perfect nose.  

Okay so welcome, we've finally pulled into I-Love-Echo station. Before departing the ride, please stand and do a hip hip hurray for the miracle that is Echo, including but not limited to, everything he's done, is doing, and is willing to do for other people. 

[hungwy]

in case you don't know, right now, Apex Legends pros are getting hacked live during the Apex Legends Global Series, which is the competitive circuit for Apex. like, literally being given aimbot and wallhacks, probably through an exploit in Source engine-based games which allows for remote code execution

[kiyomitakada]

L for the ask game

YAY i was hoping someone would ask me this for him ive been slowly going insane about this guy for a month now

favorite thing about them: varies by day but today his drastic mood swings captivate me.

[monotone] i was just sulking earlier

least favorite thing about them: i do not have one. i love when he cares so much he starts shaking when he tells aizawa not to go after ukita's dead body and i love when he cares so little that he suggests letting matsuda die to confirm that yotsuba is kira and i love when he is the worst person alive and the greatest detective alive also. walking contradiction of a moral code. i hate him. my actual least favorite thing about him is that i didn't get to kill him before light did

favorite line:

manga: "because the good guys always win :)" his smile here always kills me. it was the exact moment i was like ohhhh he's a LIAR

anime: "it'll be lonely, won't it"

musical: from the japanese version of the way things are: いいだろう死神認めよう　だが神が命を裁かない　生きるか死ぬかに意味を持たすのは人間だ. which going half by this translation is "fine then, i'll accept gods of death / but it's not god who judges your life / humans are the ones who give meaning to whether you live or die" i can't explain why i like this one so much. i just do. it is honestly more of a near sentiment than an L sentiment but something about the way he has to do an entire song to accept that shinigami are real delights me

brOTP: i already said L & misa in her post so i will provide another one. L & soichiro are fascinating to me. i like the bit where L suggests putting cameras in his house and soichiro responds with "if you're going to do it you'd better cover the whole house" i think the tension there is so interesting. soichiro has to live with the fact that L suspects light no matter what and yet keeps giving L the benefit of the doubt and even argues to aizawa that L Probably Isn't Financially Pressuring You, I'm Sure There's A Good Reason! and L has to live with the fact that he's made the father he's never had shoot his son in the head. which i don't think L feels bad for necessarily but the mechanics of that decision keep circling in my head like. why not get someone else? isn't light's dad objectively the least believable choice for mock execution purposes? why him, specifically? what buried violence does L see in that man that makes him think he is capable (and he's right!)

also L keeps using him as his moral compass which is hilarious

OTP: do i really have to say this

lawlight is actually so much harder to ship when you're manga-based sometimes i get jealous of how blatant the yaoi is in the anime. however i think the act of showing your face to the outside world for the first time for the sake of making your prime suspect possibly (not even definitely) slip up for once and inviting him to mind meld tennis while thinking about how perfect he is is definitely homosexual

…actually while i'm on this why not just lay out my manifesto right here. okay. i think a lot of people focus on light->L but take L->light for granted because of things like the foot scene which is [banging head on table] NOT IN THE MANGA BECAUSE THE WRITERS HATE ME but it's a fun challenge trying to reconstruct what L thinks of light anyway

this is subject to change but right now i think the appeal to L is that like. he's L. he's an anonymous letter. he lives in a padded empty room and/or everchanging hotel rooms. he almost always solves cases remotely. he doesn't trust people even when he says he does. and then here comes along a serial killer and for the first time in ages L is forced to actually talk to other people and physically inhabit the world and he keeps thinking about going back into seclusion but he keeps choosing to stay because he wants to observe light in person. light is his anchor to the world. a murderer is his anchor to humanity. and for some reason L is obsessed with him.

i think this kind of scares him, though not in a way that a normal person would recognize as fear. he's L. his entire life has been balancing human life as a numerical value and to do so he has to recognize when he has biases. he says out loud that he might just be going after light because he has no other suspects. he has to Understand Himself in order to understand the world around him, he has to know exactly how he is compromised

and for the first time he doesn't.

anyway this is why i think "i wanted you to be kira" was basically a confessi[i am dragged off stage]

nOTP: law/tsuda isn't exactly a notp because i can see the vision but the vast majority of content for them is fluff when what i really want is toxic sludge

random headcanon: he is transfem any-pronouns to meeee to meeeeee. the white shirt + jeans combination is due to the autism but also due to the gender dysphoria (the shirt is noted to be loose in movie side-material canon). he has not yet realized it is dysphoria. possibly he doesn't even realize it's autism i think watari just clocked him as having Unique L Condition and gave him everything he wanted accordingly

unpopular opinion: i'm going to just copy-paste a draft for this one

in my head L is 25 because that's the htr age and it makes sense considering how well established he is with interpol etc. in my heart L is 21 because i think that lets his personality and the dynamics he has with everyone else make vastly more sense and also it is the reasonable age for the teaching assistant you have a parasocial crush on to be. in my soul L is 19, lies about his age all the time, and never makes it to 20 #in my soul-of-souls he's one day older than light and internally holds this over light's head constantly #he says things like ''when i was 17…'' (<- is still 17) #but also L being 21 means you can make blackjack references and that is important to me #the house always wins or whatever

song i associate with them: man of stone is literally him to a T

I had to give it to you I was always acting cuckoo Thinking there was something That I'd actually be kinda scared-a But I will be a man of stone

favorite picture of them: picking one is absolutely impossible so i'll take this as "one of your favorites"

i like when he looks like a cryptid

[kaiasky]

CVE-1991-0326: Inappropriate implementation of The Internet allows a remote attacker to remotely execute code and display arbitrary malicious content via a crafted HTML page

[paulsbettanys]

Paul Bettany Brings Cinematic Flair to Eyewear With Codesigned L.G.R Capsule Collection

MILAN — Paul Bettany designing a limited-edition capsule collection for Italian hip eyewear brand L.G.R was pure serendipity.

The British-born but U.S.-based Bettany — best known for his roles in “The Da Vinci Code” and as Vision in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” Avengers franchise — has been a fan of L.G.R frames for a long time and the brand’s founder and chief executive officer Luca Gnecchi Ruscone was of course taking note, until he slipped into the actor’s DMs on Instagram.

“When I first came across an L.G.R sunglass, I was in Capri and I was in this little boutique, looking for a pair of sunglasses. I can’t remember what model. I think they were a black, aviator [style]…and even before I put them on my face, you could feel the quality and the care in the hinges….That’s when I fell in love with L.G.R,” Bettany said, Zooming in from a movie set.

Since then he’s been wearing the brand’s eyewear with gusto until “Luca slipped into my DMs, I think is parlance of the modern era,” Bettany said.

“I threw an arrow, hoping that Paul would respond. And he did,” echoed Gnecchi Ruscone. “I saw he was wearing various models. He loved them. He was sharing them with his family, his children, his wife, in his private life. I said, maybe we could take it a step forward and do a collaboration, and maybe he can design and make his own model. And then it happened,” he said.

The four-piece L.G.R x Paul Bettany capsule is based on the signature Jambo design, a rectangular, slightly chunky acetate frame.

We just started to discuss what the frames could be, and also design new frames. And we thought the most expeditious way of doing it was to pick a frame that I already loved. And that was hard for me, because there are a lot of frames that I wear, [but] the Jambo has sort of a timeless elegance that I really love,” Bettany said.

The design was reinterpreted in two bold sunglasses options, an amber frame with blue mineral lenses and a quartz rose iteration with brown lenses. Playing by a more understated playbook, the two prescription versions feature Havana and see-through brown frames.

Bettany described the result as “cinematic.”

Somehow these frames feel iconic, and I can imagine them in a movie,” he said. Which one, he had no doubt about: the 2000 British crime drama “Gangster No. 1” in which he played the role of Young Gangster.

“I think in my job, creatively, you make something, and it ends when the film ends, and with this, the idea that somebody will be wearing this in their life and having experiences and building their own story, a story that I won’t know, I find [this] really exciting. That’s a very new thing for me,” Bettany said of the process — for the most part conducted remotely, Gnecchi Ruscone added.

“Paul has real experience about eyewear. He knows and speaks about details, about other brands, about shapes, like a true connoisseur of eyewear. So, him appreciating my product, it was great. Collaborating with a personality, a celebrity like he is, but also somebody that knows about eyewear quality and recognizes it was very gratifying,” Gnecchi Ruscone said.

“He created some models that will be a great addition to the collection, because they are this very classical model — thick, masculine — but he twitched it [into designs that are] very commercial, but sexy, cool at the same time. I was very happy that he didn’t go for the traditional route…we created something exciting that the market, I think, will really appreciate,” he enthused.

The collection is to debut on Thursday at L.G.R flagships and on the brand’s e-commerce site, as well as at select retailers globally. Prescription frames retail at 320 euros, while sunglasses come in at 380 euros.

The Hollywood star fronts a dedicated ad campaign shot in New York by Max Montgomery, who is known for his portraits of leading international actors. Bettany describes his fascination with eyewear as a real addiction — “When I travel…the sunglasses and glass frames are my one indulgence. I bring a whole box of glasses because things look different with different clothes,” he said. "I love looking through vintage glasses stores…going through those drawers of old glasses [at vintage stores]. And actually, one of the stories that Luca first told me…of him finding all the frames he found, [was] sort of reminiscent for me, of when I love looking through drawers and drawers and drawers of glasses,” the actor said.

L.G.R was officially launched in 2008 by Gnecchi Ruscone. The Italian entrepreneur visited Asmara in Eritrea, where his family and particularly his grandfather Raffaello Bini, who had had ties with the African continent throughout his life, ran a small optician business named Ottica Bini. Gnecchi Ruscone discovered a handful of vintage Italian eyewear at his grandfather’s warehouse, brought them back to Italy and jumpstarted his eyewear brand aimed at resurrecting and repurposing those styles.