[mattrw89]

It sounds like someone figured out how to use the silicon vendors firmware flashing methodology. You would be amazed how trivial it is to get into most ICs out in the wild. (I have experience in custom IC development.) I'm sure that we will see many more hacks like this out in the wild as time goes on and general knowledge about how ICs with custom state machines + integrated processors really work.

And, of course, got a copy of the software either via reverse engineering or some other method of questionable legality.