Another cyber warning has been issued about the risk from compromised chargers—but this time data theft is not the issue...
Hackers Can Now Trick Usb Chargers To Destroy Your Devices—This Is How It Works:
Not all cyber attacks focus on data theft. Sometimes the intent is "to achieve destruction of the physical world through digital means," Chinese tech giant Tencent warns. The company's researchers have just disclosed a serious new vulnerability in many of the mass-market fast chargers now used around the world.
[...] Tencent’s researchers have now proven that a compromised charger can override this negotiation, pushing more power down the cable than the device can safely handle, likely destroying the device and potentially even setting it on fire.
Because the fast charger is essentially a smart device in its own right, it is open to a malicious compromise. An attack is very simple. With malware loaded onto a smartphone, an attacker connects to the charger, overwriting its firmware and essentially arming it as a weapon for whatever plugs in to it next.
The interesting twist here is that the malware might even be on the target device. An attacker pushes that malicious code to your phone. The first time you connect to a vulnerable fast charger, the phone overwrites its firmware. The next time you connect to that same charger to [recharge] your device, your phone will be overloaded.
Tencent has produced a demo video, showing how a charger can be compromised and then used to overload a device.
Tencent have dubbed this issue "BadPower," and warn that "all products with BadPower problems can be attacked by special hardware, and a considerable number of them can also be attacked by ordinary terminals such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops that support the fast charging protocol."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday July 21 2020, @12:16AM
I think you can still get the simple car chargers for $1 at the dollar store. I bought a few the other day as I needed some 34063 buck regulators, and I discovered the car chargers at my local Dollar Tree were made with them.
https://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/MC34063A-D.PDF [onsemi.com]
Another tidbit... Their tea lights, two for a buck, are powered by the same lithium coin cells commonly used by PC clock backup.
Kinda off topic, but having read this gives you a few more options when you have to get something else working.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]