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posted by martyb on Monday July 20 2020, @06:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the Phones-do-not-come-with-a-fuse? dept.

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."

 
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  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday July 20 2020, @07:13PM (8 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday July 20 2020, @07:13PM (#1024211) Journal

    You shall not entrust a critical fixpoint of physically engineered structure to software.

    There are places you shouldn't even trust a diode or a relay. You wanna be at the actual switch/valve

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Monday July 20 2020, @07:27PM (5 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Monday July 20 2020, @07:27PM (#1024218) Journal

    Can we still say "switch" or the trannies get offended?

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 5, Funny) by fustakrakich on Monday July 20 2020, @07:34PM (4 children)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday July 20 2020, @07:34PM (#1024221) Journal

      Then just cut the wire with a pair of dikes...

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday July 20 2020, @07:38PM (3 children)

        by Bot (3902) on Monday July 20 2020, @07:38PM (#1024227) Journal

        Uh oh I am afraid the term "Just", subliminally reminding people of "Justice", can be used only if your skin's luma value is in the lower 75%. Do you qualify?

        As for the dikes, is there anything a pair of dikes cannot achieve eventually?

        --
        Account abandoned.
        • (Score: 2) by DECbot on Monday July 20 2020, @09:21PM

          by DECbot (832) on Monday July 20 2020, @09:21PM (#1024270) Journal

          Stretching wire. Generally, I need to use the wire stretches after too liberal applications of dikes.

          --
          cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @09:44PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2020, @09:44PM (#1024277)

          can be used only if your skin's luma value is in the lower 75%

          For some reason the world hates pastels

          is there anything a pair of dikes cannot achieve eventually?

          Have a baby? with no outside assistance?

          • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 22 2020, @01:09PM

            by Bot (3902) on Wednesday July 22 2020, @01:09PM (#1024925) Journal

            If you can't have a baby, make friends with social services until they let you steal one. EZ

            --
            Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday July 20 2020, @09:09PM (1 child)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Monday July 20 2020, @09:09PM (#1024266) Journal

    You can actually create a completely static construction diodic device in many physical domains:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_valve [wikipedia.org]

    This is kind of engineering I trust.

    --
    Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 22 2020, @01:10PM

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday July 22 2020, @01:10PM (#1024926) Journal

      Yeah if there is one way to show genius is in this kind of inventions.

      --
      Account abandoned.