https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1m-USB-Charging-Data-Cable-f...?
I wonder how many things like this are in the wild and nobody's noticed.
A rogue janitor replaces the usb cables on some of the employees of a company that makes $INSERT_SUPER SECRET_TECH$ and done.
Of course they equipped the laptop with a cd burner
That said, if you click the link next to BadUSB, they detail attacks whereby the device pretends to be a USB Ethernet adapter instead. And while you're right that stuff typically wants user input prior to connecting to WiFi networks, I don't think anything prompts before connecting to wired networks. The onboard WiFi could even make it appear to work, so as to not arouse suspicion (by simply bridging the pretend-ethernet to the WiFi), but now your attack has a MitM and a keyboard…
Needless to say, you don't want random USB devices getting plugged into your machine.
See the Twitter video: https://mg.lol/blog/omg-cable/
If it is, then the computer doesn't connect to a router at all. The USB cable could make itself available as a network that you remotely connect to then execute commands. The cable then types out your commands as it imitates a USB keyboard. Have you ever seen a device or PC that randomly trusts a USB keyboard you plug into it?
That's one. Apparently there are least 28 more ways to use usb to attack a machine.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/heres-a-list-...
That wouldn't need further actions from the victim.
Put in the right machine and you can see every company memo as it is written.
Can a device like this be used do anything positive toward humanity?
Did I misunderstand something? (I'm genuinely curious!)
Edited: reworded (honest) question to be less negative.
PoCs are often what lead to security changes. This device just existing will spur research into how to to defeat it which in turn may lead to improved security for all.
Here is some advice, whenever you think “there aught to be a law...” there probably shouldn’t be.
Planes would be falling out of the sky and high rises would be on fire if everyone had your sense of what types of research should “be allowed”.
Only if you leave your computer unlocked and unattended. If it's attended, obviously you'll see something's going on and pull the plug on the computer and probably investigate further. If your computer is locked (which is a good habit to have when leaving your workstation, the faked keyboard can't do.
I think OP is saying that these cables could be swapped out while you’re away.
As for “seeing that something is going on”, I really don’t think anyone worth half their salt would allow for such a scenario... authors of such implants aren’t exactly registering the device with the OS.
[1] https://twitter.com/realsexycyborg/status/103190315541447884...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Jiusion-Listening-Surveillance-Quad-b...
It's a remote control rubber ducky and more.
[1]: https://twitter.com/LeaKissner/status/1085624255381827584
Will the solution to this, then, be to have some sort of "smart card enabled device"? For example, assuming TOFU, you manually accept all device's public keys (and all devices, including cables and stuff will have one of these). Then, the computer will have to verify all actions done by those devices by sending a challenge for each action. But this seems impractical and inefficient...
Perhaps physical security is the only way for this...
I think a solution is for OSs to only allow the automatic mounting of newly-attached devices if they’re “passive” (e.g. mass storage - assuming no autorun.ini, output-only devices, HID class devices that only expose game-controller functionality, etc) - other device classes like mice and keyboards plugged-in to non-trusted ports should always require explicit approval.
While we’re on the subject: keyboards can be massively improved by adding over-the-wire encryption to prevent keyboard-port logging, and the USB keyboard class should be extended to include the keyboard declaring its layout to the host OS. It’s silly that we still need to configure keyboard language settings or that the OS infers it from our regional settings.
Anyway since we are assuming physical access, they could just swap out your keyboard for one that works normally until you go for lunch, then starts typing for itself..
Even that's not enough. If you're feeling extra-evil you could tamper with the keyboard switches/traces to do whatever evil stuff you want. It's not like you can authenticate the on/off state at a switch level.
(it couldn't read user keypresses unless they use the cable to plug in their keyboard)
The video appeared to have it connect directly to the phone or to the network they both were on.
upd: Alternatively, for installations with a usb keyboard, this defence is disabled.
- The cable is inserted into the victims computer - The electronics inside the cable creates a WiFi network - The attacker uses a separate computer to connect to this WiFi network - Transmit the payloads to the victim - ??? - Profit
It’s just crazy to me that plugging my Crapbook Pro into a USB-C power brick could do all sorts of bad to my computer when all I need is power.
The level of miniaturisation is not all that impressive, these have been around for a while:
https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Su...
There's no mention of using the rest of the cable as the antenna, since in my experience the above tiny adapters have an equally tiny antenna and thus poor reception.
Edit: stupid me, he probably just replaced the USB-A side of a legit Apple one. Ignore the part about the coating.
Not sure how far you were from your router but I bought one of these and it worked quite fine through walls.
