3 ms·

I suspect you're arguing from the point of view of a determined attacker against a specific target, in which case, I agree -- there's an infinite number of diff

I suspect you're arguing from the point of view of a determined attacker against a specific target, in which case, I agree -- there's an infinite number of different attacks you can try, with the caveat that any failed attempt is possibly going to tip your target off and make them up their opsec game, becoming a much more difficult target. I took the OP to be talking more about general case. Random people plugging into a public recharge station, using (shady) Amazon/Ebay USB drives, plugging in a "found" USB stick, etc. The OS can at least help thwart simple attacks here. In the worst case, the device contains a GSM modem which is powered by USB but otherwise only appears to the host as a USB drive -- and if you can get the target to write useful data to it, I guess you have something? That's an awfully expensive attack that I would assume has relatively low chance of yielding something useful. (Unless maybe you market it as a "secure cryptocurrency wallet", and hope you can sell enough to people that then put on enough cryptocurrency to make up for the significant manufacturing expensive which you're able to steal before anyone notices there's a modem in it and sounds the alarm..) > You could do similar things with a USB stick. You could have a high voltage converter which fries your PC the second you plug it in. This has not only been done, it is a commercial product: https://usbkill.com/ https://usbkill.com/ While being obnoxious and causing one (random?) person some money (presumably they will destroy or throw out this USB drive aftward), it doesn't really get you anything. There's many other cheaper ways to destroy someone's computer, as there are many other things you can destroy to cause a person expense and/or inconvenience. > Basically, it is always a bad idea to plug in unknown peripherals to your computers. The OS isn't going to save you in all cases. 100% agree, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't try at all.

01100011 8y ago
> I suspect you're arguing from the point of view of a determined attacker against a specific target Not necessarily a specific target(although maybe in a sense). If I were, say, the Chinese intelligence apparatus, I'd be sprinkling exfiltration devices around D.C., military bases, and defense contractor offices(especially the small ones, who don't always seem to have their shit together). You can fit a lot of smarts in a small form factor these days. I could, with the budget of an intelligence agency, cheaply mass produce USB storage controllers which only activate when specific files of interest(say, OrCAD schematics, or source code) are saved to the device. I could sprinkle them around, or even just strongarm one of my country's manufacturers so that the bug goes into wide distribution. Now I use sniffer vans, like were used to execute the Tempest attacks against military bases in the 80s, to find my beacons and exfiltrate. GSM modems might be expensive, although it would be a great way to get data out. You could also add GPS and use a small geofencing database to activate when you're within a target radius. Keep in mind this is just the musings of a bored idiot(me). I suspect an intelligence agency could find more useful things to do with a USB stick.

01100011 8y ago

> I suspect you're arguing from the point of view of a determined attacker against a specific target Not necessarily a specific target(although maybe in a sense). If I were, say, the Chinese intelligence apparatus, I'd be sprinkling exfiltration devices around D.C., military bases, and defense contractor offices(especially the small ones, who don't always seem to have their shit together). You can fit a lot of smarts in a small form factor these days. I could, with the budget of an intelligence agency, cheaply mass produce USB storage controllers which only activate when specific files of interest(say, OrCAD schematics, or source code) are saved to the device. I could sprinkle them around, or even just strongarm one of my country's manufacturers so that the bug goes into wide distribution. Now I use sniffer vans, like were used to execute the Tempest attacks against military bases in the 80s, to find my beacons and exfiltrate. GSM modems might be expensive, although it would be a great way to get data out. You could also add GPS and use a small geofencing database to activate when you're within a target radius. Keep in mind this is just the musings of a bored idiot(me). I suspect an intelligence agency could find more useful things to do with a USB stick.