5 ms·
This doesn't seem like a surprising result, but it's nice to see it demonstrated. It's also a clear demonstration that avoiding untrusted chargers isn't just a
by mjg59 5y ago
This doesn't seem like a surprising result, but it's nice to see it demonstrated. It's also a clear demonstration that avoiding untrusted chargers isn't just a matter of avoiding plugging your phone into random USB sockets - if you have a sufficient level of concern, it's also a matter of not putting your phone down on a flat surface that someone could have put a charger in and then letting your phone do some cryptography.
- jayflux 5y agoWhere will it end though? At this level of paranoia how would people leave the house? At some point you need to have a level of trust which is viable for daily life.
- DrAwdeOccarim 5y agoI wouldn't mind a toggle switch in settings that requests me to push "Yes" if I place my phone on a wireless charger. If you leave this function off, it just charges (for people who don't mind the risk).
- bayindirh 5y agoWhen you connect your iPhone to a new and unrecognized device, it actually asks to whether trust or not trust that device. If your device is locked, you need to authenticate to trust to said device.
- radec 5y agoReally, even wireless chargers? That's great.
- bayindirh 5y agoA wireless charger has no data transfer capability yet, so "no" for now. However if a USB port shows any sign of data transfer capability, it's blocked until you trust it. Power starvation / observation attacks are passive attacks in a sense. They get their results by observing only.
- atatatat 5y ago> A wireless charger has no data transfer capability yet ..but...the article
- bayindirh 5y agoThe article is about a side-channel attack, where you don't transfer any data, but just observe something (in this case power draw from a wireless charger) to get some information. In these types of attacks, you don't transfer any actual information, but guess something from observation. There are more exotic attacks [0][1] which exploit the heat computers generate to exfiltrate data or time power starvation attacks. [0]: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3133956.3133994 https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3133956.3133994 [1]: https://www.wired.com/2015/03/stealing-data-computers-using-heat/ https://www.wired.com/2015/03/stealing-data-computers-using-...
- tedunangst 5y agoClearly what's needed are single use phones that don't need charging, thus eliminating the side channel.
- vlan0 5y agoEven simpler; do not use when it's charging.