5 ms·

What other attack vector would you choose?

• aaomidi 4y ago
  You’d use it to attack the targets you care about rather than just the general public.
  • pc86 4y ago
    The way you attack a specific target without alerting them (or at least making them suspicious) is to attack them indirectly. The sibling comment above is an excellent example of why you might specifically target public infrastructure if you only really care about one person.
• londons_explore 4y ago
  You could ship the victim malicious USB cables in the mail with amazon branding on the box. Many people would use them, assuming they were just mis-shipped or ordered by their spouse.
  • opwieurposiu 4y ago
    This would totally work on me. My wife is always buying USB cables from amazon, IDK what we do with them all.
    • lfowles 4y ago
      Or is she....
    • Xylakant 4y ago
      Hard learned fact: USB cables are consumables, just like ink or toner for your printer. They need to be refilled every so often.
      • londons_explore 4y ago
        It's a real shame that the USB standards creators didn't work harder on error-proofing and longevity. If I were on the standards committee, I would have made every pin interchangeable - ie. any pin can be gnd, any pin can be Vbus, any pin for data, etc. When plugged in, the device on the end would test every pin, and then decide which to use for data and which to use for power. That way, when a cable gets a bit old and 3 out of 30 pins are shorted or dirty or otherwise bad, the cable works but simply delivers 90% of the power it used to. The absolute cheapest cables could have just 2 pins, and would be slow and low power, but still fully 'working'. This wouldn't have added much cost to most devices either - most devices have a dedicated IC for USB functionality, and that IC can deal with muxing signals and power. On devices which only take power, a simple array of diodes can take power from any pin. Data signals could be capacitively coupled, meaning the muxing could be done on a single chip without needing special high voltage silicon processes (the cost of a chip goes up a lot as soon as you want it to deal with high voltages on any pin).
  • thomastjeffery 4y ago
    ...leaving a literal paper trail of package location tracking? Mail fraud is considered serious. Why commit an extra crime?
    • kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
      You can put a padded envelope into a public mailbox.
    • NoZebra120vClip 4y ago
      Less serious than tampering with fixtures in a secure area at an American international airport?
      • mywittyname 4y ago
        Exactly, and you'll be on video. You can buy stamps from a vending machine with cash.
        • pnpnp 4y ago
          If, and that’s a big if, the victim was able to trace the infection back to a charging port, then have the time, resources, and capability to debug the chips. That’s all assuming the bad port wouldn’t have been removed, and video might just show regular “maintenance.” Yeah, it’s all above and beyond, but I think it’s in the realm of possibility for a high level target (see: stuxnet et al)
      • thomastjeffery 4y ago
        I would imagine that leaving a charger plugged in to a public outlet is not as interesting as you have presented it to be. Sure, you would be leaving evidence, but if your plan works, that evidence won't be sought out anyway. If you sent a mysterious package, it wouldn't be strange or out-of-character for someone to investigate that package intentionally: which presents a significant attack surface for the discovery of your ruse.
        • 4y ago
• rch 4y ago
  USB charging ports on aircraft.