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Wasn't this already a thing waiting to happen with usb-pd? What's there to prevent a pwned phone from requesting too much voltage from a charger?
by RA2lover 3y ago
Wasn't this already a thing waiting to happen with usb-pd? What's there to prevent a pwned phone from requesting too much voltage from a charger?
- mckirk 3y agoInside cables that support USB-PD, there are chips that tell the peripherals what level of power transmission they support, so that attack shouldn't be so easy.
- Kirby64 3y agoVoltage is gonna be what fries devices, not current. If you reconfigure the phone or whatever to accept 20V (even if it would blow up at 20V) you could fry the phone quite easily. This would be extremely device specific, but would not be hard. It would also require you to be connected to a power supply capable of providing that voltage too… so it would be innocuous if it was never plugged into something capable of that voltage. Also, the cable doesn’t care about voltage. You can use literally any cable to provide 20V just fine.
- ianburrell 3y agoCharger won't provide voltage it doesn't support. It won't negotiate it, and if it does then it is broken. If the phone tries to pull too much current, the charger won't provide it, and either shut down or limit the current.
- Kirby64 3y agoIf you took a cell phone that only accepts 9V or 12V and changed it to think it was permitted to accept 20V, you could easily fry a phone. Charger will happily supply it if you trick the phone side. This would require malware on the phone itself, though. Possibly something quite low level.