5 ms·
> The paranoid side of me suspects that a cable like this one would be an ideal place to hide a malicious chip. Why hide a malicious chip in a cable with displ
by i_have_to_speak 2y ago
> The paranoid side of me suspects that a cable like this one would be an ideal place to hide a malicious chip.
Why hide a malicious chip in a cable with display -- why not in one without a display? Wouldn't that be more, uh, malicious?
- gonesilent 2y agoYou can find them with full cell modems hidden in the cable end molding.
- ffsm8 2y agoIt's hard to discern if you're serious or joking. Is that an actual thing? I couldn't find anything by googling
- verandaguy 2y agoI haven't heard of cell modems in particular, but I've used O.MG cables (described and sold here: https://shop.hak5.org/products/omg-cable https://shop.hak5.org/products/omg-cable; I am unaffiliated with either Hak5 or the team behind O.MG cables) which can create an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network for management/C2 reasons. It's actually really easy to use (and almost scary, coming from never having used one of these). They are quite pricey, but way less so than older cables used by security and jailbreak researchers in years past, which would run into the five figures.
- ffsm8 2y agoI'm aware that there's are local keylogger/payload cables around which let you transmit data short range. My surprise was specifically about the supposed cell modem within a 6€ cable
- fencepost 2y agoIt's not that they're cheap cables - it's that they look like cheap cables (or better, middling expensive higher-quality ones).
- canadianfella 2y ago[dead]
- daniel_iversen 2y agoYep - have a look at https://ha.cking.ch/s8_data_line_locator/ https://ha.cking.ch/s8_data_line_locator/
- kristopolous 2y agoSomeone selling $200 cables for $2 just to spy on people reminds me of those stories of people supposedly giving out $10 pot lollipops to random children on Halloween
- crote 2y agoYou're not going to sell them for $2 to random people on the street. You're going to sneakily replace the charging cord of some targeted $BIGCORP employee working in a Starbucks.
- ikekkdcjkfke 2y agoSince US doesnt have GDPR it would be the fiduciary duty to install mic's in all cables and record all conversations
- hansvm 2y agoI'm all for some privacy protections, but doesn't 2-party consent cover that particular use case already? In CA, it swings a bit far the other way, and if you have a hidden mic recording a business lying through their teeth with the intent to defraud you, you might have a little wiggle room, but the recording is likely to be thrown out of any civil actions (and some criminal actions).
- jmhammond 2y agoIn Kansas, we’re a 1-party consent state, which gets us back to the previous commenter. Now pardon me while I scoot these potted flowers closer to you…
- jimbobthrowawy 2y agoDon't you have to be party to the conversation to be 1-party? Should still be illegal to record one you're not a part of. (if such laws even apply in person rather than just over phones)
- Molebot 2y agoWhat's that, spider? move the flowers closer? Ok!
- gumby 2y agoSuch a recording can be used for parallel construction
- creatonez 2y agoI guess you can exfiltrate any data to nearby security cameras by randomly flashing sensitive bits every once in a while :)
- vasco 2y agoWhy would you do that with a display and visible light instead of a tiny antenna using basically any other part of the spectrum
- godelski 2y agoI believe their point was that if it is small enough to place a display it would be small enough to put a malicious chip inside. Then again, this person discovered these cables this year and they've been out for awhile. And the OMG cable has been out for a few years now, which does exactly what they are afraid of. Which of course could be done by state actors for much longer.
- torginus 2y agoThis reminds me of the time when I held a cookout in my backyard and one of the guests came in through the supposedly locked back door. I realized that my lock was broken as the bolt didn't engage, and hadn't for years.
- im3w1l 2y agoComplexity usually makes it easier to hide stuff. Especially if the thing you want to hide and the thing you want to hide it in are highly similar.
- Arrath 2y agoIt would certainly be more inconspicuous.