35 ms·

USB Killer

511 points by skazka16 12y ago

cbr 12y ago
I made a list of other way usb can be evil: http://www.jefftk.com/p/malicious-usb-sticks http://www.jefftk.com/p/malicious-usb-sticks
lisper 12y ago
This is so not cool.
- warmwaffles 12y ago
  Well it depends. If you use it for malicious purposes, then yes it is not cool. But if you use it for science, then it's a bit different. I have a spare laptop that is garbage and would love to see what would happen.
  - mitchty 12y ago
    I was thinking more along the line of using a raspberry pi personally.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  Why? Sounds like a way to increase security awareness. Although, I suppose a huge blaring alarm might do just as well. Leave them around your office/parking lot and see who uses them. Then have a chat. Better they plug in a bad device you control vs one carrying a truly malicious payload. (Probably a good idea to attempt to phish employees, too.)
  - lawnchair_larry 12y ago
    Yeah, and randomly hitting people in the head with a bat is a great way to increase concussion awareness, right?
    - aeykie 12y ago
      Deciding to put a stranger-USB device in your computer is a thing you do, and decided to do. Getting hit in the head with a bat isn't.
      - jen729w 12y ago
        "I'm not a lawyer" etc., but I'm pretty sure that, in many if not most nations with a broadly Western judicial system, the deliberate planting of this device with the intention of causing harm will be illegal. It doesn't matter if the poor fool plugs it in: you knew what would happen. Furthermore it's arguably true that you intended it to happen. Therefore, you're a dick and you're at fault.
    - woof 12y ago
      No, but it's a great way to increase "don't stick your head where it shouldn't be" awareness!
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - semi-extrinsic 12y ago
    Using a usb rubber ducky to take over their computer and write an email to yourself, saying something to the effect that "I was stupid and plugged a random usb key into my work machine" would be much better.
    - pavel_lishin 12y ago
      I'd wager that in the US, that would actually be a bigger crime than merely burning out a computer.
  - ademarre 12y ago
    > Better they plug in a bad device you control vs one carrying a truly malicious payload. In this case the bad device you control is a truly malicious payload whose damage can be measured in dollars.
  - vacri 12y ago
    "Oh, look, someone lost a usb stick. Perhaps I can return it to them if I can identify something on it. Oh, it's just done over a thousand dollars damage to me, plus destroyed everything I have done on this computer". I've not found a lost USB stick, but I have found lost wallets and returned them. Thank god they weren't trapped because some dickhead thought it was a good way to 'teach the public in general a lesson'. Besides, pretty much anything can be characterised as "a way" to increase security awareness, up to and including murder of the victim. The victim's friends and family will be a lot more wary of whatever did the murder - the goal of 'security awareness' has been increased. But "a way" is not the same as "a good way".
  - lisper 12y ago
    There are better ways to increase security awareness than to destroy people's computers.
  - tripzilch 12y ago
    I dunno, making an innocent-looking object do something dangerous is "not cool" for non-technical items as well. Say you replace the contents of one of those bright-coloured sticky sweet liquors with a similarly-coloured cleaning fluid? Then leave it in your liquor cabinet, "to teach people to not touch your stuff". I'm not even sure that's legal. I once heard a story of someone storing their concentrated GHB (a drug, clear liquid), in a vodka bottle. If someone had accidentally poured themselves a shot of that, the consequences would have been pretty bad. On a similar note, I'm not sure about the US, but in the Netherlands, it's actually illegal to booby-trap your own home. If an intruder gets hurt, you're liable. I don't think this law exists to protect burglars, but instead it is to protect well-intentioned unlucky people from "accidents" caused by terrible and idiotic "security" measures. Makes me think about the car-alarm in Snow Crash, which delivered a fatal several thousand volts to whoever tried to open it without a key (or maybe it was a flame-thrower, I forgot).
    - ToastyMallows 12y ago
      Re: "If an intruder gets hurt, you're liable." IANAL This is called the Castle doctrine, and in the US it varies on a state-by-state basis. I'm not sure if it would cover "booby-traps" or not, since technically you are protecting yourself from an intruder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine#Practice_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine#Practice_in_th...
      - jpindar 12y ago
        That does not cover booby traps, which are illegal everywhere in the US AFAIK.
vanontom 12y ago
This is just one of many reasons why you should not ever stick unknown things in your healthy ports (or your healthy things in unknown ports). Not without protection. Safety first. But I'm a firm believer that people should be able to consent to this kind of behavior if they really wish to.
- barsonme 12y ago
  Cheeky. Are USB condoms really worth it? And do they have any that prevent excess current? (I really like sticking things into ports.)
- Springtime 12y ago
  I've often wondered if there was some condom-like* attachment available that acted as a go-between for the USB port and a connected device that would prevent/mitigate some of the issues with sticking unknown devices into ports. * There is a device called a 'USB Condom' but it's only for charging purposes, and completely restricts data access.
  - ssalazar 12y ago
    There are USB opto-isolators, rated for various large voltages/wattages, which basically accomplish this.
- glandium 12y ago
  The problem is that a stick that you bought is something unknown.
  - rwallace 12y ago
    In principle, nothing outside pure mathematics is certain. In practice, a USB stick you ordered from Amazon and just took out of its packaging is far less likely to carry a virus than one you just found lying around.
- Shivetya 12y ago
  So how do we make it absolutely safe? Can a simple device be created that we can plug any USB into and simply receive an indication its safe and its capacity? How hard can this be?
mcauser 12y ago
If you use a USB hub, would both it and your computer get cooked, or just the USB hub?
- 13 12y ago
  Depends on how lucky you are, there's no specific protection for something like this.
errantspark 12y ago
I bet you could get a few thousand of these made for like 10 grand? I'm glad people who just want to cause mayhem aren't competent.
mrb 12y ago
This reminds me of the Etherkiller page (sending 120 volt to various devices: NICs, HDDs...): http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/ http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/
- icelancer 12y ago
  The bus killer on this page is a real work of art, if I remember correctly it kills PCI/AGP/ISA using card covers! (website was down when I clicked)
- joncameron 12y ago
  This gave me a really good chuckle.
witten 12y ago
I once encountered a computer that was the opposite of this; plug any USB device into it, and the device would never work again, even in another computer.
- kinleyd 12y ago
  My computer seems to be doing that on a random basis. I think I should worry.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- cesarb 12y ago
  At work, I encountered a HD which fried SATA ports. If you plugged that HD in a SATA port of another computer, that SATA port didn't work anymore. I don't know if the HD had been damaged by the computer it was originally from, but we didn't use both that HD and that computer anymore. There have been other stories of "contagious" hardware damage in the past, like the infamous ZIP drive "click of death", but that HD is the first one I've seen personally.
  - linker3000 12y ago
    Just had that with a SATA SSD - looks like it had a power bus short and it blew a chip (dual FETs) on the caddy backplane. Lots of smoke. Usual story: replacement part is about £0.50 and I could replace it in the lab, but postage for one part is £4. Might see if I can get one as a sample, or from the Far East with 'free shipping'. Many moons ago, I worked in the education sector and some smart kid ran a paper stapler up a keyboard lead, leaving it full of metal staples. The power short blew an axial fuse on the motherboard. The next user encountered a 'dead keyboard', so they swapped it for the one on the next desk..repeat 6 times before someone realised the fault was travelling with the keyboard...
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  We had that recently with FTDI releasing driver update that would instantly brick any device using a counterfeit chip. Which means a lot of devices got bricked, as the manufacturers like to save money... http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/ http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftd...
13 12y ago
I tried to do one better with a small flyback transformer. https://gfycat.com/GlaringGrimCondor https://gfycat.com/GlaringGrimCondor Turns out there's not enough clearance in USB ports for tens of thousands of volts.
- comboy 12y ago
  Nice! But I'm guessing you wouldn't be able to fit that into a size that's comparable with standard USB drive?
  - cstross 12y ago
    You could fit one into a portable hard drive case, though. Presumably along with an electric motor to make the appropriate noises when whoever you really don't like tries to plug it into their laptop.
  - 13 12y ago
    Possible at a pinch, the flyback I was using right there was about the size of a walnut. You could lay most of it out flat with the voltage multiplier and encase the whole thing in epoxy for (ha) safety. I really wanted to go much higher with the voltages, but the amount of noise this thing puts out de-focuses the camera.
- nalson 12y ago
  Could you share the circuit diagram? I am intrigued.
derefr 12y ago
The worst suggestion in the world: make one of these look like one of those USB dead-drops.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  I think it's the best idea ever. I mean, seriously, with all those USB-based attack vectors do anyone thinks plugging your computer to a random USB port sticking out of a wall is a good idea?
  - derefr 12y ago
    It's kind of a snide thing to do, though; every physical interchange medium, or object you might put in proximity to your computer, has physical attack vectors. Optical disks can be weakened so as to become shrapnel inside a disk drive. Magnetic tapes can be replaced with sandpaper and scratch the reader to death. Any cassette media (e.g. floppy disks) can simply be filled with glue—or, better yet, contain a small explosive. So, there's nothing about USB that makes people especially deserving of punishment if they go using strange ones; there's a base level of societal trust required for the abstraction of a "side-effect-free data storage object" to exist in the first place. To say otherwise is similar to purposefully driving the wrong way down the road and getting into a 28-car pile-up, and then saying that this is a lesson in how cars are inherently dangerous and people should avoid driving near strangers. The security mindset can only make you so safe; at some point, you have to trust that strangers aren't trying to kill you in order to be able to live your life. (Though, in this case, you could just avoid all physical peripherals and ask the person to email you the file instead. At least all you can get from that is a virus.)
    - TeMPOraL 12y ago
      It's not like that. USB drives are a popular vector for transfering malware both ways. Which means a perfectly good dead drop can become infected when someone who didn't know he had malware plugs his computer in. USB dead drops are not like cars - they're like a bottle of juice chained to a wall, that anyone can drink from and refill it with whatever they want. You don't have to assume malice to expect such a bottle to be a health risk - not everyone who deposits a disease knows he is ill. Of course I'm joking with my approval for installing boobytrapped dead drops - but the point is, connecting to a random thumbdrive sticking out of a wall sounds like a dumbest computer-related idea ever.
drno123 12y ago
I would like to see this device on kickstarter :)
ademarre 12y ago
Is there any chance this could be dangerous to the human and not just his device?
- sudhirj 12y ago
  If one wanted something dangerous to humans, one could just pack a USB stick full of explosives and use the current from the port as a detonator. I'm sure that's already been thought of before.
  - Houshalter 12y ago
    He's asking because he doesn't want something dangerous to humans. E.g. if someone made these as a prank, and they caused fires and killed people.
  - anon4 12y ago
    Or you could fill it with anthrax. Or dioxygen difluoride. Or chlorine trifluoride. Or Australian spiders. Or African bees.
__david__ 12y ago
Reminds me of one my favorite "Bastard Operator From Hell" stories: http://www.chinet.com/html/bofh/tradeshow.html http://www.chinet.com/html/bofh/tradeshow.html Turns out this is a very old idea. :-)
- 72deluxe 12y ago
  Haha very witty. Such a cynical outlook on life and people in that article.
  - __david__ 12y ago
    Most definitely. There's a whole series of them: http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/ http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Smerity 12y ago
Someone joked that this would be useful to ensure people won't randomly plug USB drives into their computers. Sounds insane, except that... "During a stop-over in Hong Kong, he finds a spare USB key in his hotel room. Curious, he inserts it into his laptop. By the time he arrives in Australia, his computer is infected."[1] This was the one of the infection vectors for a large flare-up between the Chinese government and a number of Australian based mining companies, all well before the Snowden leaks that have only made the world more complex. Given the choice between frying an employee's USB / computer (small monetary loss) and allowing trade secrets to fall into the hands of competitors / customers (large monetary loss), it's not crazy to opt for the former. Standard practice has even gone further. A colleague of mine purchases fresh laptops for when he goes overseas and then never uses them again. He doesn't even work in an industry where commercial secrets are common. I'd hope that anywhere that features security implications or commercial secrets would also act at this level. Perhaps an innocuous version of this, which starts a high pitch whistle, would be useful in a corporate environment. Less destructive but resulting in the the same security awareness. [1]: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100419/cyber/ http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100419/cyber/
- __m 12y ago
  Another option would be to just tell them and not play games with them.
  - Smerity 12y ago
    Whilst an option, I feel it's a bad one if security is actually a priority. Having worked at companies who actually have a high level concern over computer security, telling someone simply isn't enough. Being told is passive. Passive defence and active defence are two entirely different states of mind. Defending against an attack needs to be active and instinctual. Every time you open, close, or set down your laptop, a small part of your brain should be thinking about it. In computer security, a single failure is enough to lose control, so it's useful to have an environment that reflects that. A simple example is being told to keep your terminal locked. This is a common rule for most workplaces but is usually met with dismal failure. One of the companies I worked at actually made a game out of leaving your terminal unlocked. I can tell you, after a few days of your colleagues kindly laughing at you returning to a screen full of Internet memes, you instinctively Ctrl + L upon standing up, even if it's to walk to the windows to look at the view. Why is it important I lock the screen even if standing a metre away? My friend walks by whilst I'm staring at the view and invites me to [coffee|walk|game|X]. Security has already left your mind and you head off to do [X], leaving your terminal unlocked. Even worse, your screen might auto-lock in a few minutes, giving you a false sense of security when you return. Even if it was unlocked when you returned, you'd likely get back to work, not realizing your error. Making security a game is a good way of instilling the practice. Colleagues make for cunning adversaries and make you actively defend yourself. This defence is useful against both pretend threats and real ones. Wargames are wargames for a reason.
caf 12y ago
It would be cool to create a version of this that just sounded a really, really loud siren. Then you could leave it lying around the office, and listen out for the bunnies.
- petercooper 12y ago
  Especially if it used capacitors or an onboard battery to keep the siren going when someone inevitably yanks it out quickly :)
  - BorisMelnik 12y ago
    and of course label it "boss name personal" On that note, using it as a pentesting device could be interesting. Perhaps just use the "beep" so the auditor can see how many people trust putting anything into their PC, then at the end cite USB killer.
    - detaro 12y ago
      "loosing" USB sticks with a trojan that just phones home and deletes itself seems to be the usual way to do that in pentests.
      - BorisMelnik 12y ago
        interesting, didn't know that. see what happens people come up with innovative ideas all the time and have no idea they already exist!
- chrissnell 12y ago
  Yours is the 2015 version of the 1980s-era DOS app that displayed a fake word processor UI with the top portion of a fake but intriguing letter visible. You would leave this app running and then leave for lunch. An office snoop would see the fake letter and want to read more, then press a key to scroll down, which would activate a siren sound on the PC speaker and display some silly "you're busted" message on the screen.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Jopika 12y ago
The potential damage this implies is ridiculous. Looks like I'm stocking up on Raspberry Pi-s to deal with my curiosity from now on...
Animats 12y ago
Here are parts to design into your USB device to prevent that. http://www.mouser.com/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/ http://www.mouser.com/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/ http://www.te.com/content/dam/te/global/english/products/Circuit-Protection/knowledge-center/documents/an-coordinated-circuit-protection-usb.pdf http://www.te.com/content/dam/te/global/english/products/Cir...
- mindslight 12y ago
  There are straight up isolators, like ADUM4160. For USB2, they're limited to 12mbit/sec though, because USB2 has a single bidirectional (terrible) data line.
  - cnvogel 12y ago
    Also USB1.1 is (for the most part of the data transmission) differential and bidirectional. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USB_signal_example.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USB_signal_example.s...
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
Qantourisc 12y ago
This is pure evil! (not in a good way)
junto 12y ago
Reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. UK power plugs have three prongs to include earth. If you rewire earth, live and neutral AND alter the plug wall socket to match, then all is well, but if someone steals your PC then plugs it in using a standard wall socket then ouch.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Or, if you end up forgetting about it or your s.o. moves the laptop from your desk to the other side of the room...
  - junto 12y ago
    The original story actually relates to a computer running a BBS back in the 90's. The plugs were duck taped to sockets and signs more or less read "do not unplug... ever". When the place was raided by the police and the computer confiscated, the fun and games began. The computer was never returned.
- twelvechairs 12y ago
  UK power plugs also require a fuse, which I believe is not mandatory anywhere else.
  - philjohn 12y ago
    They're ugly as hell, and insanely painful if you tread on them, but UK plugs are a bastion of good engineering. Things like not being able to stick things into the line/neutral holes unless the ground pin (which is longer) is inserted make them very safe, and the plastic lower part of the line/neutral pins to stop you accidentally touching something that will have current running through it until the plug is safely inserted is inspired.
    - asdfaoeu 12y ago
      > Things like not being able to stick things into the line/neutral holes unless the ground pin (which is longer) is inserted make them very safe, and the plastic lower part of the line/neutral pins to stop you accidentally touching something that will have current running through it until the plug is safely inserted is inspired. Same in Australia, of course you can still go off an buy and Apple Laptop charger with no ground.
xiaoma 12y ago
> "We can tell you exactly what happened when your candidates tried to implement a REST API. We can compare their performance against hundreds of other talented engineers (including your current employees) on the same task." Dayum. tldr; if you like your job and you play this game, play to win
- micaeked 12y ago
  [meta] Looks like you replied to wrong item.
hereonbusiness 12y ago
One could give these out to activists around the world, they seem to be always at risk of getting their electronic devices confiscated by law enforcement.
- thret 12y ago
  Women who carry mace might also welcome one of these in their handbags. Or people who keep getting inspected at airports. I'm sure there's a market.
  - hereonbusiness 12y ago
    I can already see the marketing slogan: "Stick it to the man" :)
    - fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
      Stick it anyone who uses your things without permission.
- peterwwillis 12y ago
  They have it bad enough already without adding felony charges for destruction of government property.
  - mariusz79 12y ago
    What about putting it in a plastic bag, with big sticker - "DO NOT PLUG THIS INTO ANY DEVICE. " :)
    - hereonbusiness 12y ago
      You could even print a disclaimer using bold red letters onto the device itself, people would probably just want to plug it in even more.
pi-rat 12y ago
Pretty cool (and scary!) modern day version of the old anarchist cookbook diskette bombs.
stef25 12y ago
I thought I remembered reading something about quite a high profile hack that was carried by infecting computers by people using USB sticks that were strategically left on the floor of a parking lot near their car.
- e15ctr0n 12y ago
  http://www.cnet.com/news/stuxnet-delivered-to-iranian-nuclear-plant-on-thumb-drive/ http://www.cnet.com/news/stuxnet-delivered-to-iranian-nuclea...
andmarios 12y ago
Going to such extend to add a feature to USB which FireWire has built-in. :p
cstross 12y ago
If you're feeling ornery,you could fly with one in your hand luggage. If the TSA or foreign equivalent border security want to scan your devices, it's their look-out.
- saganus 12y ago
  And then you will probably be charged with trying to hack the U.S. Government and get like 1000 years of Guantanamo time. Jokes aside... it would be interesting to see what would happen if someone had such nerve.
  - cstross 12y ago
    Use a sharpie to draw a skull and crossbones on one side; on the other, write DANGER. When they ask you to hand over all personal electronics, point to it and say "that's dangerous". If, subsequently, they want to know why you were carrying it ... it was so you could fry the USB port of your own laptop if you thought someone had snuck some hardware-level malware into it. If you tell them NOT TO DO IT and they go ahead and do it, I find it hard to see how a court could convict you of wilfully damaging their forensic equipment. (To the extent there's any social engineering involved, it simply relies on the tendency of police to ignore or discount unsolicited information from members of the public who are under suspicion.) Note that they won't be sticking the device in a laptop or desktop PC; specialist forensic imaging machines are used by law enforcement to duplicate data storage devices and maintain a legal chain of evidence. Oops.
- tomaskafka 12y ago
  This - I'm suprised this isn't the highest voted comment here. Let me buy this, I'll keep a few in my travel bag.
renaudr 12y ago
what about making it a normal usb drive as well. let me explain: when one inserts the drive, one gets asked for a password. if you type the wrong password, the usb drive shows you some fake content, and in the background “burns down” everything it can. if you are the owner and type the right password, you can use the usb drive normally
agumonkey 12y ago
Last year, I found a usb key on the ground, almost busted, still I'm too curious to know what's in it so I bring it home. Plug it in, then I learn a little more about the USB protocol as the kernel notifies me there's an "Over-current condition on port 3", just before a tiny bit of smoke emerges from the key.
leni536 12y ago
Ouch. Not a traditional attack one would expect on a USB port. Would be there any practical protection against this (surge protector, fuse)?
- jpindar 12y ago
  You can buy isolated USB hubs.
uptown 12y ago
Evil. I've often wondered what percentage of those dirt-cheap UBS devices sold on eBay are actually trojan horses. Provide a basic functional USB hub at a cut-rate price, but exploit the access to your customer's PC for nefarious purposes. Seems like an easy crime to perpetrate.
erjjones 12y ago
.. worst written article ever
nabla9 12y ago
I would like a version that has small GPS receiver and can sends SMS with location information when plugged in. It should works otherwise just like normal USB. (could be the size of USB HDD for example).
Aardwolf 12y ago
I understand the concept of the article, a USB device that will fry your laptop by charging and applying high voltage. But I don't understand the excerpt about the guy writing number 129 on a USB stick and stuff. Why would he plug it in his laptop if he knew it would burn it? And if it was intential, aren't there easier ways to burn it? Thanks for explaining...
- amyjess 12y ago
  He didn't know. After it burnt his laptop, he decided to pass it on and make it easy for somebody to steal the key and burn their laptop.
  - Aardwolf 12y ago
    I see. Thanks! Highly unlikely that 129 people in a row respond like that though... More likely is that someone destroys the USB device in anger, dismantles it, is too shocked to do anything, doesn't interpret the number as a counter, or doesn't want to ruin other people's computer. And, of course, that many people in a row stealing a USB device from a backpack is already unlikely in itself.
    - elwell 12y ago
      Yeah it would have been clearer if he didn't use a power of 2 for his counter's current state. Made me think it had to do with the device's storage capacity.
      - jader201 12y ago
        I'm assuming the original story was actually told as a joke, where the "128" number was intentionally misleading until the punchline at the end where he incremented the number and "payed it forward".
CPLX 12y ago
This immediately reminded me of the slightly infamous and almost certainly apocryphal "box" of the phreaking era for supposedly overloading and destroying your adversary's phone, or even taking down the local POTS switch. It was called a urine box most commonly, or sometimes a copper box or assassin box if I recall correctly.
- BuildTheRobots 12y ago
  This [1] seems to indicate the urine box and the assassin box were actually different, even though they seemed to achieve similar results. I'd be curious to find circuit diagrams. [1] http://www.aboutphone.info/lib/phreak/boxes-2.html http://www.aboutphone.info/lib/phreak/boxes-2.html
  - CPLX 12y ago
    Aha, that also reminded me of my favorite name for the thing, the Blotto Box.
buro9 12y ago
Do you think he's tested it?
thomasfl 12y ago
If any USB mouse, USB keyboard or soon also USB charger is a potential laptop annihilator, then maybe it's something wrong with the USB standard.
- platz 12y ago
  USB exists in the physical world, of course there are going to be physical attacks (i.e. a crapload of current or voltage) that all physical things are subject to.
- aaronem 12y ago
  Well, anything with an electrical connection to anything else is a potential "annihilator" of that latter thing. It's only USB's ubiquity, and its ability to supply significant current to a downstream device, which are capitalized upon here. (The latter, I concede, is useful in implementing a device destroyer, but a small battery could easily enough replace it.)
- indrax 12y ago
  The security problems with USB are things that need to be fixed. I think every other non-optical port on your computer is just as susceptible to electrical attack. The only real difference is that USB provides its own power. This is a human delivery mechanism for a physical attack. You could make a DVI cable that was covertly a water hose, but that's not a DVI problem.
hharnisch 12y ago
Well at least the new MacBook won't have a problem with this device.
- Transisto 12y ago
  Complete opposite. Won't even be able to charge it after anything happen to that port.
- franciscogarcia 12y ago
  The machine will become a $2k paperweight if that port is rendered unusable.
api 12y ago
It's a USB blotto box: http://cd.textfiles.com/group42/ANARCHY/COOKBOOK/BLOTBOX.HTM http://cd.textfiles.com/group42/ANARCHY/COOKBOOK/BLOTBOX.HTM The old school version required a portable generator. Miniaturization at its finest!
jonathantm 12y ago
Best comment from the page: "It needs to have en eInk display to say 128, 129" Such yes. ... I was walking past a tall wooden fence the other day, you know the kind you see outside a building site. As I walked along beside it I heard chanting coming from behind the fence further up... they were chanting numbers, or rather just one number. "Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, ..." they excitedly chanted. It sounded like a small crowd, young and old; men, women and children. All of them saying the same number over and over. As I approached I saw a small hole in the fence just big enough to look through. The hole was right where the sound appeared to be originating from. So, with the crowd continuing to chant "... thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen" and it seeming to become more intense as I leaned down to place my eye at the hole and work out WTF was happening in there. Just as I put my eye to the hole a small finger like that of a child poked me in the eye and the crowd stared cheered loudly and started chanting again.. "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen..."
- ikeboy 12y ago
  Someone was waving a bunch of newspapers and yelling "extra! extra! 50 people scammed! extra! extra!". I went over and bought one. I looked inside, there was nothing about any scam. Then I hear "extra! extra! 51 people scammed! extra! extra!".
aravan 12y ago
What if the voltage kills someone? Is it not too dangerous? Lesson is not to use/touch the USB stuffs not belongs to you. Good moral story for 2nd grader.
nfoz 12y ago
I believe the original is the Etherkiller: http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/ http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/
emilecantin 12y ago
Build this into a DeadDrop (seen on HN yesterday) for added fun.

511 points by skazka16 12y ago

cbr 12y ago

I made a list of other way usb can be evil: http://www.jefftk.com/p/malicious-usb-sticks http://www.jefftk.com/p/malicious-usb-sticks

lisper 12y ago

This is so not cool.

warmwaffles 12y ago
Well it depends. If you use it for malicious purposes, then yes it is not cool. But if you use it for science, then it's a bit different. I have a spare laptop that is garbage and would love to see what would happen.
- mitchty 12y ago
  I was thinking more along the line of using a raspberry pi personally.
MichaelGG 12y ago
Why? Sounds like a way to increase security awareness. Although, I suppose a huge blaring alarm might do just as well. Leave them around your office/parking lot and see who uses them. Then have a chat. Better they plug in a bad device you control vs one carrying a truly malicious payload. (Probably a good idea to attempt to phish employees, too.)
- lawnchair_larry 12y ago
  Yeah, and randomly hitting people in the head with a bat is a great way to increase concussion awareness, right?
  - aeykie 12y ago
    Deciding to put a stranger-USB device in your computer is a thing you do, and decided to do. Getting hit in the head with a bat isn't.
    - jen729w 12y ago
      "I'm not a lawyer" etc., but I'm pretty sure that, in many if not most nations with a broadly Western judicial system, the deliberate planting of this device with the intention of causing harm will be illegal. It doesn't matter if the poor fool plugs it in: you knew what would happen. Furthermore it's arguably true that you intended it to happen. Therefore, you're a dick and you're at fault.
  - woof 12y ago
    No, but it's a great way to increase "don't stick your head where it shouldn't be" awareness!
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- semi-extrinsic 12y ago
  Using a usb rubber ducky to take over their computer and write an email to yourself, saying something to the effect that "I was stupid and plugged a random usb key into my work machine" would be much better.
  - pavel_lishin 12y ago
    I'd wager that in the US, that would actually be a bigger crime than merely burning out a computer.
- ademarre 12y ago
  > Better they plug in a bad device you control vs one carrying a truly malicious payload. In this case the bad device you control is a truly malicious payload whose damage can be measured in dollars.
- vacri 12y ago
  "Oh, look, someone lost a usb stick. Perhaps I can return it to them if I can identify something on it. Oh, it's just done over a thousand dollars damage to me, plus destroyed everything I have done on this computer". I've not found a lost USB stick, but I have found lost wallets and returned them. Thank god they weren't trapped because some dickhead thought it was a good way to 'teach the public in general a lesson'. Besides, pretty much anything can be characterised as "a way" to increase security awareness, up to and including murder of the victim. The victim's friends and family will be a lot more wary of whatever did the murder - the goal of 'security awareness' has been increased. But "a way" is not the same as "a good way".
- lisper 12y ago
  There are better ways to increase security awareness than to destroy people's computers.
- tripzilch 12y ago
  I dunno, making an innocent-looking object do something dangerous is "not cool" for non-technical items as well. Say you replace the contents of one of those bright-coloured sticky sweet liquors with a similarly-coloured cleaning fluid? Then leave it in your liquor cabinet, "to teach people to not touch your stuff". I'm not even sure that's legal. I once heard a story of someone storing their concentrated GHB (a drug, clear liquid), in a vodka bottle. If someone had accidentally poured themselves a shot of that, the consequences would have been pretty bad. On a similar note, I'm not sure about the US, but in the Netherlands, it's actually illegal to booby-trap your own home. If an intruder gets hurt, you're liable. I don't think this law exists to protect burglars, but instead it is to protect well-intentioned unlucky people from "accidents" caused by terrible and idiotic "security" measures. Makes me think about the car-alarm in Snow Crash, which delivered a fatal several thousand volts to whoever tried to open it without a key (or maybe it was a flame-thrower, I forgot).
  - ToastyMallows 12y ago
    Re: "If an intruder gets hurt, you're liable." IANAL This is called the Castle doctrine, and in the US it varies on a state-by-state basis. I'm not sure if it would cover "booby-traps" or not, since technically you are protecting yourself from an intruder. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine#Practice_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_doctrine#Practice_in_th...
    - jpindar 12y ago
      That does not cover booby traps, which are illegal everywhere in the US AFAIK.

vanontom 12y ago

This is just one of many reasons why you should not ever stick unknown things in your healthy ports (or your healthy things in unknown ports). Not without protection. Safety first. But I'm a firm believer that people should be able to consent to this kind of behavior if they really wish to.

barsonme 12y ago
Cheeky. Are USB condoms really worth it? And do they have any that prevent excess current? (I really like sticking things into ports.)
Springtime 12y ago
I've often wondered if there was some condom-like* attachment available that acted as a go-between for the USB port and a connected device that would prevent/mitigate some of the issues with sticking unknown devices into ports. * There is a device called a 'USB Condom' but it's only for charging purposes, and completely restricts data access.
- ssalazar 12y ago
  There are USB opto-isolators, rated for various large voltages/wattages, which basically accomplish this.
glandium 12y ago
The problem is that a stick that you bought is something unknown.
- rwallace 12y ago
  In principle, nothing outside pure mathematics is certain. In practice, a USB stick you ordered from Amazon and just took out of its packaging is far less likely to carry a virus than one you just found lying around.
Shivetya 12y ago
So how do we make it absolutely safe? Can a simple device be created that we can plug any USB into and simply receive an indication its safe and its capacity? How hard can this be?

mcauser 12y ago

If you use a USB hub, would both it and your computer get cooked, or just the USB hub?

13 12y ago
Depends on how lucky you are, there's no specific protection for something like this.

errantspark 12y ago

I bet you could get a few thousand of these made for like 10 grand? I'm glad people who just want to cause mayhem aren't competent.

mrb 12y ago

This reminds me of the Etherkiller page (sending 120 volt to various devices: NICs, HDDs...): http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/ http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

icelancer 12y ago
The bus killer on this page is a real work of art, if I remember correctly it kills PCI/AGP/ISA using card covers! (website was down when I clicked)
joncameron 12y ago
This gave me a really good chuckle.

witten 12y ago

I once encountered a computer that was the opposite of this; plug any USB device into it, and the device would never work again, even in another computer.

kinleyd 12y ago
My computer seems to be doing that on a random basis. I think I should worry.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
cesarb 12y ago
At work, I encountered a HD which fried SATA ports. If you plugged that HD in a SATA port of another computer, that SATA port didn't work anymore. I don't know if the HD had been damaged by the computer it was originally from, but we didn't use both that HD and that computer anymore. There have been other stories of "contagious" hardware damage in the past, like the infamous ZIP drive "click of death", but that HD is the first one I've seen personally.
- linker3000 12y ago
  Just had that with a SATA SSD - looks like it had a power bus short and it blew a chip (dual FETs) on the caddy backplane. Lots of smoke. Usual story: replacement part is about £0.50 and I could replace it in the lab, but postage for one part is £4. Might see if I can get one as a sample, or from the Far East with 'free shipping'. Many moons ago, I worked in the education sector and some smart kid ran a paper stapler up a keyboard lead, leaving it full of metal staples. The power short blew an axial fuse on the motherboard. The next user encountered a 'dead keyboard', so they swapped it for the one on the next desk..repeat 6 times before someone realised the fault was travelling with the keyboard...
TeMPOraL 12y ago
We had that recently with FTDI releasing driver update that would instantly brick any device using a counterfeit chip. Which means a lot of devices got bricked, as the manufacturers like to save money... http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/ http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftd...

13 12y ago

I tried to do one better with a small flyback transformer. https://gfycat.com/GlaringGrimCondor https://gfycat.com/GlaringGrimCondor Turns out there's not enough clearance in USB ports for tens of thousands of volts.

comboy 12y ago
Nice! But I'm guessing you wouldn't be able to fit that into a size that's comparable with standard USB drive?
- cstross 12y ago
  You could fit one into a portable hard drive case, though. Presumably along with an electric motor to make the appropriate noises when whoever you really don't like tries to plug it into their laptop.
- 13 12y ago
  Possible at a pinch, the flyback I was using right there was about the size of a walnut. You could lay most of it out flat with the voltage multiplier and encase the whole thing in epoxy for (ha) safety. I really wanted to go much higher with the voltages, but the amount of noise this thing puts out de-focuses the camera.
nalson 12y ago
Could you share the circuit diagram? I am intrigued.

derefr 12y ago

The worst suggestion in the world: make one of these look like one of those USB dead-drops.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
I think it's the best idea ever. I mean, seriously, with all those USB-based attack vectors do anyone thinks plugging your computer to a random USB port sticking out of a wall is a good idea?
- derefr 12y ago
  It's kind of a snide thing to do, though; every physical interchange medium, or object you might put in proximity to your computer, has physical attack vectors. Optical disks can be weakened so as to become shrapnel inside a disk drive. Magnetic tapes can be replaced with sandpaper and scratch the reader to death. Any cassette media (e.g. floppy disks) can simply be filled with glue—or, better yet, contain a small explosive. So, there's nothing about USB that makes people especially deserving of punishment if they go using strange ones; there's a base level of societal trust required for the abstraction of a "side-effect-free data storage object" to exist in the first place. To say otherwise is similar to purposefully driving the wrong way down the road and getting into a 28-car pile-up, and then saying that this is a lesson in how cars are inherently dangerous and people should avoid driving near strangers. The security mindset can only make you so safe; at some point, you have to trust that strangers aren't trying to kill you in order to be able to live your life. (Though, in this case, you could just avoid all physical peripherals and ask the person to email you the file instead. At least all you can get from that is a virus.)
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    It's not like that. USB drives are a popular vector for transfering malware both ways. Which means a perfectly good dead drop can become infected when someone who didn't know he had malware plugs his computer in. USB dead drops are not like cars - they're like a bottle of juice chained to a wall, that anyone can drink from and refill it with whatever they want. You don't have to assume malice to expect such a bottle to be a health risk - not everyone who deposits a disease knows he is ill. Of course I'm joking with my approval for installing boobytrapped dead drops - but the point is, connecting to a random thumbdrive sticking out of a wall sounds like a dumbest computer-related idea ever.

drno123 12y ago

I would like to see this device on kickstarter :)

ademarre 12y ago

Is there any chance this could be dangerous to the human and not just his device?

sudhirj 12y ago
If one wanted something dangerous to humans, one could just pack a USB stick full of explosives and use the current from the port as a detonator. I'm sure that's already been thought of before.
- Houshalter 12y ago
  He's asking because he doesn't want something dangerous to humans. E.g. if someone made these as a prank, and they caused fires and killed people.
- anon4 12y ago
  Or you could fill it with anthrax. Or dioxygen difluoride. Or chlorine trifluoride. Or Australian spiders. Or African bees.

__david__ 12y ago

Reminds me of one my favorite "Bastard Operator From Hell" stories: http://www.chinet.com/html/bofh/tradeshow.html http://www.chinet.com/html/bofh/tradeshow.html Turns out this is a very old idea. :-)

72deluxe 12y ago
Haha very witty. Such a cynical outlook on life and people in that article.
- __david__ 12y ago
  Most definitely. There's a whole series of them: http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/ http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Smerity 12y ago

Someone joked that this would be useful to ensure people won't randomly plug USB drives into their computers. Sounds insane, except that... "During a stop-over in Hong Kong, he finds a spare USB key in his hotel room. Curious, he inserts it into his laptop. By the time he arrives in Australia, his computer is infected."[1] This was the one of the infection vectors for a large flare-up between the Chinese government and a number of Australian based mining companies, all well before the Snowden leaks that have only made the world more complex. Given the choice between frying an employee's USB / computer (small monetary loss) and allowing trade secrets to fall into the hands of competitors / customers (large monetary loss), it's not crazy to opt for the former. Standard practice has even gone further. A colleague of mine purchases fresh laptops for when he goes overseas and then never uses them again. He doesn't even work in an industry where commercial secrets are common. I'd hope that anywhere that features security implications or commercial secrets would also act at this level. Perhaps an innocuous version of this, which starts a high pitch whistle, would be useful in a corporate environment. Less destructive but resulting in the the same security awareness. [1]: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100419/cyber/ http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100419/cyber/

__m 12y ago
Another option would be to just tell them and not play games with them.
- Smerity 12y ago
  Whilst an option, I feel it's a bad one if security is actually a priority. Having worked at companies who actually have a high level concern over computer security, telling someone simply isn't enough. Being told is passive. Passive defence and active defence are two entirely different states of mind. Defending against an attack needs to be active and instinctual. Every time you open, close, or set down your laptop, a small part of your brain should be thinking about it. In computer security, a single failure is enough to lose control, so it's useful to have an environment that reflects that. A simple example is being told to keep your terminal locked. This is a common rule for most workplaces but is usually met with dismal failure. One of the companies I worked at actually made a game out of leaving your terminal unlocked. I can tell you, after a few days of your colleagues kindly laughing at you returning to a screen full of Internet memes, you instinctively Ctrl + L upon standing up, even if it's to walk to the windows to look at the view. Why is it important I lock the screen even if standing a metre away? My friend walks by whilst I'm staring at the view and invites me to [coffee|walk|game|X]. Security has already left your mind and you head off to do [X], leaving your terminal unlocked. Even worse, your screen might auto-lock in a few minutes, giving you a false sense of security when you return. Even if it was unlocked when you returned, you'd likely get back to work, not realizing your error. Making security a game is a good way of instilling the practice. Colleagues make for cunning adversaries and make you actively defend yourself. This defence is useful against both pretend threats and real ones. Wargames are wargames for a reason.

caf 12y ago

It would be cool to create a version of this that just sounded a really, really loud siren. Then you could leave it lying around the office, and listen out for the bunnies.

petercooper 12y ago
Especially if it used capacitors or an onboard battery to keep the siren going when someone inevitably yanks it out quickly :)
- BorisMelnik 12y ago
  and of course label it "boss name personal" On that note, using it as a pentesting device could be interesting. Perhaps just use the "beep" so the auditor can see how many people trust putting anything into their PC, then at the end cite USB killer.
  - detaro 12y ago
    "loosing" USB sticks with a trojan that just phones home and deletes itself seems to be the usual way to do that in pentests.
    - BorisMelnik 12y ago
      interesting, didn't know that. see what happens people come up with innovative ideas all the time and have no idea they already exist!
chrissnell 12y ago
Yours is the 2015 version of the 1980s-era DOS app that displayed a fake word processor UI with the top portion of a fake but intriguing letter visible. You would leave this app running and then leave for lunch. An office snoop would see the fake letter and want to read more, then press a key to scroll down, which would activate a siren sound on the PC speaker and display some silly "you're busted" message on the screen.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Jopika 12y ago

The potential damage this implies is ridiculous. Looks like I'm stocking up on Raspberry Pi-s to deal with my curiosity from now on...

Animats 12y ago

Here are parts to design into your USB device to prevent that. http://www.mouser.com/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/ http://www.mouser.com/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/ http://www.te.com/content/dam/te/global/english/products/Circuit-Protection/knowledge-center/documents/an-coordinated-circuit-protection-usb.pdf http://www.te.com/content/dam/te/global/english/products/Cir...

mindslight 12y ago
There are straight up isolators, like ADUM4160. For USB2, they're limited to 12mbit/sec though, because USB2 has a single bidirectional (terrible) data line.
- cnvogel 12y ago
  Also USB1.1 is (for the most part of the data transmission) differential and bidirectional. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USB_signal_example.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USB_signal_example.s...
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]

Qantourisc 12y ago

This is pure evil! (not in a good way)

junto 12y ago

Reminds me of a story I heard many years ago. UK power plugs have three prongs to include earth. If you rewire earth, live and neutral AND alter the plug wall socket to match, then all is well, but if someone steals your PC then plugs it in using a standard wall socket then ouch.

jacquesm 12y ago
Or, if you end up forgetting about it or your s.o. moves the laptop from your desk to the other side of the room...
- junto 12y ago
  The original story actually relates to a computer running a BBS back in the 90's. The plugs were duck taped to sockets and signs more or less read "do not unplug... ever". When the place was raided by the police and the computer confiscated, the fun and games began. The computer was never returned.
twelvechairs 12y ago
UK power plugs also require a fuse, which I believe is not mandatory anywhere else.
- philjohn 12y ago
  They're ugly as hell, and insanely painful if you tread on them, but UK plugs are a bastion of good engineering. Things like not being able to stick things into the line/neutral holes unless the ground pin (which is longer) is inserted make them very safe, and the plastic lower part of the line/neutral pins to stop you accidentally touching something that will have current running through it until the plug is safely inserted is inspired.
  - asdfaoeu 12y ago
    > Things like not being able to stick things into the line/neutral holes unless the ground pin (which is longer) is inserted make them very safe, and the plastic lower part of the line/neutral pins to stop you accidentally touching something that will have current running through it until the plug is safely inserted is inspired. Same in Australia, of course you can still go off an buy and Apple Laptop charger with no ground.

xiaoma 12y ago

> "We can tell you exactly what happened when your candidates tried to implement a REST API. We can compare their performance against hundreds of other talented engineers (including your current employees) on the same task." Dayum. tldr; if you like your job and you play this game, play to win

micaeked 12y ago
[meta] Looks like you replied to wrong item.

hereonbusiness 12y ago

One could give these out to activists around the world, they seem to be always at risk of getting their electronic devices confiscated by law enforcement.

thret 12y ago
Women who carry mace might also welcome one of these in their handbags. Or people who keep getting inspected at airports. I'm sure there's a market.
- hereonbusiness 12y ago
  I can already see the marketing slogan: "Stick it to the man" :)
  - fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
    Stick it anyone who uses your things without permission.
peterwwillis 12y ago
They have it bad enough already without adding felony charges for destruction of government property.
- mariusz79 12y ago
  What about putting it in a plastic bag, with big sticker - "DO NOT PLUG THIS INTO ANY DEVICE. " :)
  - hereonbusiness 12y ago
    You could even print a disclaimer using bold red letters onto the device itself, people would probably just want to plug it in even more.

pi-rat 12y ago

Pretty cool (and scary!) modern day version of the old anarchist cookbook diskette bombs.

stef25 12y ago

I thought I remembered reading something about quite a high profile hack that was carried by infecting computers by people using USB sticks that were strategically left on the floor of a parking lot near their car.

e15ctr0n 12y ago
http://www.cnet.com/news/stuxnet-delivered-to-iranian-nuclear-plant-on-thumb-drive/ http://www.cnet.com/news/stuxnet-delivered-to-iranian-nuclea...

andmarios 12y ago

Going to such extend to add a feature to USB which FireWire has built-in. :p

cstross 12y ago

If you're feeling ornery,you could fly with one in your hand luggage. If the TSA or foreign equivalent border security want to scan your devices, it's their look-out.

saganus 12y ago
And then you will probably be charged with trying to hack the U.S. Government and get like 1000 years of Guantanamo time. Jokes aside... it would be interesting to see what would happen if someone had such nerve.
- cstross 12y ago
  Use a sharpie to draw a skull and crossbones on one side; on the other, write DANGER. When they ask you to hand over all personal electronics, point to it and say "that's dangerous". If, subsequently, they want to know why you were carrying it ... it was so you could fry the USB port of your own laptop if you thought someone had snuck some hardware-level malware into it. If you tell them NOT TO DO IT and they go ahead and do it, I find it hard to see how a court could convict you of wilfully damaging their forensic equipment. (To the extent there's any social engineering involved, it simply relies on the tendency of police to ignore or discount unsolicited information from members of the public who are under suspicion.) Note that they won't be sticking the device in a laptop or desktop PC; specialist forensic imaging machines are used by law enforcement to duplicate data storage devices and maintain a legal chain of evidence. Oops.
tomaskafka 12y ago
This - I'm suprised this isn't the highest voted comment here. Let me buy this, I'll keep a few in my travel bag.

renaudr 12y ago

what about making it a normal usb drive as well. let me explain: when one inserts the drive, one gets asked for a password. if you type the wrong password, the usb drive shows you some fake content, and in the background “burns down” everything it can. if you are the owner and type the right password, you can use the usb drive normally

agumonkey 12y ago

Last year, I found a usb key on the ground, almost busted, still I'm too curious to know what's in it so I bring it home. Plug it in, then I learn a little more about the USB protocol as the kernel notifies me there's an "Over-current condition on port 3", just before a tiny bit of smoke emerges from the key.

leni536 12y ago

Ouch. Not a traditional attack one would expect on a USB port. Would be there any practical protection against this (surge protector, fuse)?

jpindar 12y ago
You can buy isolated USB hubs.

uptown 12y ago

Evil. I've often wondered what percentage of those dirt-cheap UBS devices sold on eBay are actually trojan horses. Provide a basic functional USB hub at a cut-rate price, but exploit the access to your customer's PC for nefarious purposes. Seems like an easy crime to perpetrate.

erjjones 12y ago

.. worst written article ever

nabla9 12y ago

I would like a version that has small GPS receiver and can sends SMS with location information when plugged in. It should works otherwise just like normal USB. (could be the size of USB HDD for example).

Aardwolf 12y ago

I understand the concept of the article, a USB device that will fry your laptop by charging and applying high voltage. But I don't understand the excerpt about the guy writing number 129 on a USB stick and stuff. Why would he plug it in his laptop if he knew it would burn it? And if it was intential, aren't there easier ways to burn it? Thanks for explaining...

amyjess 12y ago
He didn't know. After it burnt his laptop, he decided to pass it on and make it easy for somebody to steal the key and burn their laptop.
- Aardwolf 12y ago
  I see. Thanks! Highly unlikely that 129 people in a row respond like that though... More likely is that someone destroys the USB device in anger, dismantles it, is too shocked to do anything, doesn't interpret the number as a counter, or doesn't want to ruin other people's computer. And, of course, that many people in a row stealing a USB device from a backpack is already unlikely in itself.
  - elwell 12y ago
    Yeah it would have been clearer if he didn't use a power of 2 for his counter's current state. Made me think it had to do with the device's storage capacity.
    - jader201 12y ago
      I'm assuming the original story was actually told as a joke, where the "128" number was intentionally misleading until the punchline at the end where he incremented the number and "payed it forward".

CPLX 12y ago

This immediately reminded me of the slightly infamous and almost certainly apocryphal "box" of the phreaking era for supposedly overloading and destroying your adversary's phone, or even taking down the local POTS switch. It was called a urine box most commonly, or sometimes a copper box or assassin box if I recall correctly.

BuildTheRobots 12y ago
This [1] seems to indicate the urine box and the assassin box were actually different, even though they seemed to achieve similar results. I'd be curious to find circuit diagrams. [1] http://www.aboutphone.info/lib/phreak/boxes-2.html http://www.aboutphone.info/lib/phreak/boxes-2.html
- CPLX 12y ago
  Aha, that also reminded me of my favorite name for the thing, the Blotto Box.

buro9 12y ago

Do you think he's tested it?

thomasfl 12y ago

If any USB mouse, USB keyboard or soon also USB charger is a potential laptop annihilator, then maybe it's something wrong with the USB standard.

platz 12y ago
USB exists in the physical world, of course there are going to be physical attacks (i.e. a crapload of current or voltage) that all physical things are subject to.
aaronem 12y ago
Well, anything with an electrical connection to anything else is a potential "annihilator" of that latter thing. It's only USB's ubiquity, and its ability to supply significant current to a downstream device, which are capitalized upon here. (The latter, I concede, is useful in implementing a device destroyer, but a small battery could easily enough replace it.)
indrax 12y ago
The security problems with USB are things that need to be fixed. I think every other non-optical port on your computer is just as susceptible to electrical attack. The only real difference is that USB provides its own power. This is a human delivery mechanism for a physical attack. You could make a DVI cable that was covertly a water hose, but that's not a DVI problem.

hharnisch 12y ago

Well at least the new MacBook won't have a problem with this device.

Transisto 12y ago
Complete opposite. Won't even be able to charge it after anything happen to that port.
franciscogarcia 12y ago
The machine will become a $2k paperweight if that port is rendered unusable.

api 12y ago

It's a USB blotto box: http://cd.textfiles.com/group42/ANARCHY/COOKBOOK/BLOTBOX.HTM http://cd.textfiles.com/group42/ANARCHY/COOKBOOK/BLOTBOX.HTM The old school version required a portable generator. Miniaturization at its finest!

jonathantm 12y ago

Best comment from the page: "It needs to have en eInk display to say 128, 129" Such yes. ... I was walking past a tall wooden fence the other day, you know the kind you see outside a building site. As I walked along beside it I heard chanting coming from behind the fence further up... they were chanting numbers, or rather just one number. "Thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, ..." they excitedly chanted. It sounded like a small crowd, young and old; men, women and children. All of them saying the same number over and over. As I approached I saw a small hole in the fence just big enough to look through. The hole was right where the sound appeared to be originating from. So, with the crowd continuing to chant "... thirteen, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen" and it seeming to become more intense as I leaned down to place my eye at the hole and work out WTF was happening in there. Just as I put my eye to the hole a small finger like that of a child poked me in the eye and the crowd stared cheered loudly and started chanting again.. "Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen..."

ikeboy 12y ago
Someone was waving a bunch of newspapers and yelling "extra! extra! 50 people scammed! extra! extra!". I went over and bought one. I looked inside, there was nothing about any scam. Then I hear "extra! extra! 51 people scammed! extra! extra!".

aravan 12y ago

What if the voltage kills someone? Is it not too dangerous? Lesson is not to use/touch the USB stuffs not belongs to you. Good moral story for 2nd grader.

nfoz 12y ago

I believe the original is the Etherkiller: http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/ http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

emilecantin 12y ago

Build this into a DeadDrop (seen on HN yesterday) for added fun.