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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.
by 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 agoUSB 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 agoWell, 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 agoThe 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.