USB Killer 2.0 - 220V

[Karl Klammer]

Just stumbled upon this via Slashdot: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=18983
TLDR: USB stick drains 5V power from USB port in order to release a concentrated 220V burst back into the circuitry.

So, this particular attack could easily be circumvented by just disabling USB ports within the BIOS. (no power flowing - the killer stick won't be charged)
Disabling these ports seems to be a good idea anyway, considering the raise of DMA-based attacks like BadUSB and Firewires Inception.

As I know that Toughbooks tend to decouple ports from the mobo by means of daughterboards,
I cannot stop wondering if the cf19/31/u1 could survive with enabled USB / against a pre-charged killer stick.

What's your experience on electrical protection (fuses?) between mobo and daughterboards of fully rugged TBs?
Does the 461f emi/emp testing help in any way? (guess not)

BR,
Karl Klammer

[wyrm73]

Another feature that makes me wonder right along with you is the fact that the USB ports on Toughbook have fuses. I think 220V would be able to arc regardless, but it would be an interesting experiment. And no, I am not volunteering any of mine to try it.

[ADOR]

Now where can we buy one? lol

[wyrm73]

And we have a volunteer... lol.

[ADOR]

I am sure there is a Dell in the shed just waiting for this. I think I have a spare 73 board and a bios protected Mk1 74 that is stripped.

[Shawn]

We will be waiting for the video...

[ADOR]

Got to get it first, lmao, I see some diagrams, but that is it so far.

[ares93]

We just pour non conductive hot glue into the USB ports at work. Course, the bluetooth modules are still active and visible, so i have no idea what use it is to disable physical access but whatever.

[CliC]

USB, unlike Firewire and Thunderbolt, doesn't do DMA (though that may have changed with version 3.1, I haven't checked). However, BadUSB was insidious nonetheless because it involved subverting the firmware in the microcontroller on the stick, making it unremovable and undetectable by the user. Since most peripherals nowadays have embedded 10-cent microcontrollers (SSDs, hard disks, USB sticks and memory cards, you name it), this is going to be an ongoing, serious problem.

A "taser" stick, though? Wow, that's just mean