AfterDawn: Tech news

Malicious charger can hijack iPhones

Written by James Delahunty @ 04 Jun 2013 9:40 User comments (4)

Malicious charger can hijack iPhones Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a bogus charger for Apple's iPhones that can infect it with malicious software within a minute.
The three researchers - Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang and Chengyu Song - were able to get around all of the built-in defences of the popular smartphones and install whatever code they wanted.

"All users are affected, as our approach requires neither a jailbroken device nor user interaction," they said.

They are due to provide more detailed information on the attack method at the Black Hat USA conference this year.

To create the malicious charger, the researchers used a BeagleBoard barebones system that costs around $45. "This hardware was selected to demonstrate the ease with which innocent-looking, malicious USB chargers can be constructed," wrote the researchers in their conference summary.

Tags: Apple iPhone
Previous Next  

4 user comments

15.6.2013 22:58

wow :o

26.6.2013 06:39

I figured someone was able to do that. I don't have the ability or knowledge, but I knew someone had to think about that. It seems perfectly logical though get you when your defenses are down.

38.6.2013 15:55

You just have to trick people into attaching it to their iPhones.
Come to think of it, that shouldn't be too hard.

49.6.2013 02:35

Can I but license for this ???

I think I am smarter. I charge my phones only through the USB port on the PC. The chargers are still in their original shrink wraps. If in emergency I need to use an external charger I use one for a vanilla voice and text message phone ( 4 20/ 4 years ago) with a mini-usb to micro-usb adapter.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments
How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller (11 Feb 2023 1:04)
Google shut down its streaming game service Stadia late last month and this means that some people have Stadia controllers lying around that seem to be of no use. That is fortunately not the ....
2 user comments
Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account (26 Jan 2023 2:14)
Sharing a Netflix account with a person in a different location is possible and indeed very common, although the company doesn't necessarily enjoy this behavior from their customers. However, ....

News archive