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USB Killer
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:59 pm
by heartbone
Re: USB Killer
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 3:07 pm
by Keya
heartbone wrote:Why would anyone make this?
Lets keep it a secret between you and me that all he has to do is throw the damned laptop on the ground, no USB key required - ssshhh!

Re: USB Killer
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 3:45 pm
by yoxola
Make USB-C ones and destroy every Mac it meet.
Re: USB Killer
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:07 pm
by Joakim Christiansen
These two videos are a part of an April's Fool day joke.
The device sure will kill a computer, but not make it burn.
And you can see that he did anticipate it burning when he put it on a fireproof plate outside, in other words; it was rigged to burn.
Re: USB Killer
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 1:49 pm
by Num3
Joakim Christiansen wrote:And you can see that he did anticipate it burning when he put it on a fireproof plate outside, in other words; it was rigged to burn.
Cheaper p.s.u. have cheaper components so if the discharge on and 5v rail reaches the capacitors on the p.s.u. they will pop and burn, so it will be a question of (bad) luck if it catches on fire or not.
I have seen circuit boards that where hit hard with 220VAC short circuits and the only thing that burned where the traces (they worked like a fuse), and others that blew holes from one side to the other and caught on fire!
These usb killers are very easy to build, and will destroy anything with a usb port (phones, tv's, computers, usb chargers, etc.) and indeed there is no protection from them because the hardware was designed to provide 5V and not to receive high voltage back, the only solution i can think of is placing a 0.5A glass fuse on every usb port xD.
Re: USB Killer
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 5:25 pm
by Joakim Christiansen
Num3 wrote:the only solution i can think of is placing a 0.5A glass fuse on every usb port xD.
I don't even think that will stop it, since the high voltage probably is of very low current! My guess is that it doesn't even get hot enough to burn traces on the motherboard, but it will burn connections within a microchip or CPU! So basically it mostly harms microchips while larger components may survive.
And yeah, I have tested a 400KV generator against a motherboard and CPU once

Not while it was running though, maybe I will try that sometime and record it. Not saying that fires are impossible, but not very likely at those current levels and that I think the video was staged.
Re: USB Killer
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2015 3:37 pm
by Psychophanta
What that USB-stick does is just what NATO tried and tries to do with human kind!

Re: USB Killer
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:30 am
by tj1010
Put HDD in something else.. Recovered..
Meanwhile this stuff barely got news coverage:
https://srlabs.de/badusb/