USB Killer Stick Takes out 50 Computers

[c hris527]

Just when you thought you heard it all! I wonder how this would effect Nvr's

https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/02/25/feds-st-rose-grad-destroyed-more-than-50-campus-computers

 

[TonyR]

Just when you thought you heard it all! I wonder how this would effect Nvr's

https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/02/25/feds-st-rose-grad-destroyed-more-than-50-campus-computers

Yikes!
It might get a NVR also if it places a high-energy, quick rise time, short duration pulse (much like ESD) onto the +5VDC power.

 

[bp2008]

I'm sure it would affect most devices with a USB port if it works by creating surges!!

 

[tangent]

Kills cars too. There's a video or two of some idiot plugging one in to the USB port in their car. These have been around since 2016 or earlier.

I may or may not have had some fun in a computer lab with a defective off the shelf USB device that kernel panics or BSODs every device it's plugged into

 

[bp2008]

I may or may not have had some fun in a computer lab with a defective off the shelf USB device that kernel panics or BSODs every device it's plugged into

LOL. That is just a prank though, especially if the computers are naturally reloaded from a clean image when booting up.

 

[tangent]

LOL. That is just a prank though, especially if the computers are naturally reloaded from a clean image when booting up.

At least once a month somebody would hack a professor's laptop during a lecture (I never saw anything malicious, just disruptive pranks). XP was fun

 

[Whoaru99]

Skip jail. Strip the degree, revolk the student visa, deport, ban.

 

[c hris527]

I'm sure it would affect most devices with a USB port if it works by creating surges!!

I watched a guy try it on a MacBook, It took out the port but saved the mobo, Average windows PC...Toast, They tried it on a big screen TV, again took out the port but the tv ran on.

 

[CCTVCam]

Kills cars too. There's a video or two of some idiot plugging one in to the USB port in their car. These have been around since 2016 or earlier.

I may or may not have had some fun in a computer lab with a defective off the shelf USB device that kernel panics or BSODs every device it's plugged into

I haven't googled this so I'm presuming it's a capacitor that charges from the usb power and then discharges a pulse back into the system?

 

[awsum140]

Gotta wonder what the motivation was and exactly what is going on in the idiots brain?

 

[Whoaru99]

Who knows? Undoubtedly butthurt about something. Seems to be the thing these days...

 

[CCTVCam]

I googled it and found out. It uses a bank of capacitors to discharge over 200v on continuous cycles until the device it's attached to is destroyed. Apparently it exploits a surge protection flaw in USB boards - they don't have any to save costs! I haven't linked the web site selling these here for obvious reasons although it's not hard to find.

As for motives, you can only presume with such a targeted attack, that the guy was probably dissatisfied with his grades or treatment at the University.

 

[awsum140]

I think they may not have provided Play Dough for his safe space to help him recover from being triggered by a MAGA hat.