go ahead USB killer 2.0 yet another USB
device designed to strike fear in the minds of defenseless non- Tey masses but
unlike the creatively named rubber ducky or the hacksaw and switchblade USB
methods thoroughly documented as part of an hourlong 240p epic by hack five back
in 2006 the USB killer is literal it's a
USB device that will kill what you plug into it now the original USB killer
applied a negative charge of 120 volts to the 5vt V USB pin on the port
effectively destroying the USB controller and its power regulation
circuitry USB Killer 2 kicks it up a notch bumping up the negative voltage to
around 200 volts and it hits it directly
in the data pins chances are any device that you plug it into will no longer be
functioning properly some may survive
but the majority won't and terrifyingly enough this isn't just limited to
laptops and desktop computers it even works on phones TVs and cars if
you can plug a USB device into it it may be vulnerable to this attack so this is
the part where I demo it right truthfully I had my reservations
about actually killing a bunch of Hardware I mean it's been done many
times before but this is lonus Tech tips
lonus is the man that bought a $17,000 UPS lonus is the man that decided that
he needed a 180 terab server just just so that we'd never have to delete a
single file all in the name of excess so maybe
it would be appropriate to kill his recently finished desk PC project that
you guys waited so long to see completed
so follow me and let's do just
that oh
my I didn't actually think was going to
work okay I'm going to get
fired mop is currently featuring the Emu
Purple Heart Clos back headphones check this and other drops out in the link
below okay so as you probably guessed
just like all the other YouTube pranks that was fake I didn't get fired the
computer is fine the flash drive I plugged it into is completely harmless
uh I just flipped the switch on the power bar with my foot as I put it in
but the attack is real and the drive I have here now actually in there is the
real thing USB killer official YouTube channel has plenty of videos showing it
killing things like Xboxes and even a car and if you won't take their word for
it our buddy Austin Evans Zapped two different laptops a TV and even a phone
but how does it work well it actually uses your own device against you when
you plug your USB killer into a device it Cycles through rapidly charging its
own capacitors off of the device and then discharging them at the previously
mentioned negative more specifically about 220 volts a heck of a lot more
than both the 5 volts USB is designed for and the 15 volts that would already
have been enough to kill most devices this cycle is repeated many times per
second until the USB killer is is removed and you can reuse it as many
times as you want that is until a teacher confiscates it and calls your
parents do you need to buy one then well people have actually been making their
own by modifying random USB devices that actually work for it or even taking the
flash circuitry out of a disposable camera and reworking it to load up the
capacitor and discharge over USB it's
not even that complicated you Salvage the transistor Transformer resistor
diode and capacitor from the camera add a power source if the cameras isn't
suitable throw a button in for ease of use and then send it all over USB and
you're done and so is the device and does this crude method work well yeah
and you don't even need the host device to charge it to test it we grabbed an
old Acer Aspire One from 2008 that Linus
had in the E-Waste pile for recycling
now everything in the computer isn't magically dead I wouldn't trust the
motherboard or the CPU anymore but the rest should honestly pretty much be fine
when throwing that much voltage around I'm not going to guarantee anything but
this isn't a Data Destruction method and the hard drive in here almost certainly
still works okay so enough about how easy it is for people to Brick your
stuff how do you protect yourself well the US government suggests not plugging
things into your computer thanks guys
outside of that you probably can't physically capping USB ports adding
so-called USB condoms or installing the
USB killer test Shield have been cited as ways to defend against this but as
long as the attacker has enough Ingenuity to unplug whatever you plugged
in they will be able to quickly bypass your
protection unfortunately outside of filling all your USB ports with cement
if anyone has direct access to your computer that is vulnerable to this type
of attack and they're enough of a dick to actually do it you're
screwed USB type-c will sort of have a
solution to this which is a new cryptographic authentication that can
stop unauthorized and uncertified devices from connecting but as with
pretty much all things done this way there will almost assuredly be a way to
bypass it the best way to protect against this attack is to have the
manufacturer of your device install an opto coupler these are also known as
photocouplers or Optical isolators they're components that transfer
electrical signals between two isolated circuits by using light effectively
preventing high voltages from reaching the entire system even if the port loses
its ability to transmit and receive data
this is better than nothing but not many companies have even implemented these
outside of Apple so be sure to hit up your favorite device manufacturer and
tell them to get a kraken in conclusion
just as we've always said don't plug random USB devices into things if you
don't trust it just throw it away and no
this isn't a meme or a hoax you shouldn't try this on your friend's
computer because it's illegal and honestly it's just not even funny you're
just killing hardware for no reason brain tree is code for simple online
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payments.com Linus thanks for watching guys this
video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link below
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