[conspire] New Offensive USB Cable Allows Remote Attacks over WiFi

[Rick Moen]

Howard sent this via a sharing widget:

> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-offensive-usb-cable-allows-remote-attacks-over-wifi/

(FYI, the URL originally included a traffic-tracking 'tag',
#.XGmfnNUTL1x.email', at the end.  That's one type of mischief that you
tend to get with 'share' widgets, and one of many reasons it's best to
avoid them.)

Summary of the story:  Slight variation on an old trick where something
that doesn't _look_ like a USB human-interface ('HID class') device,
i.e., keyboard or mouse, gets plugged into a USB port and tells the
computer 'Hi, please accept me as a HID device', and the computer
complys.

In this case, as a proof of concept, security researcher Mike Grover
cobbled together something that appears to be an ordinary USB 'A'-type
to USB 'C'-type patch cable, but hides a small wifi interface and some
support circuitry inside it.  The circuitry permits Mike Grover to
remotely send keystrokes and mouse operations to the attached computer.

So, the moral is:  Hardware you shouldn't trust might behave like
hardware you shouldn't trust.  News at 11.  ;->