We know perfectly well what things can pose a danger to our smartphone. This may be downloading infected applications, visiting untrustworthy links or even using publicly available USB ports. These are obvious things that have been written about many times in the context of the existing risk. How about the fact that a wireless charger can be dangerous – even the one we use in our home? may be surprising.
It’s not even about faulty electronics, which can lead to voltage surges and the burning of our smartphone. We are talking about a certain trick that was recently described jointly by CertiK and scientists from the University of Florida. The method called allows you to remotely access devices. How does it work in practice?
The operation of this method is relatively simple, and . The idea is that an unauthorized person can remotely access the parameters of the wireless charger, thereby changing the way it works. This can very easily cause your phone to overheat. Just turn off the lock, which stops charging when the battery reaches 100%. Then further energy transfer will damage the smartphone.
Scientists have proven that it is also possible to control, for example, a device by sending appropriate pulses. This, in turn, opens the door to controlling the phone without any spyware, uploading files and the like. Thanks to impulses, the assistant will open a given page or take specific actions as planned by the hacker.
The worrying fact is that the vulnerability was exploitable for many different chargers. Therefore, this is not only a feature of suspicious devices from China, but also of renowned Philips products and others. What to do with this fact? Manufacturers certainly need to take advantage of what scientists have discovered – and make appropriate changes.
What is also disturbing is that it can be used not only for chargers, but also for SSD drives and pendrives. It turns out that a lot of electronics can be destroyed by a completely trivial trick by a third party.