[2] https://media.blackhat.com/bh-dc-11/Larimer/BlackHat_DC_2011...
Elsevier knows this is an attack. They published a book titled "Seven Deadliest USB Attacks", by Brian Anderson. So they can't claim this wasn't done knowingly.
Has anybody found out what the attack does?
[1] http://www.elsevier.com/books/seven-deadliest-usb-attacks/an...
Say you'd post a persistent XSS to a forum, but only use it include Fartscroll.js, is that an attack or not? Cause I consider that to be pretty much the same category as the "surprise" automatic typing USB thing.
This weekend actually I used a USB device where this was in fact the intended behaviour: a barcode scanner. It registers as a keyboard and just types the numbers (or string) of whatever it scans. Very clever idea because it makes it very easy to write apps for, you don't need a driver or anything. Except I had momentarily forgotten that was how it works, so it surprised me anyway. Fortunately the numbers didn't do much in the program I had focused but still, that feeling of something else unexpectedly typing on my computer! Yeah if it had sent global keyboard shortcuts in order to make my computer start applications and load webpages, I'd be pretty pissed.
If the user's expectation when handed a thumb drive looking USB device from a big company is that it will display files, and instead it just pretends to be him and controls his computer interface, for me it is at least a gray area regarding computer abuse. But I am not a lawyer.
What exactly makes this an attack? I don't see it doing anything malicious. And in any case, how is plugging in a keyboard to your computer not authorizing it to send keypresses?
It appears to be a keyboard emulator that simply types winkey+R http://[some URL]
It's (sadly) a well-known fact that all unknown USB devices should be considered malicious unless proven otherwise. This is why there are so many things like http://www.umbrellausb.com/
See stuxnet: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/07/this-thumbdrive-hack...
Put a few in different areas around work and wait for the magic to happen.
Instead of screaming a few seconds after being plugged in, perhaps it should silently charge whenever plugged in, and then scream only when unplugged. The only way to silence it is to plug it in again, or smash it to little bits.
If you are having fun with anthropomorphic social engineering, you might even have the scream be a loud but plaintive "Help me! My batteries are dying! Plug me in, plug me in, find the nearest air gapped computer and plug me in!".
Screamers are 100db+. To get that you have to drive a piezo at about 100V near it's maximum resonance point and engineer the case to create a resonant cavity.
To generate that voltage, you're likely going to need an autotransformer. And nobody stocks these off the shelf--they're a custom order magnetics part. (If you find a better circuit topology or a place that stocks the appropriate autotransformer, do please let me know.)
Of course, if you just want a wimpy beep, there's lots of options. :) But if you want something offensively loud, you're going to find that there is more engineering here than you think.
It's a good project, but it isn't "easy".
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=16855 http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-an-Arduino-drive...
Quibble2: stuxnet was thought to have been spread using a Windows Explorer exploit. Also not BadUSB...
Someone could hook up those ports with a new cable, but at that point they could also just open the case and bypass the glued port.