Privacy Risks on Public USB Chargers

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10 points·ivanleoncz··6 comments

I know that at least the Google Pixel devices only charge when plugged in. The user has to manually turn on USB data every time they plug in. USB debugging is also disabled by default.

You're right. My Android smartphone as well asks for my interactions in order to allow data transfer, but who knows. I wouldn't take the risk. What I'd recommend, is to have a "USB condom" (charge-only), in order to ensure physically (besides logically, like you mentioned), that there will be no chance of juicing my data.

Doesn't cutting the data lines prevent fast charging?

USB-C and the fast charging (well, power delivery negotiations) make USB condoms... tricky.

LineageOS has a "Trust HAL" [0] for restricting USB gadgets while a device is locked.

Android (AOSP) also has a "Default USB Configuration" setting deep in the Developer Options [1] to set a device to MTP, PTP, RNDIS, charging etc...

A device would have to be really misconfigured by either the user or the OEM to allow plugging in a USB cable to extract system from the userdata partition without user input or awareness; or someone is just burning 0days on the general public.

0. https://review.lineageos.org/q/topic:%22trust-usb%22+(status...

1. https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/dev-options

>A device would have to be really misconfigured by [...] the OEM

You're giving Android OEMs, on the whole, way too much credit.

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