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The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

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Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#21

Post by theptip »

golem14 wrote: post #19
alexpotato wrote: post #11

Reading articles like this always causes me to think two things: 1. If this is what a couple of smart guys can do as, essentially, a side project then I can only imagine what nation states with teams of people like this can accomplish. 2. I get why some orgs pour wax into the USB ports of their desktop machines.

That was not a side project from my limited understanding ;) I believe the M$/Alphabet/Meta security teams are probably more advanced or on par with the best state sponsored teams. I could be wrong, plus the state sponsored teams might have infiltrated the FAANG security teams ;) However, I think the FAANG companies act somewhat more restricted. Three letter agencies don't have qualms about things like "chloroforming…

NSA’s TAO surely has many orders of magnitude more budget than Google’s red team?

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#22

Post by dpatterbee »

ryan-c wrote: post #15
Arnavion wrote: post #4

>Another critical optimization boiled down to realizing that the response packet allows up to six keycodes to be reported at once. This might have seemed like a straightforward 6x speed gain, but not so: on MacOS, the keystrokes were dequeued not in the order they appeared in the packet, but from the numerically lowest scancode to the highest. This mind-boggling quirk [...] Reporting multiple keys down in the same pa…

That seems like behavior that had to be actively added though, and I am extremely curious why.

Something in the back of my mind is telling me that it's actually spec-compliant to send the 6 scancodes in numerical order. Could very well be misremembering though, and most implementations accept near enough anything from an HID device in my experience

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#23

Post by tapland »

theptip wrote: post #21
golem14 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was not a side project from my limited understanding ;) I believe the M$/Alphabet/Meta security teams are probably more advanced or on par with the best state sponsored teams. I could be wrong, plus the state sponsored teams might have infiltrated the FAANG security teams ;) However, I think the FAANG companies act somewhat more restricted. Three letter agencies don't have qualms about things like "chloroforming…

NSA’s TAO surely has many orders of magnitude more budget than Google’s red team?

Probably. It’s way handier if the keylogger is embedded into the cable from your usb-x monitor right when you open the fresh package.

But budget limited ingenuity is fun too!

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#24

Post by [deleted] »

golem14 wrote: post #19
alexpotato wrote: post #11

Reading articles like this always causes me to think two things: 1. If this is what a couple of smart guys can do as, essentially, a side project then I can only imagine what nation states with teams of people like this can accomplish. 2. I get why some orgs pour wax into the USB ports of their desktop machines.

That was not a side project from my limited understanding ;) I believe the M$/Alphabet/Meta security teams are probably more advanced or on par with the best state sponsored teams. I could be wrong, plus the state sponsored teams might have infiltrated the FAANG security teams ;) However, I think the FAANG companies act somewhat more restricted. Three letter agencies don't have qualms about things like "chloroforming…

[deleted]

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#25

Post by jonas21 »

golem14 wrote: post #19
alexpotato wrote: post #11

Reading articles like this always causes me to think two things: 1. If this is what a couple of smart guys can do as, essentially, a side project then I can only imagine what nation states with teams of people like this can accomplish. 2. I get why some orgs pour wax into the USB ports of their desktop machines.

That was not a side project from my limited understanding ;) I believe the M$/Alphabet/Meta security teams are probably more advanced or on par with the best state sponsored teams. I could be wrong, plus the state sponsored teams might have infiltrated the FAANG security teams ;) However, I think the FAANG companies act somewhat more restricted. Three letter agencies don't have qualms about things like "chloroforming…

It's certainly something someone could do as a side project, even if that wasn't strictly the case here.

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#28

Post by tomcam »

wil421 wrote: post #20
jaywalk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A power user wouldn't (shouldn't) expect a device merely using USB for power to pop up anything on the PC it's plugged into. That would be a dead giveaway that it's doing something it shouldn't be doing.

I’m pretty desensitized to window’s CMD prompts popping up when I install a program or plug in a device. My Razer keyboard even installs borderline malware when you plug it in. However, if this happened on my Mac I would immediately be skeptical.

> My Razer keyboard even installs borderline malware

What does the software do? I assume it asks for permission and you decline? In a couple of decades of buying USB keyboards I have never let one install software and I have never noticed any problems.

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#29

Post by cbsmith »

theptip wrote: post #21
golem14 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was not a side project from my limited understanding ;) I believe the M$/Alphabet/Meta security teams are probably more advanced or on par with the best state sponsored teams. I could be wrong, plus the state sponsored teams might have infiltrated the FAANG security teams ;) However, I think the FAANG companies act somewhat more restricted. Three letter agencies don't have qualms about things like "chloroforming…

NSA’s TAO surely has many orders of magnitude more budget than Google’s red team?

It's really not hard to realize that organizations whose entire existence is predicated on actually cracking the security of other nation states might garner more investment than a red team focused on checking that your company's security is intact.

Re: The Google plasma globe affair of 2012

#30

Post by Cerium »

Scalene2 wrote: post #18

This could be improved by adding a microphone to help determine a good time to execute.

Rather than a microphone, measure the plasma globe current consumption. They use more power when they are being played with. At that point the user is probably logged in and distracted.
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