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WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

hackaday.com

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Re: WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

#151

Post by crankylinuxuser »

michaelt wrote: post #114
ndnxhs wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the same as regular fake keyboard usbs. The WiFi has no advantage here

The 'ESPloit v2' [1] appears on USB as both a keyboard and a serial port, and any data sent on the serial port can be exfiltrated by the ESP8266 over its own wifi connection. You can also imagine a loop where first you install a keyboard logger and exfiltrate the user's password, then later you want to update the exploit scripts to make use of the password. Or hell, maybe this is a prank product and having a wireless…

It gets uglier, if the person who wrote this added in an underclocker.

https://hackaday.com/2019/01/04/underclocking-the-esp8266-le...

Long story short, underclocking the ESP12 compresses the RF envelope for 2.4GHz . It also means the RF energy is in what looks like 1/3 a normal 2.4GHz channel.

The awesome side effect is that this device's SSID is completely hidden from regular 2.4GHz radios. You need another ESP12 with the same underclock ratio... and then need the SSID (if hidden), and the password.

You'd be able to find it using an ADALM-PLUTO. It'd stick out like a sore thumb, but it still wouldn't make sense what's going on unless you build a decode stack in Gnu Radio.

Re: WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

#152

Post by exegete »

krapp wrote: post #149
dsabanin wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is Electrical Engineering and CS graduate from Princeton.

Having an engineering degree doesn't mean you necessarily know what 'infosec' is. Different domain and discipline.

What domain or discipline (specifically undergraduate major) does infosec fall under if not electrical engineering or computer science?

Re: WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

#153

Post by deathanatos »

jon-wood wrote: post #143
deathanatos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the device featured in the article "merely" appears as a keyboard to the victim machine. The attack can then transmit keystrokes over WiFi. (This is still sufficiently dangerous. Essentially, it's "open terminal, download evil.exe, execute evil.exe, minimize/close" and escalate from there. So, not something you want to happen.) That said, if you click the link next to BadUSB, they detail attacks whereby the d…

I’m sure there are some secure networks that require 802.1x authentication against a specific certificate authority, which would ensure devices only connect to a trusted network. That’s definitely an exception rather than the rule though - I’ve never worked anywhere that does anything more than limiting which device can connect to a particular switch port.

I've also seen wired network authentication, but that's typically the network authenticating the devices that connect to it. This is more like the need for the device to authenticate the network that it's attached to, or really, to authenticate the USB devices attached to it. This is somewhat problematic: I feel like most employees/people want to go to a coffee shop and do work, or work at home, etc. How does one distinguish between those networks and the rouge ones?

(I think ideally, you don't distinguish. Every network is equally untrusted, and you rely on good end-to-end encryption. That doesn't address the rouge HID attack, however.)

I've also seen unauthenticated corporate networks where STP packets reach the end user ports, and AIUI, the right response packet would direct the network to start sending all traffic my way…

Re: WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

#156

Post by emilfihlman »

entire-name wrote: post #25

I guess even some sort of "signed device protocol" will not work. An attacker can just create a device that guesses the device identifier (or whatever is used to create the signature). Then, the attacker device can just keep guessing until it gets it right. Chances are, some serial number or similar will be used for this, so continuous guessing is feasible. Will the solution to this, then, be to have some sort of "sm…

No need for any public crypto. On first use, the computer issues a unique key which the device uses to authenticate all messages, for example with hmac.

Re: WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

#158

Post by ImprovedSilence »

itissid wrote: post #3

This is scary. I mean someone can just replace the cables in my house and my phones and computer would become infected. I can't even imagine the headache this does for company's cybersecurity practices. A rogue janitor replaces the usb cables on some of the employees of a company that makes $INSERT_SUPER SECRET_TECH$ and done.

Or just sell you generic looking cables that have all these funzies inside on amazon/new egg/your favorite online store!

Re: WiFi Hides Inside a USB Cable

#159

Post by megous »

Sholmesy wrote: post #154
megous wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's necessary to negotiate the power requirements.

I did not know this, that is interesting. As in, the OS driver for the USB controller? Feels like a lot.

Google USB-PD. Devices on either end of the USB cable could be dumb, and it would revert to some base minimum requirements (5V 500/900mA or so). But notebook may not be able to negotiate for higher power or higher voltage for charging.
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