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Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

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Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#281
post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

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> Sure, let's look at processes, outcomes and efficiencies. So far we have 1 dead 10-year old girl and some other civilians.

Unreliable number of terrorists aside, by more than a few reports the Lebanese ambassador to Iran [1]... not good looks for a government constantly claiming to have no relationship with Hezbollah.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/irans-ambassador-lebanon-injured-...

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#282
post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#283
post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#284
post #260

"These devices don't appear to be designed to be lethal.[..] They are, for the most part, low charge so not packing enough to actually kill somebody.[..] Let's not forget that this comes on the same day that Israel has extended its war aims to including expelling Hezbollah basically from the border." -- BBC's Security Correspondent Frank Gardner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNEb-dY3tRY

Just to put some numbers on that, ToI are presently reporting 9 deaths and 2,800 injuries (those numbers are of course preliminary and very much in flux), which taking the 2nd value as a denominator would be a https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-september-17-2024/>

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#285
post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

[flagged]

It seems somewhat plausible that Israel somehow managed to sabotage a pallet of pagers they knew were going to be distributed to people involved terrorism. If so the number of bystanders injured might be relatively low and the number of legitimate targets injured or killed could be quite high.

Having said that it also seems quite plausible that Israel just knew that some particular brand of pagers in some region of Lebanon was used by their targets, and so they just sabotaged thousands of them in the vague hope that they would get a hit.

I suspect we will never get enough info about how this attack was carried out to know.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#286
post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

[flagged]

Was this pager attack worse than October 7th?

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#287
I wonder if this is possible in devices that actually use a small asic to handle all aspects of battery control. They're even more complex than a BMS, for instance macbook batteries have had these for around 20 years [0]. They're even common in vapes and vape batteries. I have to wonder if these asics can be bypassed with malware?

Seems like the cells in these pagers were massively over-discharged and then allowed to be over charged? Potentially a capacitor used to drive the vibration motor was then used to cause the battery to catastrophically explode?

0 - https://squidgeefish.com/projects/a1175-battery-hacking/

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#288
post #179

If we try to do what we are best at here at HN, let’s focus the discussion on the technical aspects of it. It immediately reminded me of Stuxnet, which also from a technical perspective was quite interesting. I already wonder if this was anything that was planted in the devices perviously, or if the ones responsible had similar devices, and managed reverse engineer them and craft a payload to them, that could be sent…

[flagged]

Yes, we would have referred them to the proper channels to discuss the morals and ethics of it all. Those subjects inevitably lead to bitter arguments. Keeping politics out is the only way to keep this platform sane.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#289

From Israel's perspective, this supply chain attack was undoubtedly a clever move, but I can't help but wonder about its long-term consequences. Although it was aimed at harming Israel's adversaries, third-party countries may now hesitate to involve Israel in their supply chains. There's also the risk that other major producers could replicate this tactic, potentially leading to further escalation in the region or be…

This is a one shot attack. They will never be able to do it again. And I don't think most of the world has pissed off Mossad quite as much as Hezbollah. Assuming they even did it!

OP was most likely concerned about Israeli businesses that supply (or ship) non-explosive components/products no longer being trusted.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#290

From Israel's perspective, this supply chain attack was undoubtedly a clever move, but I can't help but wonder about its long-term consequences. Although it was aimed at harming Israel's adversaries, third-party countries may now hesitate to involve Israel in their supply chains. There's also the risk that other major producers could replicate this tactic, potentially leading to further escalation in the region or be…

It's said those devices were Iranian made. What makes you think Israel has any overt involvement in the supply chain to begin with?

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