Is there a pager model sophisticated enough to accept remote firmware updates (or whatever condition for a software exploit) but lacking a battery protection IC? Otherwise wouldn't sabotage elsewhere in the chain be more likely?
Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
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Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#32Question for those with more knowledge on these devices: how can they detonate? The batteries?
they had to have had some extra components added: batteries won't pop like that, they haven't that much energy.
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#33[flagged]
[deleted]
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#34[flagged]
I don't want to be drawn into the wrongs or rights of it. I'm more interested in the technical implementation details.
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#35It was surprising tbh. Someone said on the news that they tried to control the short circuit and increase the voltage which made batteries explode??
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#36[deleted]
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#37any indication which brand(s) of pagers were in use?
The latest versions just exploded; not sure about the brands though
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#38This hack is the best argument against network-connected electric vehicles that there is. Imagine the same, but with tens of thousands of Teslas.
I don't think it would be quite the same as in explosive ordinance put into a device but it is very similar in that a mass hack could use the navigation system to target pedestrians and calculate the speed required to plow through them without losing control to maximize victim count. All that would be required in another remote hack as has been demonstrated on live highways in the past [1] combined with some form of AI or gaming engine. A mitigating control could be more bollards near sidewalks and more hydraulic bollards on intersections that have a lot of foot traffic to confine the hacks to smaller blast zones. This won't protect the occupants but maybe drive by wire car manufacturers could start adding a "oh crap" manual handle to physically disengage power and apply some type of physical friction brake.
[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZVYTJarPFs [video][2 mins]
Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#39It must be a combination of hardware (put a bomb in it) and software (trigger an explosion when a particular command is received) hack. Triggering an explosion of all devices is needed because if people started hearing about exploding pagers, they'd place their own far away from anything precious to them.
Geez, I thought this kind of hack is the stuff of (bad) action movies.
I wonder if there's a pager that was powered off during the attack and if somebody will dissect how they did it.
Edit: then again maybe the code is as simple as
if (currentTime() >= KABOOM_TIME) { goKaboom(); }Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
#40Is there a pager model sophisticated enough to accept remote firmware updates (or whatever condition for a software exploit) but lacking a battery protection IC? Otherwise wouldn't sabotage elsewhere in the chain be more likely?
It was most likely a supply chain attack integrating explosives into the pagers, this article [1] says the affected devices were from a recent shipment. The explosions are way too violent for malfunctioning batteries.
[1] https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hundreds-of-hezbollah-...