Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon • Hacker News Board

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#431

Post by lxgr » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #364

Seems like a harbrining of war, if the pager network was compromised, thus burns the compromised network and also harms a lot of people. Most major newspapers in Israel are saying that Netanyahu wants an invasion of Southern Lebanon: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bje3pjv60 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-820399 https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-general-said-pushing-for-g...

> if the pager network was compromised, thus burns the compromised network

I wouldn't necessarily call this type of attack a network compromise. All it takes is knowing the target phone numbers and sending a specific message, which is a paging network working exactly as designed. Phone detonated bombs have been a thing for a long time too.

Calling it a hardware supply chain attack seems more accurate.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#432

Post by tgv » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

ComputerGuru wrote: post #422

There are now over two thousand injuries and at least one nine year old girl dead. This was a reckless attack, a war crime, and a blatant disregard of international law. You’re not targeting pacemakers embedded only in the chest cavities of known Hezbollah militants but devices often left around family and children. Hezbollah is a massive political entity with probably more non-combatants than combatants. The pagers…

2000? The article speaks of dozens at best, and no 9 year old girl.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#433

Post by superxpro12 » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:41 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #365

That's an impressive supply-chain hack. Spend years showing how insecure modern telecom devices are and scare your enemy into going old-school, receive-only. Set up a shell company to sell pagers to your enemy's shell company. Give them devices implanted with a small explosive charge pointed inward, knowing they will be worn around the waist most of the time. Hack the backend server, send a coordinated page to all th…

FWIW, AP is reporting over 2800 injured, 200 seriously, with only 8 dead.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#434

Post by hello_computer » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:41 PM UTC

smoothjazz wrote: post #309

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#435

Post by ComputerGuru » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:43 PM UTC

tgv wrote: post #432

ComputerGuru wrote: post #422

There are now over two thousand injuries and at least one nine year old girl dead. This was a reckless attack, a war crime, and a blatant disregard of international law. You’re not targeting pacemakers embedded only in the chest cavities of known Hezbollah militants but devices often left around family and children. Hezbollah is a massive political entity with probably more non-combatants than combatants. The pagers…

2000? The article speaks of dozens at best, and no 9 year old girl.

Yes, hence the "there are now" part. I updated my comment with a source.

I mixed up "nine fatalities" with "eight year old girl" to get "nine year old girl". Mea culpa.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#436

Post by meindnoch » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:43 PM UTC

moussasissoko wrote: post #426

meindnoch wrote: post #386

Reminds me of two things: 1. Mossad killed the chief bombmaker of Hamas with an exploding phone in 1996: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Ayyash 2. My grandma used to say not to wear my phone on me, especially close to my heart or my balls, because she thought it was dangerous somehow. Turns out she was right!

Yahya Ayyash was a bombmaker for Hamas, not Hezbollah.

True. Mea culpa!

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#437

Post by wg0 » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:46 PM UTC

Do we really know that these were explosives or lithium ion batteries on their own can be this dangerous?

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#438

Post by gojomo » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:46 PM UTC

barbazoo wrote: post #354

einszwei wrote: post #196

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…

> From Israel's perspective, this supply chain attack was undoubtedly a clever move From The Guardian [1]: > Eight killed and 2,750 wounded Was that a clever move if you're killing "only" 8 potential adversaries? [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/17/middle-ea...

It looks like a trigger that can only be pulled once.

Thus, choice of the optimal time could be influenced by a lot of things:

- knowledge of other Hezbollah imminent action making comms disruption right now of great importance

- recognition that the vulnerability had been discovered and was about to be remediated

- via other "eyes on" prime targets, knowledge that just one or two top leaders were briefly in especially-vulnerable positions (like sleeping alongside their pagers)

- etc

And, there will be a "long tail" of damage to Hezbollah's usual communications practices & trust in devices/suppliers. Some marginal recruits may even be deterred from joining a battle against an opponent which can carry out this sort of attack – though of course, others may be emboldened.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#439

Post by ok123456 » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:48 PM UTC

ComputerGuru wrote: post #422

There are now over two thousand injuries and at least one nine year old girl dead. This was a reckless attack, a war crime, and a blatant disregard of international law. You’re not targeting pacemakers embedded only in the chest cavities of known Hezbollah militants but devices often left around family and children. Hezbollah is a massive political entity with probably more non-combatants than combatants. The pagers…

Yep. This is state-sponsored terrorism.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#440

Post by underlipton » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:49 PM UTC

morwanger wrote: post #340

kart23 wrote: post #320

someone in the US government is probably freaking out about all these iphones and macbooks made in china right now.

[flagged]

This is a little over-the-top, but I do agree that the clinical way some are handling this understates the horror of what's happening. These people were at home or running errands or at work, not pointing a gun at anyone at that particular moment.