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

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#441

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:51 PM UTC

sbeam wrote: 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…

I suspect supply-chain attack (probably started some time ago), combined with a pager signal software hack.

I really hope that they didn't figure out a way to make unmodified kit explode, because it would only be a matter of time, before our devices were blowing up everywhere, as folks do it for the lulz.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#442

Post by ars » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:54 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #395

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…

> Hack the backend server, send a coordinated page to all the pagers at the same time. You likely don’t even need to hack anything if you coordinate based on time. A built in clock would eliminate the need for any external signal and work in a, no pun intended, dead zone. If the pager itself is hacked, the software could also pretend to receive a page a moment before detonation to maximize the chance the device is he…

It wasn't time based. Videos show the pager making some kind of signal or message that caused the person holding it to look at it.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#443

Post by grotorea » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:55 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #395

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…

> Hack the backend server, send a coordinated page to all the pagers at the same time. You likely don’t even need to hack anything if you coordinate based on time. A built in clock would eliminate the need for any external signal and work in a, no pun intended, dead zone. If the pager itself is hacked, the software could also pretend to receive a page a moment before detonation to maximize the chance the device is he…

Is the pager thing really recent? Because if this was done before the current war they couldn't have known when they wanted it to explode.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#444

Post by ASalazarMX » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:55 PM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #64

So either this was planned long enough ago to replace a large number of devices over time, or communication about a larger order has been provided to the enemy and fulfilled without suspicion. Either way, that sounds like a crazy infiltration effort. Also, we can assume that anything sent to those pagers so far has been forwarded to Israel and now that channel is burned, right?

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#445

Post by akira2501 » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:56 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…

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#446

Post by dagaci » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:56 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...

TBH Israel does not concern itself about killing bystanders generally and our western press will also laser focus on hezbullah.

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#447

Post by heraldgeezer » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:56 PM UTC

wsc981 wrote: post #270

izwasm wrote: post #215

8 year old girl was dead there, not only hezbollah members uses it, hospitals uses it too

If it's a child sitting on the lap with her father, and her father is related to Hezbollah (and as such carrying a pager), this stuff could happen, I think. All in all horrible to be honest ...

[flagged]

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#448

Post by mzs » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:57 PM UTC

i2km wrote: post #415

So, if the method was to substitute the batteries for ones containing explosives, then how were they triggered simultaneously? Wouldn't this also require some additional HW/SW in the pagers to trigger the devices? Otherwise, if it was just battery terminals connecting to the battery, how would a remote signal trigger them? Or maybe it's as simple as the adulterated batteries containing timers and thus not needing ext…

timer?

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#449

Post by sph » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:57 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…

> You have to hand it to them

Given the context and peculiar choice of words, this reminds me of a classic @dril tweet

https://x.com/dril/status/831805955402776576?s=46

Re: Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon

#450

Post by tootie » Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 5:57 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…

> minimal casualties

We'll see about that. Some of the footage indicates the targets were all just out and about in public. I think it's likely there will be collateral damage. I assume it didn't happen since it's not being reported, but what if one of them was on a plane?