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They make USB-C cables with displays now

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Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#81

Post by Dylan16807 »

stavros wrote: post #45
Dylan16807 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mg.lol/blog/data-blocker-teardown/ The normal PortaPow tells the device that it's a charger. The extra paranoid version with no components on the board will often limit charging, it depends on how the device treats a complete lack of data pins.

Yes, but if you use a data blocker with a microcontroller on it, you've just exchanged one company you need to trust for another.

Not exactly. You now have to trust one entity instead of many, and it's an extremely small chip that can't do much, and the hack would have to be built in at purchase time, and the hack would have to take over your phone to exfiltrate.

But if you're worried then get one that has a resistor and only a resistor.

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#82

Post by KeplerBoy »

weinzierl wrote: post #80

"That’s when I found out that there exist cables that have little screens on them that show the power consumption of the connected device." Useful to get an idea how much your USB light draws and to check if your phone is really fast charging. I'd be careful with the numbers when the USB drives a more complicated load. Measuring the true power consumption of a microcontroller is surprisingly hard.

How can measuring a DC load be complicated?

Sure the load can be very spiky and you have to sample fast enough to accurately integrate them. but that's doable given sufficient caps. Of course you'd end up with some filtered average instead of the instantaneous power, but that would be no good for a text display anyway.

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#83

Post by jajko »

dnpp123 wrote: post #71
lkois wrote: post #54

I had one of these and quite liked it. Then one day I plugged my phone in before bed as a million times before and the cable display popped and started emitting smoke.

Same here. Those killed a couple of my (expensive) devices. Strongly advise against it.

Chargers, cables, batteries - you literally get what you pay for. In this category, the ultimate risk is nothing less than burning down whole house. I ain't rich enough for that cheap crapware. Anker it is for me.

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#84

Post by stavros »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #81
stavros wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but if you use a data blocker with a microcontroller on it, you've just exchanged one company you need to trust for another.

Not exactly. You now have to trust one entity instead of many, and it's an extremely small chip that can't do much, and the hack would have to be built in at purchase time, and the hack would have to take over your phone to exfiltrate. But if you're worried then get one that has a resistor and only a resistor.

Aren't all these considerations exactly the same as for the cable with the screen?

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#85

Post by karunamurti »

transpute wrote: post #11

For comparison, a "something else" cable without display: https://shop.hak5.org/products/omg-cable > The O.MG Cable is a hand made USB cable with an advanced implant hidden inside. It is designed to allow your Red Team to emulate attack scenarios of sophisticated adversaries. Until now, a cable like this would cost $20,000 (ex: COTTONMOUTH-I). These cables will allow you to test new detection opportunities for your d…

can't even reuse cable anymore, will increase cost and e-waste. smh.

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#88

Post by Dylan16807 »

stavros wrote: post #84
Dylan16807 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly. You now have to trust one entity instead of many, and it's an extremely small chip that can't do much, and the hack would have to be built in at purchase time, and the hack would have to take over your phone to exfiltrate. But if you're worried then get one that has a resistor and only a resistor.

Aren't all these considerations exactly the same as for the cable with the screen?

It depends on what kind of attack you're trying to block.

If you want to block attacks that use the external data pins, then a USB condom will keep you safe. Regardless of whether it has a chip in it.

If you want to block standalone attacks from a malicious cable, then a USB condom wasn't going to help in the first place. For standalone attacks in particular, the risk from a chip-having condom is similar to the risk from a cable, but a cable can use bigger and scarier chips than the one in the PortaPow.

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#89

Post by kkfx »

Well... Data are useful if we can collect and process them automatically, a display means you can read instantaneously (essentially useless 99% of the time) but not store and analyze.

Some instantaneous data are useful, for instance before going out in the morning a quick look at the thermometer might be useful. Many others are not. For me a more expensive cable just to have a display on it is useless, eventually collected consumption data per device and makes a nice Grafana dashboard of them might be useful or just wasted resources, but at least they go on a flexible machine I already own so it's not an extra hw costs.

Re: They make USB-C cables with displays now

#90

Post by theodric »

These power meter cables have been out for a couple years, but it's only recently that manufacturers have caught on that previously the display would be upside down for most(?) people (or 100% of people who are me, anyway) when plugged in on the left side of the machine. Which I find hilarious, because the pictures in the AliExpress listings always showed the cable plugged in on the left, display upside down, like it was meant to be that way.

My ThinkPad only has left USB-C, my M1 Air only has left USB-C, and I'm accustomed to left power from years of MacBooks.

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