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Think twice before using a phone charging kiosk

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Re: Think twice before using a phone charging kiosk

#2
If you find yourself in need of a charging station, the team behind this experiment found that most phones don’t give up information when the phone is powered off.

Most phones? Can someone provide examples of phones that offer data connectivity when the phone is powered off?

Re: Think twice before using a phone charging kiosk

#3
post #2

If you find yourself in need of a charging station, the team behind this experiment found that most phones don’t give up information when the phone is powered off. Most phones? Can someone provide examples of phones that offer data connectivity when the phone is powered off?

Don't iPhones start up on application of power?

Re: Think twice before using a phone charging kiosk

#6
post #3
post #2

If you find yourself in need of a charging station, the team behind this experiment found that most phones don’t give up information when the phone is powered off. Most phones? Can someone provide examples of phones that offer data connectivity when the phone is powered off?

Don't iPhones start up on application of power?

Only if they are totally dead. If you just power your phone off normally, it will stay turned off until you hold the power button.

Re: Think twice before using a phone charging kiosk

#8
Agreed this is an article churn for advertisement.

Recently this attack was back in the news due to NSA referencing it in a mobile device security paper.

BTW if anyone has questions about it, feel free to ask me. I'm the guy (along with friends) who was building these kiosks and deploying them at "hacker" conferences and then gave a presentation on the matter.

Re: Think twice before using a phone charging kiosk

#10
post #7

Maybe phones should provide a "charge only" setting that can be toggled on when using non-trusted devices to charge your phone?

Many android phones do this, however not all. This is up to the specific ROM you are running.

iOS devices have put in a phenomenal effort to secure against these attacks, including requiring encryption keys before allowing unknown computers to access the device or data.

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