Jump to content
Malsua

USB Mystery

Recommended Posts

 

So I found a USB device in the Home Depot Parking lot in West Berlin NJ.  Sounds like the beginning of a Jack Reacher book.

Understand, I have seen A LOT of different usb items.  My company sells them, I've been in tech for 30 years.  This one is a first.

It is HEAVY.  The case is steel.  It is probably 3 ounces. 

It has a Micro USB connector on one side.

It has what appear to be two contacts and two probes on the other end.

It looks like it is designed to slide into something.

It has some sort of battery in it, I'll explain in a sec.

It appears to have been run over numerous times with only the connector getting bent a little.

It has a light next to the Micro USB connector.  It lights up when plugged in, it flashes 3 times when unplugged.

It took me two large pliers to pry the end apart.  It is STIFF.

My testing is as follows:

I have an old computer here, I yanked out the hard drive cables and booted to a CDrom Ubuntu distro.

I plugged it in.  The OS does not see any device, nor do I see it trying to do anything.  It may be dead.  It may just be a power bank.

I don't know.

What is it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, USRifle30Cal said:

do you get any voltages from the terminals?

 

Good test. 

No voltage from any point to any other positive or negative.   

Slight continuity between the center post, only with one polarity.  Clearly a diode and resistor between them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It looks like a proprietary rechargeable battery to me. The 2 silver dots are for the magnetic charger plug to attach to the device and charge via the 2 gold pins. There are rails on each side to slide into a device with 2 tracks.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/26/2019 at 3:40 PM, JohnnyB said:

It looks like a proprietary rechargeable battery to me. The 2 silver dots are for the magnetic charger plug to attach to the device and charge via the 2 gold pins. There are rails on each side to slide into a device with 2 tracks.

I agree.  Strong possibility.   I will cut it apart when I get back to the shop on Monday.  

Those silver dots are magnetic 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 hours ago, voyager9 said:

When you say Ubuntu doesn’t see the device do you mean as a drive, or anything on the USB bus?  What does ‘dmsg’ say?  What about when you run ‘lsusb’?

It didn't pop up on the gui, the I ran isusb , saw nothing change whether plugged in or not.  I have a better test box at work, I will try it on that one.

7 hours ago, Vzguy said:

Im pretty sure its a Vape machine. Some vape pods are magnetic. Looks like this will fit into your mysterious device :)

 

 

MRPOD_Refillable_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1547

 

 

Sure looks like a fit!  Now to find the other part.

  • Agree 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

While I cannot seem to find this particular device, it is almost certainly a vape machine as suggested above.

It is simply a battery and a charging circuit.  There is no memory, so it is not storage of any kind.

The Datamatrix code on the battery is simply the same as the 290471740051 number above it.

I attempted to charge it and it doesn't hold a charge, probably why I found it in a Home Depot parking lot.

The posts to either side of the contact points are isolated so do not provide any electric conductivity. 

The PCB appears to be a simple charging circuit but there is a tiny speaker on the other side.

It probably attaches to that shoulder things that goes up.

 

 

 

 

vapige.jpg

vaper1.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Malware is not the worst thing you can get from bad-actor USB device:

https://kukuruku.co/post/usb-killer/

Quote

...The basic idea of the USB drive is quite simple. When we connect it up to the USB port, an inverting DC/DC converter runs and charges capacitors to -110V. When the voltage is reached, the DC/DC is switched off. At the same time, the filed transistor opens. It is used to apply the -110V to signal lines of the USB interface. When the voltage on capacitors increases to -7V, the transistor closes and the DC/DC starts. The loop runs till everything possible is broken down. ...

What does that all do?:
 

Quote

A former student of The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, has pled guilty to charges that he destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of campus computers using a USB device designed to instantly overwhelm and fry their circuitry. The plea was announced today by the Department of Justice, FBI, and Albany Police Department. The Verge reports: Vishwanath Akuthota, the former student, now faces up to 10 years in prison (with up to three years of supervision after release) and a fine totaling up to $250,000. He was arrested and taken into custody in North Carolina on February 22nd, just over a week after he went on a spree of inserting the "USB Killer" device into 66 of Saint Rose's computers around various locations on campus. Such devices can be easily and freely purchased online and can overload the surge protection in many PCs.

Akuthota, 27, apparently made video recordings of himself inserting the malicious USB device into the computers and said "I'm going to kill this guy" as the PCs were overloaded and permanently ruined. So it's fair to say the FBI and APD had all the evidence they needed. In total, Akuthota caused $58,471 worth of damage. As part of his guilty plea, he has agreed to pay back that amount to the college, a small private school in New York's capital city. The Verge reached out to The College of Saint Rose for a statement on today's news, but a spokesperson said the college had been asked by law enforcement to refrain from commenting.



 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...