At this year’s CornCon cybersecurity conference (https://corncon.net/) we learned about several USB devices an intruder could use to break into or even destroy a computer. The USB Killer (https://usbkill.com/products/usb-killer-v3) is a device that draws power from a USB port to charge up capacitors and then dump hundreds of volts back into the machine over the USB data lines which can permanently damage the machine. The Bash Bunny (https://hakshop.com/products/bash-bunny) was another USB device that was presented that can present itself to the host system as a keyboard and automatically begin typing commands once plugged in. This device also can present itself as a network interface which can begin capturing data even when plugged into a locked machine. From these demonstrations we learned about the dangerous outcomes that could happen when plugging an unknown USB device into a computer.
