Def Con 2019: Lightning Cables That Can Hack Your Computer

Security researcher “MG” presented some special Lightning cables at Def Con 2019 that can hack your computer (via Vice).

Lightning Hack

MG modified the cables to include special hardware components that let him remotely connect to the computer it was plugged into. He typed the cable’s IP address into his phone browser, and got a list of options he could do, like opening the Mac’s Terminal.

It looks like a legitimate cable and works just like one. Not even your computer will notice a difference. Until I, as an attacker, wirelessly take control of the cable…In the end, I was able to create 100 percent of the implant in my kitchen and then integrate it into a cable. And these prototypes at Def con were mostly done the same way.

The cable has various scripts built in that run on the target computer. One example was a kill command to disable the cable.

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