Chinese researchers at Tencent Security Labs have found a vulnerability that allows them to change the firmware of fast chargers and cause physical damage to anything that is connected to them.
Do you remember note 7? This exploit can do the same with any phone.
When I say physical harm, I mean real and dangerous damage, such as components that explode and burn, which could lead to a very serious problem since these circuits are also connected to the battery. This is something everyone should know and take precautions until manufacturers fix the problem.
This is what is happening. In order for any battery powered device to use fast charging, the device and charger must communicate. For example, when you connect your phone to a fast charger, the charger needs to know how much battery charge remains, what the temperature is, and what voltage is applied to the actual charging circuit inside the phone.
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A fast charger can do this because it is actually a smart device and has a microprocessor and firmware that can collect this information from the phone via the cable. The firmware is not a complete operating system or anything like that, but it is encoded and written to some memory inside the charger.
Source: Tencent
Some quick chargers (Tencent tested 35 models from different manufacturers and found that 18 of them from eight different brands had issues) can update the firmware via the USB port your phone connects to. The researchers were able to build a method of altering the firmware through a phone or other device, whereby that firmware could send too much voltage than it should and fry the device connected to it.
Tencent does not name the manufacturers that have built vulnerable equipment, but it is a safe bet to assume that some of us are using it. That means everyone should do one simple thing: never let anyone use your charger.
Tencent does not name the affected chargers or tell anyone how to do this, but we still need to be careful.
In addition to people who could use a device that can destroy a fast charger, there is a possibility that someone may be a victim of malware that turns their phone into a BadPower machine that tries to send faulty firmware to whatever charger they use. Everyone needs to employ common sense practices such as 1) never installing suspicious source applications, 2) letting Google or another malware scanner do its thing, and 3) accepting updates as soon as they become available. However, despite your best practices and intentions, just know that malware attacks can still occur.
Tencent says manufacturers must do one of two things to fix this: 1) disable the ability to accept firmware updates, or 2) use a method like that on your phone where only updates are signed by the company that writes the original firmware. can be accepted. Tencent has contacted the companies that manufacture the chargers in question and has not released any information on how to operate on the farm.
We already know that fast charging is not very good for battery health and longevity, but the sky is not falling and nobody needs to throw out their chargers right now. Just follow the steps you need to keep the software on your phone under control and don’t share chargers or cables. You definitely don’t want your phone to catch fire just because you plugged it in.
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