Killer USB – how to burn a PC with a USB device

The security expert Dark Purple detailed its experiment for building a weaponized Killer USB device that could be used to burn a machine.

Is it possible to use an apparently USB drive to kill an individual? It seems the scene of a Sci-Fi movie, anyway it is an interesting topic to explore.

Let’s read together the story about Killer USB drive:

A man walking in the subway stole a USB flash drive from the outer pocket of someone else’s bag. The pendrive had “128” written on it. After coming home, he inserted the pendrive into his laptop and instead discovering any useful data, he burnt half of his laptop down. The man then took out the USB pendrive, replaced the text “128” with “129” and put it in the outer pocket of his bag… Amen!

Starting from the story a Russian researcher, nicknamed Dark Purple, developed a proof-of-concept  computer-frying Killer USB pendrive.

Killer USB is not a new concept, weaponized devices could be used to cause malfunction in target systems or to disable defensive systems. USB represents a valid weapon to compromise the system in air-gapped networks.

Let’s think to the Stuxnet case, or the Fanny implant  belonging to the arsenal of the Equation Group APT.

The Fanny worm was considered one of the more interesting weapons in the hacking arsenal of the team, the malware was used by the hackers to map air-gapped networks. The worm was designed to map the topology of a targeted network and to execute commands to these isolated systems by exploiting compromised USB devices.

” For this, it used a unique USB-based command and control mechanism. When a USB stick is infected, Fanny creates a hidden storage area on the stick. If it infects a computer without an internet connection, it will collect basic system information and save it onto the hidden area of the stick. Later, when a stick containing hidden information is plugged into an internet-connected computer infected by Fanny, the data will be scooped up from the hidden area and sent to the C&C. If the attackers want to run commands on the air-gapped networks, they can save these commands in the hidden area of the USB stick. When the stick is plugged into the air-gapped computer, Fanny will recognize the commands and execute them”