Most people know not to plug strange flash drives into their computers, but what about a USB cable? A cable doesn’t immediately register as an active electronic device to most people, but it’s entirely possible to hide a tiny, malicious microcontroller inside the shell of one of the plugs. [Joel Serna Moreno] And a few contributors have done just that with their Evil Crow Cable Venom .
This cable comes in two variants: a USB-A to USB-C and a USB-C to USB-C. A small circuit board containing an ESP32-S3 hides inside a USB-C plug on each cable and can perform a keystroke injection attack. The cable’s firmware is open source and has an impressive set of features: a payload syntax checker, automatic payload completion, operating system detection, and the ability to impersonate the USB device of your choice.
The cable provides a control interface over the WiFi, and it is possible to edit and deploy payloads live without physical access to the cable (this is where the syntax checker should come in particularly handy). The firmware also provides a remote shell for computers without a network connection; the cable opens a shell on the target computer that routes commands and responses through the cable’s WiFi connection (demonstrated in the video below).
The main advantage of Evil Crow’s cable winder is its price: only around $25, at which point you can afford to lose a few during deployment. We’ve seen a malicious cable winder before. Of course, these attacks aren’t limited to USB cables and drives; we’ve seen them on USB-C docks, on a gaming mouse, and on fans, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmkihydoxs4
Thanks to [rustysun9] for the tip!
