It doesn’t seem like there’s room to do too many things in a USB-C cable connector, but the truth is that miniaturization brings surprises, both good and bad.

Tomography of our cables. Lumafield is a well-known manufacturer of industrial computed tomography (CT) scanners. We have already talked about it on occasion, because its equipment has allowed us, for example, to talk about all the technology that Apple’s amazing Thunderbolt 4 cable is capable of enclosing.

This USB-C cable is more than it seems. Now that same process has been used to analyze a USB-C cable aimed at pentesting processes (security audits) from the manufacturer O.MG. How they reveal at Tom’s Hardwarethese types of cables integrate a series of secret components in the connector that are surprising due to their potential for cyber attacks on victims who use them.

A much more complex design. The scans, compared to those of an Amazon Basic USB-C cable, reveal a much more complicated design. Security researcher Mike Grover created this cable for researchers and enthusiasts in the cybersecurity segment, and certainly its capacity for those aforementioned petesting processes is notable.

A microprocessor and an antenna there? It is surprising to see how in that O.MG cable it has been possible to integrate a tiny microprocessor and an antenna hidden in the “die” of the microcontroller of the normal cable. Only tomography was capable of revealing these components: a 2D x-ray – or a normal examination in customs machines – does not detect these elements.

A disturbing cable. The “O.MG Elite” cable with that USB-C connector is capable of offering options such as injection of keystrokes or movements and mouse clicks, keylogging or geo-fencing, for example. All of these options can be very interesting to gain access to a machine remotely if the victim can use that cable on their computer.

Lethal technology. As explained Jon Bruner of Lumafield, these types of processes are almost impossible to detect in conventional logistics processes, and that gives rise to potentially terrible threats. He gave as an example the recent events that caused Hezbollah’s “seekers” to explode synchronously a few weeks ago, causing numerous deaths and injuries.

But. Although these cables demonstrate that it is technically possible to carry out these attacks, doing so is not cheap. The O.MG Elite cable costs for example 180 dollars. The recommendation here is clear: use cables from trusted brands and purchased from stores and commercial chains that are also recognized for their guarantees.

Image | Lumafield | Marcus Urbenz

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