So there’s a small silver lining: the USB Killer 2.0 could kill your computer, but your family photos and other important data could still be rescued.
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An earlier version of the device used a negative 110-volt charge to do its dirty work.
The last thing you ever want to do is connect a random flash drive you’ve found to your computer’s USB port. But a security researcher who goes by the nickname ‘Dark Purple’ has created an even more risky flash stick that can physically destroy your computer – not just infect its drives.
In the example documented by Dark Purple – see video below – the laptop is shown to be completely incapacitated after the payload is delivered.
The technical details remain murky so take this with a grain of salt but it appears the device rapidly discharges a capacitor, or sends “minus 220” Volts through the USB interface.
Dark Purple claimed that their USB Killer 2.0 could actually destroy nearly any device that has USB interface. In any event, the video is one more reason to be wary of USB devices, especially those that come from unknown sources.
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It’s not clear from Dark Purple’s blog post precisely how far the damage from the updated device extends. Upon inserting it into his laptop, “he burnt half of it down”. “The first version of USB Killer was consist of a DC/DC converter, a few caps and an FET”. When the voltage is reached, the DC/DC is switched off. At the same time, the filed transistor opens. When the voltage on capacitors increases to -7V, the transistor closes and the DC/DC starts. The process ran on a loop until the circuitry failed.
