Quick Chargers Can Destroy Your Device Due to Security Failure

Fast charging brings many advantages and I think no one doubts it, although it is also true that it generates some criticism. Now those who were against its use may be reinforced, because Chinese researchers have managed to modify fast chargers to damage the devices when they are charging.

The risks of fast chargers

Quick Chargers Can Destroy Your Device

Fast charging is one of the best things that has happened in recent years. In the absence of higher performance batteries, especially in mobile devices such as phones, tablets, laptops and even wireless headphones; These systems allow you to get that extra autonomy when you need it most.

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If you have a compatible device with fast charge, you will already know the advantages it provides. Because devices such as the telephone have become essential in our day-to-day life, so being “stuck” because the battery is not capable of withstanding intensive use during a workday is a great nuisance. Now, it is normal to have systems that in just 15 minutes of charging allow you to recover almost 50% of the total battery of the device and endure until you get home at night if necessary.

Anyway, there are still those who hold the idea that fast charging is bad for the life of the equipment. Something that is partly so, because we are putting more power than conventional systems do, but it is also true that the manufacturing processes and materials have evolved and has been taken into account to minimize this deterioration.

Of course, neither those who defend nor those who attack this system had thought that in the end one of the great risks could come directly from the software. A group of Chinese researchers have found a way to hack fast chargers to send more voltage than the device needs. This excess could generate not only overheating and therefore rapid deterioration of the device. In the worst case it could even start a fire like the ones we’ve already seen on occasion.

And it is that everything that depends on software in the end is susceptible to unauthorized modification. Sometimes it is done to obtain positive benefits for the user and sometimes like these for the opposite. Although in this case it would be much more dangerous, because an explosion of one of these batteries could cause serious damage.

How to hack a fast charger

The hack of these fast chargers, or their software is better said, using an exploit called Bad Power . This what it does is basically modify the parameters that allow it to send more load than necessary, ignoring any warning or warning that the phone or device may generate.

Thus, if, for example, the phone tells you not to exceed 10V of power, the charged will ignore and give the maximum it allows. If it is 20V, then 20V. So that excess for which neither the dissipation system nor the battery itself would cause permanent damage to the device.

Fortunately, this type of exploit is not easy to install a priori . The charger would need to first connect to an infected device that would modify its firmware. From that moment on, it would take action, causing possible damage.

So if, again, don’t leave your chargers to anyone you don’t know . Just as you shouldn’t use other chargers, cables or charging points. Because you don’t know what possible intentions they may have. It is true that nothing usually happens most of the time, but put to prevent, better to do it well from the beginning.

Finally, this exploit seems easy to fix for brands as long as they are chargers not yet on sale. A simple firmware update would cover the plunder and problem, but the thousands of fast chargers already on the market would be susceptible.

In the end it can be more compensated to have wireless chargers with which you can always gradually charge the terminal while you are not using it.