Researchers have figured out how to hack a wireless charger to fry your phone and heat objects around it to 280°C, so that's just wonderful
Like many, I keep a wireless charger next to my bed to charge my phone overnight. Also like many, I am consistently amazed by the fact that wonderful, device-charging electricity can safely pass between the bottom plate, through my phone case and into the device itself in a safe and efficient manner. Well, mostly safe.
A team of researchers (it's always a team of researchers, isn't it) have managed to develop a new set of attacks that can manipulate a wireless charger to fry your precious mobile device to death, or even start heating up objects nearby to massive temperatures. Bully.
The set of attacks have been given the ironically cool moniker «VoltSchemer», and the methodology used is both highly innovative and slightly terrifying (via Bleeping Computer). Essentially, a wireless charger uses electromagnetic fields to transfer energy from a coil in the charging station to a corresponding coil in your device by the process of electromagnetic induction.
By manipulating the voltage with a noise signal through the use of an attached interposing device, the researchers discovered that they could interfere with the communication between the charger and the device being charged, and even with the safety systems built into the charger itself. This allowed our mischief-making research team to develop three forms of potential attack.
The first leverages this interference technique to prevent the wireless charger from being unable to tell that a device was overcharging, thereby causing it to continue to pump power into the device at the maximum rate. This caused a Samsung S8 during testing to reach a stable temperature of a too-hot-to-handle 170°C.
However, this would just be the beginning of the potential damage caused. A second type of VoltSchemer attack bypasses Qi-charging safety standards to allow large amounts of energy to transfer to objects around the charger. This can include USB sticks, SSD drives, car key fobs and NFC chips used in payment cards. Even paper clips
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