How a USB-connected speaker can infect a PC without ever being touched

[beanburrito]

"Researcher Rasmus Moorats stumbled on the hack by accident, after he purchased a Katana V2X, a soundbar that connects to PCs, Macs, and Linux devices over USB or Bluetooth. Moorats was curious if he could create a Linux tool that communicated with his speaker. He discovered he could do so through CTP, a proprietary mechanism he guesses is short for Creative Transport Protocol."

See also: Blog posts -

• Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it (archived)
• Reverse engineering the Creative Katana V2X soundbar to be able to control it from Linux (archived)

 

[theLegionWithin]

that was an interesting read - the last bit, what other bluetooth enabled devices are similarly vulnerable? I'd hazard a guess that a great many of them are.

 

[deb_user]

Absolutely anything connected via USB can infect the system. There are USB cables capable of doing it without actually connecting any other device. These have to be prepared in advance, however. Taking over a device wirelessly is an advanced technique.