At the conference on cyber security DefCon developer Mike Grover presented and sold a few copies of “hacker” version of the regular Lightning cable for iPhone. It looks and works like a normal cable, but knowing his secret can remotely activate the firmware and hack the gadget is connected to this cable. Grover says was inspired by an old design NSA to intelligence agencies, but managed to make a much cheaper and easier version.
The idea is as elegant as it is treacherous – everything you need to hack a computer or a smartphone, hidden in the cable. For the current level of technological development is no longer a problem, Grover said that made the device almost in the kitchen. He dismantled the conventional cable, added directly into the USB connector a few tiny chips, and wrote software.
Grover used cable USB-A to Apple products, because they are the smallest. If I can build a hack on this basis, so not a problem to equip them with all the other larger cables. Grover does not specify what exactly makes this melver, like hacking the security of your computer and what data is on the hunt. The purpose of this cable was creative and professional interest, to establish the production and sale Grover is not going to. But emphasizes that it was quite easy, but because it is feared that the idea would take on Board the real criminals.
Source — Mike Grover