Apple charger with viruses??

[Budddy27]

A while back my mother and I where in the car bringing my sister back from a doctors appointment, and I had brought the charger to my iPad witch was from a 3rd party manufacturer( I got it from dollar general ) I brought mine because she usually forgets hers and when she asked me to plug her phone in I went to plug her iPhone in to my charger and she said stop .......... so I stopped and then she asked if that was her charger that came from apple and I said no it was mine then she said do not plug her phone in ( it was at 13%) I asked why and she told me and I quote “ I read somewhere on the internet that iPhone chargers have virus on them and they said to only use your apple charger.” ......... what. I’m not a computer god and I don’t claim to know a lot about any type of electronic device including charger. But I’m pretty sure that if this was true that millions of iPhone would be infected due to how often apple chargers break and I’m almost positive that what she read was some dumb clickbait on a news website. Please help me find the article she “read” and tell me if there’s any way this is possible. Sorry for bad grammar. 

[WereCatf]

You've both misunderstood things. 3rd-party chargers definitely CAN try to upload viruses/malware/etc. to your devices and there have been cases where e.g. the publicly-accessible chargers at airports have done exactly this. It doesn't mean that EVERY 3rd-party charger will do it, however.

[Zando_]

I've used laptops, gas station car chargers, an Anker 5 port brick I got off Amazon, the Apple blocks, Samsung blocks, all sorts of things and never had an issue with "viruses" coming through my charger. Should be fine. 

[bcredeur97]

some chinese or just third party in general devices and even cables have been known malicious chips in embedded in them that can communicate with your phone and do things such as send your data to other places that you don't want it to be sent.

This is why apple implemented the "do you trust this device" prompt when you plug your phone into something that has a data connection.

You could always hit no on the prompt though and it'll block data flow.

[RyzenDoctor]

A run of a mill charger is usually not a security issue. It's publicly "available" charging stations that may or may not have been hijacked and have had extra circuitry added to steal data.

 

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/free-charging-stations-can-hack-your-phone-heres-how-protect-yourself/

https://www.techradar.com/news/hackers-could-hijack-devices-using-a-laptops-usb-c-charger

 

The issue is that USB standards are used for both power delivery and data transfer. If a "charger" has extra non-power circuitry, it could in fact hijack some phones/laptops

[Daniel644]

the first result on google is this article from 5 YEARS ago https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/ios-charger-malware-possible/

[Budddy27]

And just to be clear I was talking about the cable sorry 

 

[RollTime]

3 minutes ago, Budddy27 said:

And just to be clear I was talking about the cable sorry 

 

A cable with malware.

 

No. 

 

Just no.

[Beef Boss]

6 minutes ago, RollTime said:

A cable with malware.

 

No. 

 

Just no.

It is possible. 

But if you're that worried, I'd get a custom made USB condom which inserts into the female port but doesn't have pads for data transfer. So it only transfers power to the device. 

[RollTime]

7 hours ago, aki adaki said:

It is possible. 

But if you're that worried, I'd get a custom made USB condom which inserts into the female port but doesn't have pads for data transfer. So it only transfers power to the device. 

When I first read the words "USB condom" I was certain you were joking... I'm still not entirely sure...

And how is it possible exactly? You'd need something capable of USB connection (because to even access data on phones nowadays you have to click "trust" and something needs to request access) and the smallest thing I can think of to do that is a Raspberry Pi mini. Even some custom-made item would simply be too big to fit anywhere in a cable. A charger or brick? Sure. A cable? No.

[Beef Boss]

20 minutes ago, RollTime said:

When I first read the words "USB condom" I was certain you were joking... I'm still not entirely sure...

And how is it possible exactly? You'd need something capable of USB connection (because to even access data on phones nowadays you have to click "trust" and something needs to request access) and the smallest thing I can think of to do that is a Raspberry Pi mini. Even some custom-made item would simply be too big to fit anywhere in a cable. A charger or brick? Sure. A cable? No.

Nope, not quite. The one I've seen was smaller, but not made anymore unless you custom order pcb's and solder it yourself 

https://int3.cc/products/usbcondoms

[djneo]

The problem with 3rd party cheap chargers are bad terrible power supply's that can destroy the phone.

iOS has software level protection for the Lightning connector. (if you connect it to a computer is asked, do you trust this device). that only shows up when the device is unlocked. if the device is unlocked. the port goes in to charging only mode
 

[TechyBen]

17 hours ago, WereCatf said:

You've both misunderstood things. 3rd-party chargers definitely CAN try to upload viruses/malware/etc. to your devices and there have been cases where e.g. the publicly-accessible chargers at airports have done exactly this. It doesn't mean that EVERY 3rd-party charger will do it, however.

Yep, possible, but have not heard of it happening yet. The biggest risk is a broken/poor/dangerously made charger. iPhones and many modern smartphones need a lot of power, and poor parts can get hot, melt or explode. So making sure it's a well built charger and cable is best. How to check? That's hard. Obviously Apple will try their best, and so do some other companies.

 

Also, "USB sticks/drives" are mainly the ones that have viruses. So perhaps they got the 2 stories muddled up? Lots of criminals or pranksters drop USB sticks/drives about, as they are really cheap, and people are silly and plug them into PCs. Then turns out the criminal/prankster put viruses on it.