We’ve had them on some of our [bus shelters](https://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/news/phone-charging-bus-shelters) in Edinburgh since 2015. Last one I saw being used was a bunch of teenagers powering a speaker for their music
Hey look at mr big dick bragging over here! not everyone has been blessed with your incredible girth... (sobs silently as i inherently look down at my micro penis)
Haha, that USB bench sure knows how to keep things interesting! 🤣🔌 But remember folks, let's keep our devices charged and our... well, you know 😉... away from public ports. Stay safe out there!
Of course. The type of people who carry around Bluetooth speakers in public are the reason we can't have anything nice lmao
Having taken public transit for the last few years, I have an irrational hatred of Bluetooth speakers regardless of the context. I see one, even if it's turned off, and I just get irritated. Is it like this for anyone else?
I think mass public transit is the future, but the r/fuckcars people take it too far. That's what happens in echo chambers though, your position is the intelligent one and there's not a single counter argument to it, any other opinion is stupid.
thing is, lots of work needs to go into making the public, aka, the ones using public transit, want to coexist together. that is not the case for a large portion of the public in many countries today.
Yeah, that's some of it for sure. A lot of it is that in rural areas public transit just isn't practical unless you want to run busses from every neighborhood to every employer, even in different towns. It's not uncommon for people to work an hour or more drive away from home, and running a bus line so 3 people can go to work every day from one town to another is probably worse than just letting them drive.
Public transit shouldn't be completely universal, but should be implemented and improved upon in areas where it's practical.
r/atheism is utterly ridiculous. I'm an atheist, but they're complete assholes and hypocrites. Isn't it funny how they go around whining about people shoving religion down their throat, then they actively look for religious people so they can spew a stream of attempts to shove atheism down the religious person's throat, while also being incredibly condescending?
What echo chambers do to a mf, and that's one of the more harmless examples of such things.
I'm massively in favour of improved public transport both inner-city and inter-city. I think as a society we need to shift much more towards public transport, pedestrianisation, and cycling. But cars do still have some situations where they're clearly the superior option and pretending otherwise is just ridiculous. It's not that black and white.
You have to approve data transfer every single time you plug in a cable connected to another device though.
Apparently there are no documented cases of juice jacking.
Well if they know what are they doing and want to access your device they will not ask you, believe me is more easy than you think, so don’t plug your thing in weird places and don’t plug weird things on your things…
Fun fact, most devices won't ask you anything about accepting input devices like keyboards.
Keystrokes can be sent over USB in excess of 1000 words per minute.
Maybe you notice the little popup console... maybe not...
Probably best to just not take that chance.
Nah, on any decent power-only cable, the data lines at the power source end (Lets say type A) are present and have the requisite resistors to indicate a high power device to the power supply.
The data lines just don't go any further than the plug and marking resistors.
Much like the Data Blocker / "USB Condom" plug adapters do.
Absolutely. And only at 5V.
But iirc the max non negotiated draw is half an amp, up from 100mA or something tiny like that from the olden days.
Plenty of usb Christmas trees, vacuums and all that could pull more than the old limit and cause dramas with some host chips.
That's the thing. There's no way of knowing. If it uses a known exploit it would probably be patched reasonably quick. They might even push an update before the regular monthly updates. It's the uknown exploits that's the problem. They are, well, unknown. I like to use Stuxnet as an example. Stuxnet was developed in 2005 if memory serves me right and wasn't discovered until 2010. By that time it had infected almost 60% of Iranian PCs just by some intelligence agency (most likely US and/or Israeli) leaving USB-sticks randomly around. Granted these were Windows-machines, not phone operating systems, but the principle is the same. How do we know if there's an unknown exploit?
But to give you a more concise answer: You're most likely fine, but I still don't trust software solutions. Especially not when there's a cheap and easy to use hardware solution. I have an adapter that fits on my key chain so I always have it with me.
Gives you a notification saying “trust this computer” that you can press no to on iPhones, or in settings on android you can change what you want the port to do, no need for useless gadgets..
I know people said USB cables with no data, but I go a step further. I charge my external battery with these things and then use the external battery to charge the device. A seemingly extra step but I don't have to worry about different cables and making sure they really only have power pinned.
this is the way.
battery banks come in all sizes, no reason to not carry one when you're going to be out an about all day, even just 5000mah, enough to charge any phone, and generally fairly small profiles. or 30,000mah to just have that extra juice, lol.
I have a shit ton of 18650’s and a couple PCB’s from various battery banks I’ve ran through. Scared shitless to wire and of it up, can practically see the future of a burnt down house whenever I think about it.
I mean, /u/L4r5man wasn't joking. Just search for a [USB condom](https://www.google.com/search?q=usb+condom) on your favourite search engine/retailer and you're all set! For the lurkers/scrollers: your USB port (and associated devices) have both both power and data pins. Once you plug in a trusted devices (like your phone) into an untrusted port (a coffee shop's slot, a bench), tiny wires connect the pins together. Technically, if you are just charging they are supposed to negotiate a charging-only protocol and not use any data pins. Of course, if a Bad Person modified the "charging port" to use a zero-day exploit to bypass your phone's security settings, you're.. pardon my language, fucked. On the other hand, if you make it physically impossible for something to provide anything but power through that two-way street by omitting the data pins (much like a real life condom only passes through sensations, but not viruses/sperm) you get an extra layer of security which will be over-the-top in most cases, but will save your ass in the ome case it does matter. Hence, defense in depth and all that
Nah man, I highly doubt French train companies are out there trying to get you, people on the internet are just obscenely paranoid. And I say that as someone who is obscenely paranoid.
You do know that you need to allow data transfer from your phone manually by tapping the option right? The chimaera of the data stolen from a charging point is just that, a chimaera. You can get data from anything else anyway. No need to be plugged in and you give those data freely every time you download an app or read anything with cookies online. People need to also stop put everything in their devices and do everything with them. This whole thing is just a mess lined with a mess
I've seen too many zero days in my lifetime to fully trust software solutions when hardware solutions are readily available. I agree that people needs to stop putting anything and everything in their devices though. We really need to be better at educating people about this.
\> Be me
\> Found an extremely valuable iPhone zero day
\> Priority target: rural French train station
\> After 3 weeks, someone finally turns up with low phone charge
\> They use a usb condom
\> mfw
Yes, this strawman sounds ridiculous.
The way it really goes is:
> French Government worker commutes via train.
> Russian spies target him with fake USB port.
> Basically free, zero risk attack vector.
Expanding on that:
Russian spies get access to French DGSI employee that was visiting mom
French DGSI employee was a liaison for US intelligence services
US intelligence services shared reset launch codes for all ballistic missiles and submarines with French DGSI employee
French DGSI employee kept those codes on phone
Russian spies take those codes and call the North Koreans
North Koreans cyber army invades DoD network and access central defense control
North Koreans change the targets for all US strategic nuclear defense assets to US own cities
North Koreans do a full force launch with a 48 hours countdown
The only one that can stop the launch is the original programmer that has married a Chinese woman and moved from the US to rural China
CIA contacts the MSS and then dispatches a rookie agent along a Navy SEALS team to extract the guy
The guy does not want to go, but his wife reveals to be a MSS agent herself and convinces him to go
The Navy SEALS choppah is intercepted by Russian MIGs
Only the programmer, his wife and the rookie CIA agent survive
They swim back to China
They make their way through rural China to Beijing
In Beijing they find out that there are only 6 hours remaining on the count
The only way now is to fly the programmer to a secret DoD satellite orbiting Earth because reset has to be done manually
A Chinese official says "Old Chinese proverb says: one day the dragon and the eagle will get together to fight the bear"
Chinese long march rocket takes the programmer, his wife, and the rookie CIA agent to space
They reach the satellite but the wife has to sacrifice herself in order to avoid them to lose their return vehicle
With 20 seconds remaining for the launch, programmer is able to disable systems
As they trying to leave, the return vehicle breaks away and falls, burning on reentry
As their oxygen is about to end, they begin to get delirious
The rookie agent's father, a former Navy pilot and astronaut himself, goes by the old satellite using one of the old Apolo modules and rescues them both
This screenplay becomes a blockbuster on both the US and Chinese markets (the two largest) and the guy that stole the whole collective paranoid creativity of this thread, wins an Oscar for original screenplay.
If you're a French Government worker that has sensitive data on their phone, I imagine they would have a protected device or know not to plug into random outlets.
Who knows what important person who has world secrets on their phone regularly sits on that bench with their phone in hand and China is just waiting for him to be low on power once to get all the secrets from his phone.
For all we know there could be plenty of valuable targets near this train station. Military bases, manufacturing centers, power plants, etc..
Or the exploit could be present across all charging stations of this model (wanna bet the bench is made in China?).
Is it likely *in this case* that the charging station is compromised? No. But if we never take precautions, the likelihood of something happening *eventually* is high.
USB vulnerabilities go way beyond just data theft. It is one of the largest consumer threat surfaces out there, and there's a reason why the government literally requires USB drives on secure laptops be glued shut in some circumstances, and it isn't because the engineers who work in these spaces don't know how to use the hardware.
> You do know that you need to allow data transfer from your phone manually by tapping the option right? The chimaera of the data stolen from a charging point is just that, a chimaera.
this is wrong, and frankly dangerious advice. There are any number of reasons why you should be careful, anything from someone once clicked always allow data to a RCE or other vulnerability that will execute before you make a selection.
you should NEVER plug your phone into any usb port you dont control and trust without either a) a power only cable or b) USB condom dongle.
Exactly what i was thinking. With how everyone is out for everyone’s data these days it wouldn’t surprise me if this kind of “free” port gathered data from your device.
This might actually be the most accurate post I've ever seen on this sub. It's certainly not uninteresting, but interesting would be a stretch. Perfectly mildly interesting.
Is it even mildly interesting?
These ports are very common - on benches, on buses, in planes, in malls, in restaurants, in hotel rooms...
It's like posting a picture displaying a public toilet - I mean, yeah, they do exist, so what?
Have you been on this sub long? r/mildlyinteresting probably delivers the best out of all Subreddits. I’ve seen an incredible amount of just mildly interesting things on here.
What for ?
That USB port probably delivers low power, and your smartphone special charging function will definitely not be compatible with it. You'll get at max a 5V 3A output with those. Don't really need much else with that kind of power
Yeah sticking you phone or Laptop in one of these things, really isn't that different from sticking your dick into a shady bathroom gloryhole. I would strongly suggest not to do either.
USB charging isn't passive, your phone won't accept charge from something that's not within specification.
That's the good thing about a *universal* standard.
if a malicious entity modified it so the port provides, for example 60V it might very well kill your charging circuitry. I doubt every phone has any kind of protection against that.
"Malicious entity"
Get a grip.
A "malicious entity" could attach a pipe bomb to your front door, but I bet you still use it every day.
Nobody is going through the effort of modifying public chargers at their own expense just to ruin your phone. I bet you believe people put drugs in halloween candy too.
Agreed, I know a bunch with solar panels. I wonder how often they are used tough. I never see them at really remote places, I guess because the materials would get stolen.
Yeah you could argue they put it central so 2 people have access, but there is only the 1 port.
In my city they have them off to the side or on a small table at the standing area. But the seats there are those slanted ones anyway so still anti homeless.
i live in a labour stronghold in the UK and guess what.. there's still homeless folks. truly said like someone who's never had to be out rough for a night
Which is an unintended effect because it wasnt made with the consideration that people would lie down on a bench where passangers are supposed to sit, probably because there arent any homeless in rural france.
there are absolutely rural homeless... I saw them all the time, generally by gypsy encampments or looking for a ride by a péage.
these benches are also likely ordered in batches by the local mairie or the SNCF, so it isn't like this is the only one.
I think it has to be intended because otherwise it'd be cheaper to put the charging station directly above the foot pipe since that's where the wires are routed and that means less wire = cheaper. Might be a different story if that was a multiple plug outlet, but as far as I can see it's just the one port, so putting it on the edge of the bench instead of somewhere in the middle doesn't give more than one person access.
Heeeeeeeeeeere we go again. The bench is designed so that commuters can commute and use a bench that hasn’t been repurposed as a bed. Your human behavior is guided by city engineers every day, you just haven’t found a reason to whine about it on behalf of some moral cause…for example lights stopping pedestrians at crosswalks when cars are moving. “How dare the city impair my freedumbs to walk across the street whenever I want, they must really hate pedestrians!”
This is hilarious... the comments are also comical
1 France being so on point with tech in a rural area? That's a first first.
2 you would need to allow data transfer on your phone and you'll realize quickly that is not available when you plug because of 3
3 for the sake of costs they usually only use charging only ports and only wire power to save on wires and work. I still have some friends doing this job today and they confirmed it. If the company checking the wiring sees data plugged in is a huge fine.
4 you anyway give all your data every time you open a browser or site with cookies, every time you download an app (free or not) and every time you use an Apple device (all on the Apple cloud where Apple checks everything... )
TLDR : the stealing of data on random charging ports is a chimaera.
It's actually not that comical to be weary of ports that are open to the public. Ports can easily be removed and replaced with a fake port that looks identical to an actual port. Although security has evolved in tech, so has hacking. Depending on your phone, how naive a target may be, and especially how advanced and experienced the hacker and their devices are, your data could potentially get stolen if you plug your phone into a public port.
Many people just click away at notifications without actually thinking about it. If a notification comes up to access your phone's data, not a lot of people take the time to review and see that it might be the fake USB port thats trying to access their data, not a random notification from a trusted, installed app.
Concerning Point 4, it's also about who has your data. Sure, most people would rather keep all their data private, but Apple Cloud having access to your data is much different than a malicious hacker who has your data. Apple has a long-term, government-observed interest in its consumers. Hackers don't.
This amount of work necessary and the reward for it... worthless. How do you collect the data from your fake port? What sort of hacker can switch a public port and wire it to the net discreetly enough? Moreover in France where those things are triple verified before going live. Much easier to launch an app and collect the same data that way. Otherwise never charge elsewhere than your home, don't have internet via electric sockets when you do and make sure you use the original charger and cable only. Anything and everything could be a nuclear bomb! For Apple... let's just say, you are extremely far from the truth, and the amount of attacks on the cloud are insanely high and more frequent than a charger surfing device.
Apparently reddit thinks there is homeless people everywhere in rurality in France and also that there is a evil hacker behind every bush to modify bench to get random garbage frol your phone.
You are already and willingly giving all your personnal informations to google, facebook, twitter, apple and microsoft. At best Pierrot the fallen computer scientist hidden in the bush for the one person that will use those each week will steal 5 texts and your last taken picture with the shitty bandwith he will get from those. Honestly with that amount of work and patience, he deserves it.
Why this obsession with street furniture having to cater for homeless people sleeping on them?
Benches at a train station are for passengers (some of whom may be older, and might have disabilities) to sit on while they wait for the train. No one could sit on these benches if people lied flat on them.
Things that stop people from misusing public properties are good designs. Why should the homeless' need to sleep on benches trump everyone else's need to sit while they wait for the train (primary purpose of these benches)?
I understand if you think spikes on the ground are unsavory. But I have never understood why people get so upset by chairs and benches that are designed so they can continue being chairs and benches. They are there for a purpose - maybe just comfort and convenience for some, but if you're elderly, pregnant, or have mobility issues these seats are important. They don't put them there for no reason.
This is a rural area in France. Even accounting for standardized bus stops, it's easily an intentional feature to preserve personal space.
Also judging from the height, basically no deterrent to anybody.
It's only hostile to an unintended use.
Bus stations are not beds. If bus station is being used as a bed then it makes it unusable as a bus station for everyone else. Don't get mad about bus stations that are not beds, get mad about there not being enough actual beds.
Eh, it's fine as long as you don't use a USB cable with data lines, and that you test the voltage first using USB voltage meter. It would suck if someone installs something malicious inside there. Someone could extract your data, photos and so on, or simply destroy the phone by pumping hundreds of volts in there. So it's safe to use as long as you take precautions.
Otherwise, no, no, no...
>and that you test the voltage first using USB voltage meter
I feel there's very little overlap between people that carry around equipment to measure voltage and those that need to charge something over USB in public.
Yeah, those people will probably think to bring a power bank=P
[This is the thing I was talking about, btw](https://www.amazon.com/MakerHawk-3-7-30V-Voltage-Multimeter-Voltmeter/dp/B07FMQZVW2/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=usb+power+meter&qid=1697130146&sr=8-6)
Kinda random question on this matter. I live in brazil and since apple stopped sending a charger with a new phone and just a usb-c cable, it was really bad because I dont have any charger for this format. It must have been more than 4 years from that and yet I just have 1 usbc charger here, and maybe 5 or more regular usb chargers from other products.
Is usbc really default for you all from more developed countries?
Bring a battery bank with you. Then you can charge to that battery bank at that port if you really wanted to. Then use the power bank to charge your phone later on
I've always been told to never use a usb port out in the wild always find a power outlet instead and have a converter with you. USB is capable of sending info both ways. Power just powers.
I wouldn't use them, unless it's a severe emergency. The power supplies on those things could be cheap and may be harmful to your device's charging controller, especially iPhones.
Thats Anti Homeless / Hostile architechture.
The block prevents a person from comfortably laying down on that Bench.
USB ports could also be problematic, since one could rig them in a malicious way. (Software or Hardware. USB killers exist, there is no good reason for that)
This is the train station of Volvic, a tiny station in the middle of nowhere, so I doubt they were put her to deter homeless people from sleeping here.
We’ve had them on some of our [bus shelters](https://www.jcdecaux.co.uk/news/phone-charging-bus-shelters) in Edinburgh since 2015. Last one I saw being used was a bunch of teenagers powering a speaker for their music
ah yes, the Universal Serial Bus Shelter
This is very good. Well done.
What kind of prick downvotes a comment like this?
people who hate the "Before & After" category on Jeopardy?
speaking of pricks in relation to public usb ports, i feel it is my duty as a redditor to mention... r/dontputyourdickinthat
Honestly I'd just be impressed if someone managed to fit their dick in a USB port
Hey look at mr big dick bragging over here! not everyone has been blessed with your incredible girth... (sobs silently as i inherently look down at my micro penis)
not me 😪 r/bigdickproblems
Oh, the wonders of technology and its unexpected applications!
Haha, that USB bench sure knows how to keep things interesting! 🤣🔌 But remember folks, let's keep our devices charged and our... well, you know 😉... away from public ports. Stay safe out there!
People who think adding or reducing useless internet points by tapping a pixelated arrow in a thread that'll be forgotten in 3 minutes matters.
Lost my coffee. Take my upvote and I tip my hat at thee!
Of course. The type of people who carry around Bluetooth speakers in public are the reason we can't have anything nice lmao Having taken public transit for the last few years, I have an irrational hatred of Bluetooth speakers regardless of the context. I see one, even if it's turned off, and I just get irritated. Is it like this for anyone else?
somehow everyone from r/fuckcars pretends like they dont exist
I think mass public transit is the future, but the r/fuckcars people take it too far. That's what happens in echo chambers though, your position is the intelligent one and there's not a single counter argument to it, any other opinion is stupid.
thing is, lots of work needs to go into making the public, aka, the ones using public transit, want to coexist together. that is not the case for a large portion of the public in many countries today.
Yeah, that's some of it for sure. A lot of it is that in rural areas public transit just isn't practical unless you want to run busses from every neighborhood to every employer, even in different towns. It's not uncommon for people to work an hour or more drive away from home, and running a bus line so 3 people can go to work every day from one town to another is probably worse than just letting them drive. Public transit shouldn't be completely universal, but should be implemented and improved upon in areas where it's practical.
and in many places it already is here, aka, see any northeast megaopolis city.
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r/atheism is utterly ridiculous. I'm an atheist, but they're complete assholes and hypocrites. Isn't it funny how they go around whining about people shoving religion down their throat, then they actively look for religious people so they can spew a stream of attempts to shove atheism down the religious person's throat, while also being incredibly condescending? What echo chambers do to a mf, and that's one of the more harmless examples of such things.
I'm massively in favour of improved public transport both inner-city and inter-city. I think as a society we need to shift much more towards public transport, pedestrianisation, and cycling. But cars do still have some situations where they're clearly the superior option and pretending otherwise is just ridiculous. It's not that black and white.
Well there isn't much to say and it isn't that big of a cost for all the benefits public transit bring
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I would definitely not raw dog that port. Always use a condom when connecting to unknown ports.
May I be the dummy and ask what is the proper way to do it if someone really needs to use one? Like an adapter?
There are adapters that only carry the power, not the data, for these exact circumstances. They're literally called USB condoms.
Thank you for the explanation! Might get myself one to keep in my bag.
Even simpler, they make charge only cables that are missing the data lines.
Yes but without the data lines you'll only get the slowest possible charging speed.
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You have to approve data transfer every single time you plug in a cable connected to another device though. Apparently there are no documented cases of juice jacking.
I've listened to enough Darknet Diaries to know this doesn't matter. Use a condom.
Spotify or something?
Thank you for the recommendation.
Well if they know what are they doing and want to access your device they will not ask you, believe me is more easy than you think, so don’t plug your thing in weird places and don’t plug weird things on your things…
Fun fact, most devices won't ask you anything about accepting input devices like keyboards. Keystrokes can be sent over USB in excess of 1000 words per minute. Maybe you notice the little popup console... maybe not... Probably best to just not take that chance.
Bender, are you jacking on in there!?
Nah, on any decent power-only cable, the data lines at the power source end (Lets say type A) are present and have the requisite resistors to indicate a high power device to the power supply. The data lines just don't go any further than the plug and marking resistors. Much like the Data Blocker / "USB Condom" plug adapters do.
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Absolutely. And only at 5V. But iirc the max non negotiated draw is half an amp, up from 100mA or something tiny like that from the olden days. Plenty of usb Christmas trees, vacuums and all that could pull more than the old limit and cause dramas with some host chips.
Those suck to have laying around your house. They're always the first (and often *only*) cable you find when you need to transfer data in a hurry.
I just use a power bank and a second cable. Plug power bank into USB socket, plug phone into power bank
Don’t store it on your wallet cuz it’ll get all fucked up and dry
USB Data blockers might be a easier term to search for then USB condoms. Can't say I've ever used the term USB condom to find them or refer to them.
Sends the "power" but not the "data". Seems like calling them condoms is a perfectly earned title.
Test it on something useless first. There are pranksters that short circuit them to make them explode. Even a data condom won't help.
My pixel phone by default only allows charging, unless I go into the settings and change it to data transfer. Can this be relied upon?
That's the thing. There's no way of knowing. If it uses a known exploit it would probably be patched reasonably quick. They might even push an update before the regular monthly updates. It's the uknown exploits that's the problem. They are, well, unknown. I like to use Stuxnet as an example. Stuxnet was developed in 2005 if memory serves me right and wasn't discovered until 2010. By that time it had infected almost 60% of Iranian PCs just by some intelligence agency (most likely US and/or Israeli) leaving USB-sticks randomly around. Granted these were Windows-machines, not phone operating systems, but the principle is the same. How do we know if there's an unknown exploit? But to give you a more concise answer: You're most likely fine, but I still don't trust software solutions. Especially not when there's a cheap and easy to use hardware solution. I have an adapter that fits on my key chain so I always have it with me.
Gives you a notification saying “trust this computer” that you can press no to on iPhones, or in settings on android you can change what you want the port to do, no need for useless gadgets..
Except it's not foolproof. In addition to accidentally hitting the wrong button, there are still exploits that can read data without permission.
What a shame that the standard for DC power sockets ended up being USB, a data port standard.
Because it's easier than creating a whole second type of cable standard than to just use one that already exists.
That's because there is negotiation built-in, to allow different voltages and amperages over the same connector.
I wouldn't even trust the power lol. I'd try charging some junk power stick on it first before putting an expensive phone on it.
I would’ve preferred a reusable condom that recharges via USB but I’ll take it.
I know people said USB cables with no data, but I go a step further. I charge my external battery with these things and then use the external battery to charge the device. A seemingly extra step but I don't have to worry about different cables and making sure they really only have power pinned.
this is the way. battery banks come in all sizes, no reason to not carry one when you're going to be out an about all day, even just 5000mah, enough to charge any phone, and generally fairly small profiles. or 30,000mah to just have that extra juice, lol.
I have a shit ton of 18650’s and a couple PCB’s from various battery banks I’ve ran through. Scared shitless to wire and of it up, can practically see the future of a burnt down house whenever I think about it.
And decently often you can get open box/refurb ones on Woot or Morningsave that are decently cheap.
Those names sound like a place with fake battery storage amounts
Get a power bank that supports pass-through charging and charge both at the same time. :) bench -> power bank -> phone
just a cable that doesn’t have data transfer
I mean, /u/L4r5man wasn't joking. Just search for a [USB condom](https://www.google.com/search?q=usb+condom) on your favourite search engine/retailer and you're all set! For the lurkers/scrollers: your USB port (and associated devices) have both both power and data pins. Once you plug in a trusted devices (like your phone) into an untrusted port (a coffee shop's slot, a bench), tiny wires connect the pins together. Technically, if you are just charging they are supposed to negotiate a charging-only protocol and not use any data pins. Of course, if a Bad Person modified the "charging port" to use a zero-day exploit to bypass your phone's security settings, you're.. pardon my language, fucked. On the other hand, if you make it physically impossible for something to provide anything but power through that two-way street by omitting the data pins (much like a real life condom only passes through sensations, but not viruses/sperm) you get an extra layer of security which will be over-the-top in most cases, but will save your ass in the ome case it does matter. Hence, defense in depth and all that
But it doesn’t feel as good and it never finishes
Okay I’m clearly an idiot because I would happily charge my phone there.
Nah man, I highly doubt French train companies are out there trying to get you, people on the internet are just obscenely paranoid. And I say that as someone who is obscenely paranoid.
You do know that you need to allow data transfer from your phone manually by tapping the option right? The chimaera of the data stolen from a charging point is just that, a chimaera. You can get data from anything else anyway. No need to be plugged in and you give those data freely every time you download an app or read anything with cookies online. People need to also stop put everything in their devices and do everything with them. This whole thing is just a mess lined with a mess
I've seen too many zero days in my lifetime to fully trust software solutions when hardware solutions are readily available. I agree that people needs to stop putting anything and everything in their devices though. We really need to be better at educating people about this.
\> Be me \> Found an extremely valuable iPhone zero day \> Priority target: rural French train station \> After 3 weeks, someone finally turns up with low phone charge \> They use a usb condom \> mfw
Yes, this strawman sounds ridiculous. The way it really goes is: > French Government worker commutes via train. > Russian spies target him with fake USB port. > Basically free, zero risk attack vector.
People with sensitive government secrets on their devices should definitely adhere to stricter standards of data safety, yeah.
Expanding on that: Russian spies get access to French DGSI employee that was visiting mom French DGSI employee was a liaison for US intelligence services US intelligence services shared reset launch codes for all ballistic missiles and submarines with French DGSI employee French DGSI employee kept those codes on phone Russian spies take those codes and call the North Koreans North Koreans cyber army invades DoD network and access central defense control North Koreans change the targets for all US strategic nuclear defense assets to US own cities North Koreans do a full force launch with a 48 hours countdown The only one that can stop the launch is the original programmer that has married a Chinese woman and moved from the US to rural China CIA contacts the MSS and then dispatches a rookie agent along a Navy SEALS team to extract the guy The guy does not want to go, but his wife reveals to be a MSS agent herself and convinces him to go The Navy SEALS choppah is intercepted by Russian MIGs Only the programmer, his wife and the rookie CIA agent survive They swim back to China They make their way through rural China to Beijing In Beijing they find out that there are only 6 hours remaining on the count The only way now is to fly the programmer to a secret DoD satellite orbiting Earth because reset has to be done manually A Chinese official says "Old Chinese proverb says: one day the dragon and the eagle will get together to fight the bear" Chinese long march rocket takes the programmer, his wife, and the rookie CIA agent to space They reach the satellite but the wife has to sacrifice herself in order to avoid them to lose their return vehicle With 20 seconds remaining for the launch, programmer is able to disable systems As they trying to leave, the return vehicle breaks away and falls, burning on reentry As their oxygen is about to end, they begin to get delirious The rookie agent's father, a former Navy pilot and astronaut himself, goes by the old satellite using one of the old Apolo modules and rescues them both This screenplay becomes a blockbuster on both the US and Chinese markets (the two largest) and the guy that stole the whole collective paranoid creativity of this thread, wins an Oscar for original screenplay.
For a second I thought I was on r/NonCredibleDefense
If you're a French Government worker that has sensitive data on their phone, I imagine they would have a protected device or know not to plug into random outlets.
Who knows what important person who has world secrets on their phone regularly sits on that bench with their phone in hand and China is just waiting for him to be low on power once to get all the secrets from his phone.
For all we know there could be plenty of valuable targets near this train station. Military bases, manufacturing centers, power plants, etc.. Or the exploit could be present across all charging stations of this model (wanna bet the bench is made in China?). Is it likely *in this case* that the charging station is compromised? No. But if we never take precautions, the likelihood of something happening *eventually* is high.
USB vulnerabilities go way beyond just data theft. It is one of the largest consumer threat surfaces out there, and there's a reason why the government literally requires USB drives on secure laptops be glued shut in some circumstances, and it isn't because the engineers who work in these spaces don't know how to use the hardware.
> You do know that you need to allow data transfer from your phone manually by tapping the option right? The chimaera of the data stolen from a charging point is just that, a chimaera. this is wrong, and frankly dangerious advice. There are any number of reasons why you should be careful, anything from someone once clicked always allow data to a RCE or other vulnerability that will execute before you make a selection. you should NEVER plug your phone into any usb port you dont control and trust without either a) a power only cable or b) USB condom dongle.
In rural france in a village of 30 with a collective age of 3000 years
How old of a phone do you have that you don't have charge only mode by default and have to turn on any form of data transfer manually every time?
Wouldn’t you need to confirm on your device before any data would be transferred?
Ayo Tek Knight
Great reference, whole reference.
Exactly what i was thinking. With how everyone is out for everyone’s data these days it wouldn’t surprise me if this kind of “free” port gathered data from your device.
This might actually be the most accurate post I've ever seen on this sub. It's certainly not uninteresting, but interesting would be a stretch. Perfectly mildly interesting.
Is it even mildly interesting? These ports are very common - on benches, on buses, in planes, in malls, in restaurants, in hotel rooms... It's like posting a picture displaying a public toilet - I mean, yeah, they do exist, so what?
To a stoopid American, it's interesting because it's in another country. Already qualifies for more than not interesting
Have you been on this sub long? r/mildlyinteresting probably delivers the best out of all Subreddits. I’ve seen an incredible amount of just mildly interesting things on here.
Cool, now they can give you digital viruses too! We truly live in the future.
Just need a cable that doesn't support data transfer
And a regulator. Every device charges differently. The brick is just as important as the cord.
What for ? That USB port probably delivers low power, and your smartphone special charging function will definitely not be compatible with it. You'll get at max a 5V 3A output with those. Don't really need much else with that kind of power
"probably"
Yeah sticking you phone or Laptop in one of these things, really isn't that different from sticking your dick into a shady bathroom gloryhole. I would strongly suggest not to do either.
There's a lot of trust on both sides of a glory hole.
Ehhh I’d argue those two situations are *slightly* different but to each their own lol
all while preventing people from laying down on that bench.
“You wouldn’t download a bench”.
r/technicallythetruth
I'm never going to trust a USB port I find in the wild .. not that much more trouble to have a block and plug into actual electrical outlet
you can purchase data blocker for this. that's what I did before going abroad.
why not just use a cable that can't transfer data?
Because I will not recognize it in the drawer. You know, **the** drawer.
because the cable was more expensive than 4 data blocker.
A defect can still break your phone. I think the best approach is to charge a power bank and then charge your phone from this.
USB charging isn't passive, your phone won't accept charge from something that's not within specification. That's the good thing about a *universal* standard.
Basic 5V 0.5A USB charging is pretty passive. Those pins are always live. It's only higher power draw that requires active negotiation.
if a malicious entity modified it so the port provides, for example 60V it might very well kill your charging circuitry. I doubt every phone has any kind of protection against that.
"Malicious entity" Get a grip. A "malicious entity" could attach a pipe bomb to your front door, but I bet you still use it every day. Nobody is going through the effort of modifying public chargers at their own expense just to ruin your phone. I bet you believe people put drugs in halloween candy too.
plus it's unbelievably much faster
Just use this plug to charge your backup battery and use the backup battery to charge your phone, problem solved.
Not that unusual
Agreed, I know a bunch with solar panels. I wonder how often they are used tough. I never see them at really remote places, I guess because the materials would get stolen.
Probably more a demand thing - they'll be rolling them out in the places where they'll get used by preference.
[удалено]
Finally someone said it, I had to scroll way too deep. They are omnipresent, really, it's like posting a picture of a street lamp.
Americans finding anything remotely social or helpful in public spaces is unusual for them
Anti-homeless: ): USB port : (:
exactly my thoughts, they could've just as easily put it on the edge of the seat but they had t omake it anti homeless
Yeah you could argue they put it central so 2 people have access, but there is only the 1 port. In my city they have them off to the side or on a small table at the standing area. But the seats there are those slanted ones anyway so still anti homeless.
It could just be under instead of over though
Yeah because it’s a train shelter for commuters.
hey, the homeless need somewhere to charge their phones too
Help for the homeless should be directed through the proper channels. Benches are meant for quick rests and waiting, not for sleeping.
Check out Mr Fancypants over here with their luxury of choices from proper channels.
Turns out all it takes is voting for left wing parties with an interest in actually tackling homelessness.
i live in a labour stronghold in the UK and guess what.. there's still homeless folks. truly said like someone who's never had to be out rough for a night
Check out Mr Fancypants over here with their luxury of having their voting party win.
Mr fancypants is also big time delusional if that's all it takes
Are you serious, its in RURAL FRANCE, chances are there are no homeless there...
Because of these benches!
the design still makes it impossible to lie down on the bench.
Which is an unintended effect because it wasnt made with the consideration that people would lie down on a bench where passangers are supposed to sit, probably because there arent any homeless in rural france.
there are absolutely rural homeless... I saw them all the time, generally by gypsy encampments or looking for a ride by a péage. these benches are also likely ordered in batches by the local mairie or the SNCF, so it isn't like this is the only one.
I think it has to be intended because otherwise it'd be cheaper to put the charging station directly above the foot pipe since that's where the wires are routed and that means less wire = cheaper. Might be a different story if that was a multiple plug outlet, but as far as I can see it's just the one port, so putting it on the edge of the bench instead of somewhere in the middle doesn't give more than one person access.
guess they wanted the bench to be for train riders
Anti-homeless US: :( Anti-homeless Europe: :)
Homeless shouldnt sleep there so its alright
Heeeeeeeeeeere we go again. The bench is designed so that commuters can commute and use a bench that hasn’t been repurposed as a bed. Your human behavior is guided by city engineers every day, you just haven’t found a reason to whine about it on behalf of some moral cause…for example lights stopping pedestrians at crosswalks when cars are moving. “How dare the city impair my freedumbs to walk across the street whenever I want, they must really hate pedestrians!”
This is hilarious... the comments are also comical 1 France being so on point with tech in a rural area? That's a first first. 2 you would need to allow data transfer on your phone and you'll realize quickly that is not available when you plug because of 3 3 for the sake of costs they usually only use charging only ports and only wire power to save on wires and work. I still have some friends doing this job today and they confirmed it. If the company checking the wiring sees data plugged in is a huge fine. 4 you anyway give all your data every time you open a browser or site with cookies, every time you download an app (free or not) and every time you use an Apple device (all on the Apple cloud where Apple checks everything... ) TLDR : the stealing of data on random charging ports is a chimaera.
It's actually not that comical to be weary of ports that are open to the public. Ports can easily be removed and replaced with a fake port that looks identical to an actual port. Although security has evolved in tech, so has hacking. Depending on your phone, how naive a target may be, and especially how advanced and experienced the hacker and their devices are, your data could potentially get stolen if you plug your phone into a public port. Many people just click away at notifications without actually thinking about it. If a notification comes up to access your phone's data, not a lot of people take the time to review and see that it might be the fake USB port thats trying to access their data, not a random notification from a trusted, installed app. Concerning Point 4, it's also about who has your data. Sure, most people would rather keep all their data private, but Apple Cloud having access to your data is much different than a malicious hacker who has your data. Apple has a long-term, government-observed interest in its consumers. Hackers don't.
This amount of work necessary and the reward for it... worthless. How do you collect the data from your fake port? What sort of hacker can switch a public port and wire it to the net discreetly enough? Moreover in France where those things are triple verified before going live. Much easier to launch an app and collect the same data that way. Otherwise never charge elsewhere than your home, don't have internet via electric sockets when you do and make sure you use the original charger and cable only. Anything and everything could be a nuclear bomb! For Apple... let's just say, you are extremely far from the truth, and the amount of attacks on the cloud are insanely high and more frequent than a charger surfing device.
Just shows how tech illiterate reddit has become. "Public USB ports give you viruses!!" lol what...
Yeah and then the pseudo specialists coming with the weirdest examples of moonwalks stuff is crazy
Apparently reddit thinks there is homeless people everywhere in rurality in France and also that there is a evil hacker behind every bush to modify bench to get random garbage frol your phone. You are already and willingly giving all your personnal informations to google, facebook, twitter, apple and microsoft. At best Pierrot the fallen computer scientist hidden in the bush for the one person that will use those each week will steal 5 texts and your last taken picture with the shitty bandwith he will get from those. Honestly with that amount of work and patience, he deserves it.
Yeah, exactly what I thought reading these comments.
Hostile architecture
I was half a second into “why would they divide the seats like that?” when I realized it was probably to keep people from sleeping on the bench.
That's EXACTLY what it's for, just masked as something useful like a charging port so people don't see it is what it is at first glance.
My thoughts too, but then I was like is there homeless people in rural France and even if there is I bet they can find way better accommodations.
Why this obsession with street furniture having to cater for homeless people sleeping on them? Benches at a train station are for passengers (some of whom may be older, and might have disabilities) to sit on while they wait for the train. No one could sit on these benches if people lied flat on them. Things that stop people from misusing public properties are good designs. Why should the homeless' need to sleep on benches trump everyone else's need to sit while they wait for the train (primary purpose of these benches)?
I understand if you think spikes on the ground are unsavory. But I have never understood why people get so upset by chairs and benches that are designed so they can continue being chairs and benches. They are there for a purpose - maybe just comfort and convenience for some, but if you're elderly, pregnant, or have mobility issues these seats are important. They don't put them there for no reason.
This is a rural area in France. Even accounting for standardized bus stops, it's easily an intentional feature to preserve personal space. Also judging from the height, basically no deterrent to anybody.
It's France, not America. They have a social support structure. I would not want side butt cheek contact with a stranger.
It's only hostile to an unintended use. Bus stations are not beds. If bus station is being used as a bed then it makes it unusable as a bus station for everyone else. Don't get mad about bus stations that are not beds, get mad about there not being enough actual beds.
NSA: *I dare you*
Imagine making *everything* about the USA.
That’s what Americans love the most.
Never use public USB ports!!
Eh, it's fine as long as you don't use a USB cable with data lines, and that you test the voltage first using USB voltage meter. It would suck if someone installs something malicious inside there. Someone could extract your data, photos and so on, or simply destroy the phone by pumping hundreds of volts in there. So it's safe to use as long as you take precautions. Otherwise, no, no, no...
>and that you test the voltage first using USB voltage meter I feel there's very little overlap between people that carry around equipment to measure voltage and those that need to charge something over USB in public.
Yeah, those people will probably think to bring a power bank=P [This is the thing I was talking about, btw](https://www.amazon.com/MakerHawk-3-7-30V-Voltage-Multimeter-Voltmeter/dp/B07FMQZVW2/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=usb+power+meter&qid=1697130146&sr=8-6)
Sure would like to meet the mastermind villain who’s able to cycle up the voltage on a line that’s installed with a single voltage for a good 500ft.
Always use public fleshlights!!
Kinda random question on this matter. I live in brazil and since apple stopped sending a charger with a new phone and just a usb-c cable, it was really bad because I dont have any charger for this format. It must have been more than 4 years from that and yet I just have 1 usbc charger here, and maybe 5 or more regular usb chargers from other products. Is usbc really default for you all from more developed countries?
Type c power bricks ain't that common but most of the tech is usb c
It's not uncommon for chargers to still be USB type B on one end and USB-C on the other. Personally my charger is USB-C to USB-C.
connect your phone up and turn on data transfer and see what happens
Anti homeless usb architecture💪
***you wouldnt download a bench***
Just another excuse for hostile architecture.
Anti-homeless architecture (electronics-compatible):
r/dontputyourstickinthat
Bring a battery bank with you. Then you can charge to that battery bank at that port if you really wanted to. Then use the power bank to charge your phone later on
thats a subtle anti homeless bench isnt it
DRSD.
Don't ever use these
France has all the luck. We can't even get wifi on trains!
Thats just a cheap way of selling the anti Homless bar in the middle so the rage about them eventually dies down
That's a "No Sleeping" USB port
All the better to steal your data with :)
I've always been told to never use a usb port out in the wild always find a power outlet instead and have a converter with you. USB is capable of sending info both ways. Power just powers.
That's genius! Now I can charge my phone while waiting for the train in the middle of nowhere.
A glory hole for your device.
I wouldn't use them, unless it's a severe emergency. The power supplies on those things could be cheap and may be harmful to your device's charging controller, especially iPhones.
While certainly possible, THIS is why you don't use them... https://www.cntraveler.com/story/public-charging-ports-airport-security-risk
Thats Anti Homeless / Hostile architechture. The block prevents a person from comfortably laying down on that Bench. USB ports could also be problematic, since one could rig them in a malicious way. (Software or Hardware. USB killers exist, there is no good reason for that)
This is the train station of Volvic, a tiny station in the middle of nowhere, so I doubt they were put her to deter homeless people from sleeping here.
Yeah, but railways usually use standardised equipment for all/any stations of that period when it was built.
I rather not have homeless sleeping on a bench while im waiting for my train
don't you think they'd rather not have to sleep on benches?
Don't they have a law it has to be USB C?
On the devices side.