Researchers build charger that can hack iPhone

If you think you've installed enough security apps on your iPhone to thwart hackers, think again: the attack may be coming from your seemingly innocent charger.

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology said they modified a charger to inject malware to the iPhone.

"(D)espite the plethora of defense mechanisms in iOS, we successfully injected arbitrary software into current-generation Apple devices running the latest operating system (OS) software. All users are affected, as our approach requires neither a jailbroken device nor user interaction," Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang, and Chengyu Song said.

They said the proof-of-concept charger, dubbed Mactans, shows how "innocent-looking, malicious USB chargers can be constructed."

Worse, they said Mactans could be built with a relatively small amount of time and a small budget.

Tech site Gizmodo said Mactans, named after the Black Widow spider, uses a small onboard computer based on a Texas Instruments BeagleBoard costing $45 to do the job.

"While the resulting charger measures three inches square—bigger than your average power supply—it's still a worrisome proof of concept which could easily be squeezed into a smaller form factor if required, just at higher cost," it said.

For its part, The Next Web said this could make users reconsider their mindset that malware comes only via obscure apps, unexpected emails and suspicious links.

"As always, think twice about borrowing anything that can connect with your personal devices... especially suspicious-looking chargers...," it said.  — LBG, GMA News