Any security risk for letting stranger use your spare portable battery pack?

[Ovae]

Except for them not giving it back and stealing it I guess.

[Chill-Out-Zone]

nope.

[_I_]

unless they break it

they have protections to prevent over and under charging
more cycles is better for lipo/liion cells, or keeping them at ~3.6-3.8v/cell for storage

keeping them fully charged 4.2v/ or dead <3v/cell is what damages them the most

[Haruspex]

They could fail to return it. Then you would be out a spare battery pack.

Or if you want to be extra-paranoid, they could swap it for an identical looking one that's been modified to install malware on the next USB device you plug in. This would require them to target you specifically ahead of time and know exactly which battery pack you have though.

[brutus_teh_tank]

on it, there is just current, not binary data...not any.

[Supafly]

No, it has 0 data stored on it

[🦜Cloud Boy🦜]

yes, there is security risk.
battery pack can be hacked and he can get all your personal confidential secret data.
And you will be as good as dead.

pls save your life, don't lend your battery pack to anyone.

[[N]ebsun]

Possibly, is it's a USB charger then it's possibly to modify it to add data connections to whatever they like.. similar to how something that looks like a normal "USB drive" can load malware to your PC.

but it's very unlikely they are actually going to try anything like that..

[brutus_teh_tank]

Originally posted by 🦆Cloud Boy🦆:

yes, there is security risk.
battery pack can be hacked and he can get all your personal confidential secret data.
And you will be as good as dead.

pls save your life, don't lend your battery pack to anyone.

Originally posted by Nebsun:

Possibly, is it's a USB charger then it's possibly to modify it to add data connections to whatever they like.. similar to how something that looks like a normal "USB drive" can load malware to your PC.

but it's very unlikely they are actually going to try anything like that..

sorry...i dont see it like this. i dont want to be offensive. thank you for reading.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by Marcus:

sorry...i dont see it like this

Never heard about juice jacking or bad USB devices ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juice_jacking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BadUSB

Anything that you connect your device to carries potential risk - there are ways to mitigate it, but things like this are possible and have been done in the past. A bad USB is probably more of a threat, easier to do and more common.

[DevaVictrix]

What’s the battery pack for? I wouldn’t plug my phone into one that isn’t mine… who knows what’s going through that data cable.

[Callahan420]

Let's be super paranoid and think about them installing a mic and video cam in it which will be powered 24/7. Watching what you do and where you go. Oh wait they already do that with cell phones.

[Agent]

They could place a tracker on the battery. Aside from that, not really.

[plat]

A stranger? Hmmm, just from a sanitary standpoint, if he or she is desperate, I would just give it to 'em.

If you happen to get this pack back, sanitize it with some alcohol or something--making sure it doesn't dry out the plastic too much.

This pack wouldn't have any direct contact with the internet so I would not worry about that aspect. There is malicious software that can infect the general firmware of the machine but this is still so rare in occurrence and is generally used in cyber warfare or special targeted attacks.

I just wouldn't want it back, though. Yuck.

[_I_]

walmart had some 5000mah banks on clearance for $5

[brutus_teh_tank]

Originally posted by Nebsun:

Originally posted by Marcus:

sorry...i dont see it like this

Never heard about juice jacking or bad USB devices ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juice_jacking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BadUSB

Anything that you connect your device to carries potential risk - there are ways to mitigate it, but things like this are possible and have been done in the past. A bad USB is probably more of a threat, easier to do and more common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_hardware#Connectors

usb (A) has four pins. 5V / Data- /Data+ / Ground.
what does this mean in case you connect a cellphone loading thing? it means that the two pins "5 Volt" and "Ground" are the only pins that must be connected to the loading plug/thing whatever it is called. the powersystem that loads the battery of a cellphone doesnt have anything else connected to your cellphone. the pins data+ and data- are simply offline. nothing gets through the cable. thats the whole story. feel free to ask me questions.
i dont want to be offensive. i am sorry.