Will Xbox One X survive a USB-Killer?

It's an interesting question. There are many crooks out there and this is an educational education, rather than a post designed to encourage such an attack.

Has Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, paid attention to this growing issue with attacks on lots of day-to-day used items via USB to tablets/PC's/Xbox One S is apparently not protected either. Microsoft loves spamming us with long updates every
month. Do they provide operating system or BIOS updates to Xbox One and will they for Xbox One X. I heard USB 3.0 or later, may be immune to this threat.

Anyone who does this to another person's equipment and if caught, can be legally prosecuted. But this is a concern for those who want to buy "the most powerful console" ever, when it comes out 7/11/2017. Apparently PS4 Pro, Sony is aware and attentive to
this threat, and PS4 Pro is immune to it, because of the choice of hardware.

It's an educational video that came across me this afternoon. And people including large reputable companies including Microsoft, most definetly shouldn't be turning a blind eye to this issue. After all, your brother or sister or flatmate or friend or whatever,
could one day do this to you. And with the amount of updates we get from Microsoft, surely the Microsoft operating system which ought to have security measures in place, should be protecting against this. And believe me people, this threat is real. Never versions
of USB hardware provide protection against this. Food for thought.

:)

 

Can i use a monitor with USB on xbox one x

Can i use a usb monitor on xbox one x

 

USB ports on XBOX One X not working properly?

I see that the old forums have gone away and at last check my problem received 0 responses, so here it is again.

I won an Xbox One X from Mountain Dew last year (Yay me). Well my setup on OG Xbox One was two USB hubs daisy chained from one Xbox One USB back port charging Xbox one, PS4 and PS3 controllers. When moving my setup to the Xbox One X, the USB ports will
charge the Sony controllers for a time but eventually stop until the Xbox One X is hard reset. The Cronus Max will also not work when the xbox is in this condition and all the USB ports behave this way. Is this a design flaw? Intended behavior? The time
varies. Sometimes it will charge controllers for weeks, sometimes hours. USB hard drives do not have an issue.

Thanks all.

 

If this is to educate - why don't you educate us then?

You just claim a lot of things about threats.

What is it about?

You have settings like turning off autoplay of usb devices and stuff.

What is activated is governed by the class of the usb device. Is it memory disk, is it a device for audio etc.

And it all is controlled by OS software drivers.

How is choice of hardware make a diffference in this - if there is a threat?

I think Xbox is safe in this sense since some usb devices I have, that need to install software drivers - does not work on Xbox One at least.

You must not believe everything you see, read or hear on the internet.

Always ask who the sender is - disinformation from Sony about Xbox?

Somebody selling new anti-virus-threat software?

Overall I'm stumped that MS has not learned to build safe OS to begin with - after MSDOS 30+ years ago.

All these updates they force on people having ever changing machines that cause various software you use daily stop working.

 

The USB Killer is not a software that tries to take over a machine. The USB Killer is an USB stick that charges a capacitor, and then releases 200 Volts into a the USB port of the device it's being plugged into.

If the manufacturer hasn't shielded their USB Ports from electrostatic discharge, running on a carpet and then accidentally touching an USB port of your device might cause a spark from your fingers to hit a data contact on the USB port, damaging your device
if not properly shielded.

The USB Killer claims to be a testing device for this scenario, so you don't have to find a suitable carpet and running up and down on it with plastic boots.

If the datalines are properly shielded, nothing will happen. If the manufacturer was lazy, the 200 Volts will damage or destroy the device the USB Killer is plugged into.

So even if you have locked down the USB ports of your device in the BIOS settings for example, so it wouldn't let any USB device communicate with your PC for example, the USB Killer would still damage the PC, as it doesn't try to send data or something.
It just pumps an insane amount of Voltage through the USB port.

 

How about this, perhaps people should take responsibility for their own hardware and maybe, just maybe not plug in a dodgy looking USB device that they don't specifically know what it is.

It isn't like the Xbox is a portable device that you can leave lying around, its a console that for most people stays under their TV.

 

So I receive a mysterious USB mailed to me by a random bad guy who assumes I own a Xbox or said bad guy breaks into my home and instead of stealing Xbox puts USB into Xbox.

Really?????

I know what I'll do. I'm going to plug this into my Xbox One and see what happens.

Educational value gained --- 0

 

Another hilarious thread as always...

Since I'm not in the habit of allowing a stranger to come into my house and plug a usb into my Xbox, I'm just gonna say I'll be ok. lol

This is just beyond stupid to me. I can't imagine this happening to any one with a brain.

I can understand why "some people" are concerned.

 

Glad i'm not the only one who was thinking this.

If your dumb enough to let someone plug something dodgy into your console without checking to see what it is first then maybe you deserve for it to get bricked.

 

Our house has a monitored security alarm for when no one is at home. As skybird knows, we have a cat, but the sensors are like pet friendly which don't trigger an alarm. But yea, someone could break into your house, hunt for your gadgets, plug in a killer,
and literally kill your device for an expensive repair or replacement bill. My brother if he tried a thing would likely get grounded for a year.

I think they should consider USB protection against such potential attacks. You never know what could happen tomorrow. Someone could break into your house and plug a USB Killer in your stuff. Manufacturers already manufacturer stuff which protects against
said attacks. You don't want to say one day Xbox One X doesn't need it, and then the next day, bam.... maybe they should have thought about that in their hardware planning. It's like why do laptop manufacturers have Kingston lock thingy on it. It's so that
shops can display laptops which make it slower for thieves to steal it from the shop. Microsoft should have this kind of safety feature for Xbox, especially against USB Killers. Said devices are actually pretty cheap too. Any kid could get their hands on one.

 

Seriously?

If someone breaks into your house they aren't going to do it to plug usb devices into your xbox.

They'll steal the xbox & whatever else they can.

I honestly can't believe some of the things that get posted on here sometimes.

 

QFT

 

lol... because when someone breaks into a home they are there to destroy your Xbox because they don't want you to play games. I can't think of a stupider reason to break into a house. This is where I lol again.

I'd love to see statistics showing how many people have broke into a house to stick a usb into a gaming console. lol

 

The answer is likely that it will not survive a USB Killer.

In this video EverythingApplePro tries a USB Killer on the Xbox One S and it kills the console stone dead. I can't see Microsoft adding more protection as it would bump up costs even more.



In fairness it also kills the PS4 Pro.

 

In the interests of sharing an "educational education", if a crook was that intent on causing malicious damage to a console of whichever persuasion, and had the sheer temerity/stupidity to break and enter the owner's house, wouldn't it be just as easy to
take that console and drop it out the nearest window? Or even smash it up in a juvenile tirade thus ensuring there would be no THUMBPRINTS left on the thumb drive? Because, hey, it's OBVIOUS that somebody left a USB killer in da house!