Lockdown mode in Android 15 protects your phone from ‘juice jacking’
These covert attacks could soon be a thing of the past.
JoriPress
- Android 15 is adding a built-in mechanism to protect your device from “juice jacking” attacks.
- Charging will be allowed when lockdown mode is enabled in Android 15, but USB data access will not.
- Juice jacking is a largely theoretical problem you don’t really need to worry about, but it’s still nice that Android will protect you against it.
You may have heard of a problem called “juice jacking” recently. It’s a hacking method that involves secretly sending data payloads from a USB cable that you think is only charging your device. These data payloads can theoretically compromise your device or cause it to take some action unbeknownst to you. However, in reality, the threat of juice jacking is so minimal to almost be ignorable, but if you’re still wary of public charging stations, Android 15 has you covered.
Juice jacking takes advantage of the fact that most devices don’t block USB data signaling, i.e., data being transferred over USB, by default. That means that, while on the surface, a USB cable you plug your phone into might seem innocuous, in reality it might be attempting to send some payload to commandeer your device. That payload could consist of keyboard commands that try to brute force the lock screen and then install and launch some malicious app, or it could trigger an exploit in the USB protocol or take advantage of the way USB data is handled by certain components.
