Photo: Dark_Purple / Habrahabr.ru

A Habrahabr user writing under the pseudonym Dark_Purple claims to have designed and created a flash drive capable of destroying a computer, when inserted into its USB port.

Dark_Purple got the idea for the USB stick after misreading a story on the website Bash.im, where a man claimed to have stolen a memory board that wrecked his computer’s motherboard, when he tried to install it. Dark_Purple thought the story was about a flash drive, not a memory board, and he wondered if it was possible to create such a device.

After designing a prototype in about a week, he ordered a new USB circuit board and installed his “armed” version of the device. The finished product is the same size as an ordinary flash drive, mounted inside a similar-looking case.

The device operates by emitting through USB voltage input channels enough electricity to overwhelm a computer’s voltage regulator, permanently “frying” its vital components. What Dark_Purple’s device burns out specifically differs from case to case, though he says he didn’t conduct extensive tests on different machines, for obvious reasons. “Whatever I could fry for tests, I fried successfully. But it would be a waste to wreck a bunch of working computers,” Dark_Purple explained.

