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At least 8 killed, 2,800 injured as Hezbollah pagers simultaneously explode - reports (www.i24news.tv)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Warning: Graphic images

Article title updated

Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Loses One Eye, Seriously Damages Other in Pager Explosion, New York Times

Mojtaba Amani, according to the publication, is being evacuated to Iran for treatment. It is noted that before the explosion, the pagers emitted a beep, which prompted many to bring the devices to their faces.

The attack was probably carried out by Israeli intelligence services, which planted explosives in about 5,000 pagers, Reuters reports. Of these, about 3,000 exploded. A senior source in Lebanon told the agency that the devices were planted by the Israeli spy service "at the production level." "The Mossad inserted a circuit board containing explosive material into the device, which receives a code. It is very difficult to detect by any means. Even with any device or scanner," the source said.

The day before, 4,000 people were injured in Lebanon, 11 of whom were killed as a result of pager explosions. Reuters writes that hundreds of members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, including fighters and medics, were seriously injured due to explosions of pagers, which they use for secret communication.

https://t.me/astrapress/64588

A second wave of explosions today

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (12 children)

I'm kind of guessing, from the strength of the explosion in the video -- it really was a small explosion, not bursting into flames -- that somehow rigged pagers were inserted into Hezbollah's equipment prior to distribution to operatives.

But if this was, instead, some kind of remote software compromise of battery management system firmware for lithium batteries, now I have one more thing to worry about in my life, with all the devices with lithium batteries I have.

looks warily at laptop on my chest

EDIT: Strengthening my concerns, in the CNN article I linked to in my other comment, the devices were termed "hacked" by Lebanese internal security forces. Now, okay, that's a report immediately after the event, and I don't know how much time they have had to actually do analysis. Or if they're right. But:

NNA reported that “hacked” pager devices exploded in the towns of Ali Al-Nahri and Riyaq in Lebanon’s central Beqaa valley, resulting in a significant number of injuries. The locations are Hezbollah strongholds.

...it sure doesn't assuage my concerns at all. Even if you couldn't make a BMS discharge lithium batteries hard enough to explode, you definitely can make them do so hard enough to make a pretty unpleasant fire. You do that with numerous laptop-sized devices all over a country, that'd potentially be a pretty unpleasant event.

sighs

Maybe it's possible to mandate that lithium-ion devices conforming to some sort of safety certification standard, like UL or something, have non-updatable-firmware hardware putting a physical limit on discharge rate. I don't think that that'd add too much cost or too many restrictions to devices.

EDIT2: From this YouTube video, it sounds like as long as you're not using sketchy battery cells in the device you're building, that battery manufacturers already take this into consideration via a blowout hole:

Even in the event of a short circuit, genuine lithium-ion batteries have several protective measures to prevent them from catching on fire. Take a look at this lithium-ion that was just shorted out. In the unlikely case that a battery short-circuits, the terminals heat up and the electrolyte fluid begins to boil. The vent holes in the top of the terminal allow the battery to depressurize the electrolyte steam, thereby reducing the battery capacity and making a pressure explosion much less likely. In the end, you're more-likely to see a small fire shoot out of a battery than a large explosion. While they still can cause damage, it's a much better option than having a battery explode, which results in a shrapnel cloud. But in counterfeit batteries, this vent hole safety valve is often ineffective.

All that being said, I wouldn't be surprised if I have some devices with sketchy cells...but my guess is that at least in my collection, when it comes to large-battery-capacity, Internet-connected devices capable of firmware updates, stuff like laptops, they're probably -- hopefully -- using legit battery cells.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I wonder whether they exploded exactly at the same time. If so, it seems less likely it would have been an attack via the batteries since you wouldn't expect them all to heat up and explode at the exact same rate.

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