Have you ever wondered how power is routed around your phone, how it is stored and if it could be made dangerous? I have, and I somehow talked the DARPA Cyber Fast Track group into funding my research into the subject and allowing me to name it: "Project Burner: El Telefono Inteligente de Fuego." The overall goal of the project was: "Can I catch a phone on fire using nothing but the stored energy in the battery?" and / or "Can I break it beyond repair?". The answer was a resounding "yes."
This talk will center around how the Android (and Linux) kernels manage power and electricity, both from the wall and the battery. I will cover how those software based controls can be manipulated to fry internal components and brick phones in abundance. I will also walk through what protections have been put in place to prevent these types of attacks and how those mechanisms can be circumvented.
Also, I might just break a phone or two...