It turns out that borrowing someone’s iPhone charger can do more than just give your phone “life.”

Three researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are soon expected to unveil a proof-of-concept charger that they say can be used to invisibly install malware on Apple’s iOS latest devices. The trio, who are using their knowledge for good, are expected to show off their creation at the Black Hat security conference in July at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

The results of the experiment, according to the conference website are  “alarming. Despite the plethora of defense mechanisms in iOS, we successfully injected arbitrary software into current-generation Apple devices running the latest operating system (OS) software … all users are affected, as our approach requires neither a jailbroken device nor user interaction.”

“Scary” might be another description for the situation, according to the researchers; Billy Lau, Yeongjin Jang, and Chengyu Song, who named their malicious charger “Mactans” apparently after the extremely venomous Black Widow spider. The “Mactans” was built off a $45 Texas Instruments BeagleBoard, showing how easily malicious USB chargers can be made, and it was also created in a limited amount of time, the researchers noted.

While a BeagleBoard, measuring three-inches, can’t fit into Apple’s smaller power adapters, it could be tucked away in a docking station or combined to be part of the external battery. More sophisticated devices could be built with something a little pricier than the BeagleBoard, the researchers said.

It doesn’t take long for an attack to do damage either, the researchers noted, as it only takes 60 seconds to compromise an IOS device running the most recent version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Once the malware infection takes hold it will be difficult to locate.

IOS hackers have already been busy attempting to jailbreak devices in order to remove Apple’s default restrictions on devices. A group in February managed to wipe out the device’s security measures by exploiting a flaw in IOS’ mobile backup system. They also found four other bugs to take advantage of.

IOS users reportedly went on to hack their iPhones, iPads and iPod touches 18 million times before an Apple update in March put a stop to their hacking efforts. Apple, despite not publicly commenting on the research, is expected to move quickly on the findings in an effort to stop potential problems.

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