Inside a low budget consumer hardware espionage implant (2018)

The S8 data line locator is a GSM listening and location device hidden inside the plug of a standard USB data/charging cable. A SMS message log could look like this:

Calling the S8 data line locator for 10 seconds establishes a call and allows you to listen to the microphone feed from the device. The DP and DM pads are instead routed to the MT6261MA processor as illustrated here:

Next, a USB cable must be soldered to these connectors as follows:

The device will then be recognized as an MediaTek phone USB endpoint with the following data:

This is often called the “MTK boot repair”, “MTK DM DP flash”, etc.

Source: ha.cking.ch