Researchers Can Steal Data By Tracking A PC Monitor's Brightness

There are already ways to siphon data from computers without a network connection or old-fashioned physical theft, but this might be one of the cleverer examples. Researchers have found a way to steal data from "air-gapped" computers (that is, no way to connect to other devices) using an LCD's brightness. The approach has a compromised computer relay imperceptible changes in the LCD's RGB color values that a camera-equipped device can detect. You could theoretically trick someone into loading malware on the target system through a USB drive and use nearby hijacked security cameras to transmit that information.

Researchers Can Steal Data By Tracking A PC Monitor's Brightness

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This sounds like a technique out of science fiction, and its It's not fast, but it is rather an ingenious method of transferring data in rather an undetectable covert manner.

The changes are imperceptible, meaning its almost impossible to map it with the naked eye, thus it requires a camera-equipped device to detect.

Theoretically speaking, you could also trick someone into loading malware on their computer through a USB drive and use nearby security cameras, that have been hacked, to relay the relevant data.

Easier way is to take a picture of the screen.

Of what use is a method of stealing data from a computer when you have to have a device physically in the room with it and looking at it to work?

a reply to: beyondknowledge

I'm sure there will be some nefarious purpose that someone will devise to capitalize on this type of data transfer, hence the reason its been devised, not that i don't take your point.

Yeah. Let's use this for devious purposes instead of a new way to communicate with space craft or uavs... transmitting information at the speed of light

a reply to: TheGhoul

Currently, most of our data travels through either copper wire or fiber optic cable. Even when we send data via our cell phones over radio waves, which also travel at light speed, it ends up traversing the wired networks of the Internet at some point, but we can indeed transmit information at lightspeed, just not faster than light.

a reply to: beyondknowledge

I think what they mean is that the "victim" would unknowingly install malware that would send the targeted data to the screen via undetectable brightness fluctuations, which would be read by the camera. The image on the display isn't what they're after. I think.

This group seem to release 'new' methods every now and again and they generally follow similar methods and while they work in theory they probably wouldn't work in real life as you have to get the receiver very close to the air gapped machine which probably for anything important would be in a locked room.

The data transfer rates of stuff via these methods is normally very low meaning it would take ages to read something and it would only take someone to walk in front of the monitor or turn it off and you are stuffed.

a reply to: andy06shake

im shocked this is news

this has been a well known thing that if you can remotely read the data stream in at least some way you could reproduce what was on the targets screen


old monitors put pout allot of RF data.

a reply to: TheGhoul
You mean radio? The thing that travels at the speed of light and isn't rendered useless by clouds.

originally posted by: Maxatoria
This group seem to release 'new' methods every now and again and they generally follow similar methods and while they work in theory they probably wouldn't work in real life as you have to get the receiver very close to the air gapped machine which probably for anything important would be in a locked room.

The data transfer rates of stuff via these methods is normally very low meaning it would take ages to read something and it would only take someone to walk in front of the monitor or turn it off and you are stuffed.

unless you were putting something into the system you were hacking, sometimes its not always about getting things out but rather in.

First thing I thought of when reading the OP:

Van Eck phreaking

Van Eck phreaking (also known as Van Eck Radiation) is a form of eavesdropping in which special equipment is used to pick up side-band electromagnetic emissions from electronic devices that correlate to hidden signals or data for the purpose of recreating these signals or data in order to spy on the electronic device. Side-band electromagnetic radiation emissions are present in (and with the proper equipment, can be captured from) keyboards, computer displays, printers, and other electronic devices.

In 1985, Wim van Eck published the first unclassified technical analysis of the security risks of emanations from computer monitors. This paper caused some consternation in the security community, which had previously believed that such monitoring was a highly sophisticated attack available only to governments; van Eck successfully eavesdropped on a real system, at a range of hundreds of metres, using just $15 worth of equipment plus a television set.

a reply to: andy06shake
Researchers Can Steal Data By Tracking A PC Monitor's Brightness.

What if your monitor is a bit on the dumb side??

Joking aside, I found the story really interesting.