Computers can be hacked with high-frequency sounds

Using the microphones and speakers that come standard in many of today's laptop computers and mobile devices, hackers can secretly transmit and receive data using high-frequency audio signals that are mostly inaudible to human ears, a new study shows.

Computers can be hacked with high-frequency sounds

This truly blows my mind. I work in the industry. This is the type of things I study. Now, I can envision an entirely new generation of viruses relaying via soundwaves instead of the traditional network system.

Imagine, your keystrokes transmitted to your neighborshouse... that's your login, your password, your credit card information in some cases.

Scary stuff indeed. Time to start figuring out ways to fight it.

reply to post by TLomon


I'll buy a dog and chain it after the computer.

If he freaks, I'll at least know something is happening...

---

It is now time to create micro and speaker muffs. There could be money to be made there.

reply to post by TLomon


They should repeat those Tests with: Ultrasonic Rodent Repellents or something similar.

AND

On Another Note ... "WiFi"-Units :

List the MAC-Addresses inside the "WiFi"-Unit(s) that are allowed to have access.

Remember, there is ONLY ONE "Physical" MAC-Address on the planet for each network-device ...

However, MAC-Addresses can be duplicated ... BUT an "Authorized" MAC-Address configured/listed in the "WiFi"-Unit(s) would need to be discovered beforehand/1st ...

Therefore, Administrator-Passwords to the "WiFi"-Unit(s) SHOULD be of High-Quality.

For What It's Worth ...

reply to post by TLomon


The exploit requires Mal SW to be installed on two machines and for those two machines to be nearby each other right?

Good for covertly targeting fixed infrastructure like a Nuclear research facility

For the rest of us in consumer land, there seems to be no new threat. Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is a more effective and accessible medium to exchange data covertly.

Help me out if I've erred in this reasoning.

reply to post by InverseLookingGlass


You are correct.

This sort of thing would require the 2 systems to have been previously infected before.

This air gap would be perfect for sending commands to infected systems that have no internet connectivity from an infected system with internet connectivity.

reply to post by TLomon



This is far from the first time that such a thing has been posted here.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

And heres one that references both the other threads:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Just FYI!

TLomon

This truly blows my mind. I work in the industry. This is the type of things I study. Now, I can envision an entirely new generation of viruses relaying via soundwaves instead of the traditional network system.

Tell me; just what is it that you do in the "industry"? One would think that you would know at least a little about Electronics, etc. And, you should know that the frequency response of the speakers and microphones in small electronic devices (laptops, tablets, phones) is among the worst / narrowest in existence. One of the reasons I would never listen to music, or anything that need frequeny response on those devices. Hell, even my PC is connected to "serious" audio equipment.

Plus there is the part about; no software! And of course there we get sent back to the part about how the hardware won't respond well to higher frequencies, never mind ultrasonic (above 20k HZ). Did you know that a 20,000 HZ signal can be neither picked up by your laptop/phone, nor reproduced (properly)?

As a computer professional you should know these things.

Plus the added bother of having to take over and reprogram the codec and keep the system from overwriting the changes, plus you'd need a driver stack attached to the codec for doing network communications, something there's no hardware to help with like there is in the Ethernet part, so you have to do it brute force.

Hell, there's not even any interrupt structure, not so much as a helpful shift register to store any incoming bits, you're going to have to DSP the whole thing with some sort of polled background task that's constantly munching on the incoming and outgoing data whilst still maintaining some level of usability as a speaker and microphone, lest the user spot the thing by the fact that the sound I/O is dead.

So, no, you can have a pair of computers that are already infected that communicate, if that helps in some way, although I'd think you could spot it by the very high CPU usage, but you could in no way infect a virgin system by beeping at it.

The title of the article isn't even accurate. Computers can NOT be hacked with high frequency sounds, end of story. What they are claiming in the article is that already infected computers can communicate with each other using high frequency sounds. They are claiming the infection could be spread by USB keys not by sounds.

tanka418
Tell me; just what is it that you do in the "industry"? One would think that you would know at least a little about Electronics, etc. And, you should know that the frequency response of the speakers and microphones in small electronic devices (laptops, tablets, phones) is among the worst / narrowest in existence. One of the reasons I would never listen to music, or anything that need frequeny response on those devices. Hell, even my PC is connected to "serious" audio equipment.

Nothing to do with audio. I am far from being an audiophile with even my music. I work on network security, which could be compromised if a computer on that network is compromised. IT works on the individual computers. Heck, I even have the sound turned off on my work computers because there is already enough background noise.

Because I don't normally care about audio, there has been no reason to for me to learn about it any further than sound working on a game at home that my kids play.

PhoenixOD
The title of the article isn't even accurate.

Although I agree with you, I need to follow the rules of the forum which is to copy the exact name of the news article. When I've tried correcting it in the past to accurately reflect the article, I get a nasty-gram from a mod.

I wasnt getting at you personally but the source article you have made the thread from.

so, type quieter when putting in your credit card info?

reply to post by Biigs


Or always have music on when you are on the computer lol

Please contribute additional comments to previously existing thread located here.

Thanks

thread closed.