51–60 of 67 posts
How is javascript playing ultrasound not seen as an attack on the user? In what world is that ever a sane thing to do?
I've got scuba-diving computers that need special cables to sync with my PC: if they could sync with nothing more than a webpage and speakers, that would be pretty neat.
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FWIW, there was a BBC article about always-on audio detector apps. Describing an Android proof-of-concept app: "The battery drain during our experiments was minimal and, using wi-fi, there was no data plan spike." http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35639549
They don't give much information on what "minimal" battery drain means. I'm skeptical. Keeping an app running in the background and keeping a stream of audio data piped into it to be processed on the CPU is not cheap. Google has a dedicated DSP on phones to do hotword detection (among other things), and IIRC that's not exposed to unprivileged apps. Hell, even iOS needs to be charging to get "hey siri" support (not su…
I read about a lot of you security people talking about the difference between a physical switch turning off your wifi vs a software switch, does anything like that apply to this?
A physical switch is for surety and peace of mind, whereas a software switch you have to be careful, because I don't trust my machine's OS to keep the speakers muted, no matter how much the chain of trust has not been compromised, there's always a weak link somewhere. Physical switches or death.
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FWIW, there was a BBC article about always-on audio detector apps. Describing an Android proof-of-concept app: "The battery drain during our experiments was minimal and, using wi-fi, there was no data plan spike." http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35639549
They don't give much information on what "minimal" battery drain means. I'm skeptical. Keeping an app running in the background and keeping a stream of audio data piped into it to be processed on the CPU is not cheap. Google has a dedicated DSP on phones to do hotword detection (among other things), and IIRC that's not exposed to unprivileged apps. Hell, even iOS needs to be charging to get "hey siri" support (not su…
Having said that, quite a few people have their phones connected to wifi at home, which could mitigate these issues due to both less conspicuous data and power usage.
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Technically lowpass :)
Ahh but what about sub sonic messages? Slow datarate to be sure but definitely possible. If there's any monkey business going on with my audio, I want it in the range where I can hear it!
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And I'm not sure there is anything stopping a Tap from listening without you knowing.
Any device that is listening all the time can be storing and sending anything you said. How would you know if it's encrypted? There has GOT TO BE a better way. Such as a filter made by independent manufacturers that opens the sound channel only when you say a specific phrase such as "OK Google" and closes it when you press a button or stop speaking. And an indicator would be visible when it's actually listening. The…
If outbound traffic levels are the same when you're using it as when you're not, it's probably bugging you? Of course a smarter arrangement would reschedule traffic to coincide with use...
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TorBrowser has JS on by default I thought.
No. That would be reckless and would compromise Tor Browser Bundle from the outset. By default, the NoScript plugin disallows JS from running globally
Maybe so, but I think the GP is correct. At least, it was true a year or so ago.
I read about a lot of you security people talking about the difference between a physical switch turning off your wifi vs a software switch, does anything like that apply to this?
A physical switch is for surety and peace of mind, whereas a software switch you have to be careful, because I don't trust my machine's OS to keep the speakers muted, no matter how much the chain of trust has not been compromised, there's always a weak link somewhere. Physical switches or death.
Theoretically, there's no reason to trust a physical switch more than a software switch, unless you've opened the computer and verified that the physical switch breaks all circuits to all wifi radios. The physical switch could merely control software, or it might control one connection to one radio but not others.
Are cheapo mic and speakers even capable of operating at those frequencies?