Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#1

Post by GW150914 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 1:43 PM UTC

Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands
nytimes.com

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#2

Post by NyrIsNotDead » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

Anything with a mic attached has the same problem, why is it special if it’s something from Amazon or Apple?

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#3

Post by TeMPOraL » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:44 PM UTC

NyrIsNotDead wrote: post #2

Anything with a mic attached has the same problem, why is it special if it’s something from Amazon or Apple?

1) You have no control over it, a third party in the cloud does.

2) Scale of deployment.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#4

Post by CurtHagenlocher » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:44 PM UTC

NyrIsNotDead wrote: post #2

Anything with a mic attached has the same problem, why is it special if it’s something from Amazon or Apple?

Most things with attached microphones aren't using them as a command port.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#5

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:44 PM UTC

NyrIsNotDead wrote: post #2

Anything with a mic attached has the same problem, why is it special if it’s something from Amazon or Apple?

The main concern would be that these voice assistants are designed to auto activate on that audio and can do everything from make purchases for you to activating devices in your home.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#6

Post by Jun8 » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:50 PM UTC

The interesting thing is that Google Assistant has teh same problem, it's right there in the subtitle. It's interesting that it was omitted from the main title.

Rather than journalistic oversight I think this verifies what people have commented many times: that the fact that GA does not have a personalized name makes it to refer to it. SO much so that a very distant third product is included rather than GA.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#7

Post by ColanR » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:54 PM UTC

This kind of thing has been on HN before...the new thing here is that the command is embedded in a human-audible sound clip.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#8

Post by newsbinator » Thu, May 10, 2018, 2:56 PM UTC

I can't get Siri to turn on the flashlight or lock my phone.

What can Siri do that's dangerous?

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#9

Post by exodust » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:04 PM UTC

I hadn't thought of this, it's quite concerning. I don't see how they can safeguard against this without reducing the effectiveness of the voice recognition.

A secret command to "paste clipboard into new email, send to [address]" is a shiny new attack vector without any apparent straight forward way to plug the security hole.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#10

Post by djrogers » Thu, May 10, 2018, 3:06 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #9

I hadn't thought of this, it's quite concerning. I don't see how they can safeguard against this without reducing the effectiveness of the voice recognition. A secret command to "paste clipboard into new email, send to [address]" is a shiny new attack vector without any apparent straight forward way to plug the security hole.

The obvious plug would be to not allow such a ridiculously unsafe command without requiring you to unlock your device, much like my iPhone does today.