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Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

nytimes.com

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Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#51

Post by freehunter »

djsumdog wrote: post #34
Shivetya wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me it kills all desire to have a voice assistant. I am already in the camp of taping over the camera's in my computers now will I need to worry about the microphone or what comes from the speakers? so the question is, shouldn't they be able to detect the wavelength of what they are processing to weed out some of the more obvious tricks? with voice recognition could it also not be limited to a voice it is trained…

I don't bother taping over stuff. If you think about it, there are probably 10+ microphones in your room (Samsung TVs, phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) I run 3rd party roms, Linux on all my dev/tv machines, disable Cortana on my gaming laptop, and hope there isn't something listening in all that trusted, untrusted and oss code I'm running. I told my roommate I'd move out if he ever got an Alexa or Google home device.…

You should bother taping over cameras you're not using though. It's way too easy to hijack them and keep the light from turning on when you do.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#52

Post by rootusrootus »

hunter2_ wrote: post #47
rootusrootus wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes it works great. Sometimes I can't get Siri to do anything right. Anecdotally I've found that Google's voice assistant is quite a lot better. Unfortunately I am unwilling to accept the rest of Google's terms and conditions so I am stuck with Siri for the foreseeable future.

I disagree with the terms of plenty of things that I use anyway, and I ain't dead yet. I do realize that it could jeopardize me in the future, but the convenience outweighs most of my cares. It's horrible, really. I imagine it's how smokers with no intention of quitting feel.

Ha! Every time I pick up a big juicy cheeseburger...

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#53

Post by jonknee »

freehunter wrote: post #51
djsumdog wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't bother taping over stuff. If you think about it, there are probably 10+ microphones in your room (Samsung TVs, phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) I run 3rd party roms, Linux on all my dev/tv machines, disable Cortana on my gaming laptop, and hope there isn't something listening in all that trusted, untrusted and oss code I'm running. I told my roommate I'd move out if he ever got an Alexa or Google home device.…

You should bother taping over cameras you're not using though. It's way too easy to hijack them and keep the light from turning on when you do.

Do you really put tape on your phone?

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#54

Post by djrogers »

newsbinator wrote: post #14
exodust wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Send emails is one example. I don't use Siri, but apparently it can send emails including to multiple recipients. The "danger" is only limited by your imagination in the scenario where a malicious stranger has access to your email client.

I guess you could tell Siri, > Send an email to my mom that says, "I have an emergency and I need $2000. Here's the account number to send it to: 12345. Mom, please don't ask questions. This is urgent. Send the money now." Would Siri lookup your mom's email and send that?

In practice this will not work - assuming you only have a single email address for 'mom', it then will prompt you to unlock your phone, then show a confirmation screen with a send button on it.

There are way too many interaction steps required by the device owner to make this specific one a feasible attack.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#55

Post by bluGill »

djsumdog wrote: post #34
Shivetya wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for me it kills all desire to have a voice assistant. I am already in the camp of taping over the camera's in my computers now will I need to worry about the microphone or what comes from the speakers? so the question is, shouldn't they be able to detect the wavelength of what they are processing to weed out some of the more obvious tricks? with voice recognition could it also not be limited to a voice it is trained…

I don't bother taping over stuff. If you think about it, there are probably 10+ microphones in your room (Samsung TVs, phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) I run 3rd party roms, Linux on all my dev/tv machines, disable Cortana on my gaming laptop, and hope there isn't something listening in all that trusted, untrusted and oss code I'm running. I told my roommate I'd move out if he ever got an Alexa or Google home device.…

There is a reason I backed mycroft.ai on kickstarter. I also know of snips.ai doing a similar thing. (I picked one at random) I want OSS to succeed and I'm willing to put something into it.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#56

Post by djrogers »

newsbinator wrote: post #8

I can't get Siri to turn on the flashlight or lock my phone. What can Siri do that's dangerous?

At least on your phone, almost everything it can do that'd be 'dangerous' required your device to be unlocked or has a confirmation button (or both). Examples would be unlocking a door, opening your garage, sending an email/text message, sending Apple Pay Cash, etc.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#57

Post by jackhack »

sailfast wrote: post #44

I can't recommend highly enough that everyone at least turn on the audible sound when their assistants are listening. At a minimum you should know the kinds of things that end up triggering the device. There's a really wide area of detection and it's interesting to see where that is. I would also recommending changing your default word at a minimum. Then again, I might also recommend ditching the device entirely but…

but "Hey Spybot-Listening-To-Every-Conversation-In-This-Household-And-Building-A-Transcript-For-The-NSA" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#58

Post by djrogers »

mistermann wrote: post #40
mikeash wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask it “What can I ask you?” and it will show a big list of capabilities and phrases to trigger them.

Is there a web page one can refer to instead? Seems like it could be far more efficient way to learn, and would also be able to easily highlight newly released features.

Googling for 'list of siri commands' comes up with many excellent web pages, including this one from Apple themselves:

https://www.apple.com/ios/siri/

Re: Alexa and Siri Can Hear Hidden Commands

#60

Post by TeMPOraL »

jackhack wrote: post #57
sailfast wrote: post #44

I can't recommend highly enough that everyone at least turn on the audible sound when their assistants are listening. At a minimum you should know the kinds of things that end up triggering the device. There's a really wide area of detection and it's interesting to see where that is. I would also recommending changing your default word at a minimum. Then again, I might also recommend ditching the device entirely but…

but "Hey Spybot-Listening-To-Every-Conversation-In-This-Household-And-Building-A-Transcript-For-The-NSA" doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.

"Hey, NSA snitch"? "Hello Big Brother?"
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