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Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

arstechnica.com

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Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#11

Post by TrainedMonkey »

devindotcom wrote: post #4

I love this sci-fi by way of anachronism stuff. The transfer rate of ~20 bytes per second is tiny, but of course that tiny amount could be the difference between two machines appearing to communicate and not appearing to. If your network traffic is confirmed to be zero, that's a state of confidence that's easy to take advantage of, and a deeply-rooted bit of malware like this could strike in extremely subtle and devi…

20 bits = 2 and a half bytes, and you are right that is enough.

What surprises me is how people regarding this as "novel" not too long ago quite a few people used a "modem". That was a mythical device that used phone networks to transmit information. Regular phones would pick up that as sound.

Sure there are few technical hurdles - covert communication and stringent error correction are most visible, but concepts are remarkably similar.

Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#12

Post by TrainedMonkey »

Zarathust wrote: post #5
orblivion wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, the "target" computer has to be actively listening?

Not only that, but the listening application must have some kind of exploitable vulnerability.

That would present infection vector^^. Study was purely about two computers with very special software trying to covertly communicate using ultrasound.

Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#13

Post by slowmover »

Zarathust wrote: post #5
orblivion wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, the "target" computer has to be actively listening?

Not only that, but the listening application must have some kind of exploitable vulnerability.

For the purposes of this article, it is assumed the air-gapped computer is already running the malware, having been infected by some other means (ex. thumbdrive). The ultrasound communications provide a continuous (albeit slow) link between two infected computers.

It would be quite impressive, though, if a vulnerability in an audio driver allowed an uninfected computer to be infected simply by "hearing" the exploit sound!

Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#14

Post by hfsktr »

"Using nothing more than the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers..."

Are mics common on desktops? I would like to think I'm not that out of touch. I get that in laptops they are common.

Still pretty cool. There could be an application for this that isn't malicious.

Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#16

Post by privong »

JackFr wrote: post #10

Keep your headphones plugged in. BAM! Solved!

This just shows my ignorance with regard to this topic, but is the speaker cutoff from plugging in headphones always a hardware switch? I.e., can software override it and direct sound to the speakers even if one has headphones plugged in?

Of course, if one were playing music or something, it would be obvious that the switch had been circumvented.

Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#18

Post by fat0wl »

devindotcom wrote: post #6
orblivion wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, the "target" computer has to be actively listening?

That's how it seems to me. But a well-hidden bit of malware won't have a problem turning on the mic for a few seconds on the hour every hour to listen for a handshake chirp or the like. It's a limitation, but far from an insurmountable one.

yea but then the malware has to already be present on both machines, eh?...

Re: Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound

#20

Post by JackFr »

privong wrote: post #16
JackFr wrote: post #10

Keep your headphones plugged in. BAM! Solved!

This just shows my ignorance with regard to this topic, but is the speaker cutoff from plugging in headphones always a hardware switch? I.e., can software override it and direct sound to the speakers even if one has headphones plugged in? Of course, if one were playing music or something, it would be obvious that the switch had been circumvented.

I honestly have no idea. My response was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but whoever downvoted me seems to have missed my subtle sense of humor.
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