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Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

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Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#91

Post by stavros »

segmondy wrote: post #42
KurSix wrote: post #7

The fact that the author had to publish a third-party patch because the vendor didn't consider it a vulnerability is not a great look

Are you surprised? Great hack by the author, the impact could be huge if someone is targeted, but overall the impact is very minimal. The vendor can't be bothered. For you to be a victim, you have to own this device, and your attack has to know that and be within a close proximity. Remember that fight club quote? A = The number of speakers in the field. B = The probable rate of getting hacked. C = The average out-of-…

Let me just turn this hack into a quick Flipper Zero app that makes the speaker play "Fuck Creative" in a loop, let's see whether the vendor is bothered then.

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#93

Post by saltcured »

Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #35
vessenes wrote: post #15

Having a guaranteed audio channel makes this so much cooler for exploits -- you can exfiltrate over audio!! I love it. I wonder how many of these were sold. I also imagine based on Creative's response (this is fine) that many other devices in the class have similar security models in place. Def scary.

I somehow hadn't even considered Bluetooth as an option when I read the headline, I immediately thought about INFILTRATING via audio, which also sounds insanely cool, but I couldn't possibly wrap my head around how an audio circuit would have to be set up and connected back to the cpu to pull that off. Exfiltrating via audio also brings to mind one of those devices I really wanted to build ~20 years ago that can list…

I'm old enough to have visually parsed the headline as "PC speaker" at first, and wondered what kind of amazing phreaking was going to drive the built-in speaker as a microphone and somehow get ingress into the computer. :-)

Yeah the headline isn't as interesting when truthful. I've never owned a "speaker" that plugs into USB. Only the good old analog audio jack, or a USB to toslink adapter that is purely a one-way stream.

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#95

Post by sebastiennight »

zeta0134 wrote: post #30
zahlman wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "smart" bulbs Thankfully I don't think I've seen these for sale. What sensors would they have that could be exploited by an attacker?

Shopping in the US, these have entirely replaced zigbee and other sensible mesh-based options at hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes. The only exception I can find is Phillips Hue, and those seem to be slowly getting phased out with (sigh) a new "hubless" (requires wifi) series. I run my home automation network entirely offline, so anything that needs the internet doesn't get added to my cart. I just do not tru…

> Regular bulbs are still much more common on store shelves, because why fix what isn't broken?

TV manufacturers might want to differ.

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#96

Post by necovek »

semiquaver wrote: post #64
hootz wrote: post #4

>Email from SingCERT stating vendor "do not consider this to be a vulnerability, as it does not present a cybersecurity risk." So wirelessly writing custom firmware to someone else's device that is connected via USB to their computer without even needing to pair is not a security vulnerability. Yea.

In reality, even if they did recognize the severity of this problem, they likely view the cost to remediate it as prohibitive, as it would involve reworking their whole weird janky system. So better to pretend they don’t have to deal with security.

This is why governments need to — and are — stepping in with things loke Cyber Resilience Act in EU.

If this product continues to sell in EU after Dec 2027, they will have an obligation to update.

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#97

Post by fsckboy »

exitb wrote: post #23
217 wrote: post #2

Can't wait to see a video from a half sloppy channel about this on my youtube front page in roughly 4 business days

Do you know that if you turn off saving YouTube history, you can have no front page at all?

where do you turn that off?

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#98

Post by jagged-chisel »

xnickb wrote: post #13
hootz wrote: post #4

>Email from SingCERT stating vendor "do not consider this to be a vulnerability, as it does not present a cybersecurity risk." So wirelessly writing custom firmware to someone else's device that is connected via USB to their computer without even needing to pair is not a security vulnerability. Yea.

Yeah, but we already sold the device, so it's someone else's problem. Now if they were paying us a subscription fee..

It still wouldn’t be our problem because the ToS says the customer accepts all risk and liability.

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#99

Post by rkagerer »

This is a well written article and easy to digest, worth a skim.

In summary he figured out how to reflash arbitrary firmware on a Creative Sound Blaster Katana V2X soundbar via Bluetooth, without requiring any effective authentication or user interaction.

The soundbar is plugged directly into its host computer via USB, so by adding a descriptor to its firmware he made it recognized as a keyboard. From there it was straightforward to have it send keystrokes to the PC. The soundbar is equipped with a mic, so an adversary could turn it into an eavesdropping device.

He reported it to Creative and SingCERT. Neither him or SingCERT got any meaningful response from the company until 2 months later, eventually saying "they do not consider this to be a vulnerability, as it does not present a cybersecurity risk".

He released a firmware patcher that disables the flawed transport protocol. It's a bit of a sledgehammer that likely also breaks functionality of the official Bluetooth app, but seems like the best he could do without cooperation from the manufacturer.

Re: Pwnd Blaster: Hacking your PC using your speaker without ever touching it

#100

Post by literalAardvark »

antran22 wrote: post #86

People who love tech buy superdupersmart loudspeaker that will connect to every computer in their house; and also somehow control their superdupersmart coffee maker so they can have a fresh coffee brewed when some Miles Davis play. People who understand tech keep an axe next to their toaster.

The original meaning of hacker
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