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How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

telefoncek.si

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Re: How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

#2
https://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/kvm/NanoKVM/introduction...

Probably an older NanoKVM.

"NanoKVM-Cube hardware is built on the LicheeRV Nano platform. To coordinate production and maintain consistency with the LicheeRV Nano for the SMT project, the hardware retains the display, touch, MIC, and amplifier circuits. To address potential privacy concerns, versions 2.2.6 of the application and 1.4.1 of the firmware and above will remove the relevant drivers. We will also eliminate these components in future productions."

Re: How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

#3
To be fair, the microphone _is_ listed on the specsheet of the LicheeRV Nano

https://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/lichee/RV_Nano/1_intro.h...

I assume they didn't intend to put a mic on the KVM product, but they wanted to make a KVM product, already had this SBC product, which reusing their existing stock of helped keep cost low.

Should they have been more up front about it it? Sure, and it's not great that they had a bunch of security issues in the FW anyway, so not exactly great, but "hidden microphone in a Chinese KVM" lets the mind wander

Re: How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

#6
post #5

> [...] and runs a heavily stripped-down version of Linux that lacks systemd and apt. And these are just a few of the issues. ?!

> But what additionally raised red flags was the presence of tcpdump and aircrack - tools commonly used for network packet analysis and wireless security testing. While these are useful for debugging and development, they are also hacking tools that can be dangerously exploited.

Must be another AI slop article. Stop feeding your writings into GPT & co to turn into extra long nonsense.

Re: How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

#8
post #4

any speaker can be tapped into as a microphone by a motivated government.

From a hardware point of view I've also noticed that speakers work like poor microphones (and LEDs like poor solar panels / light sensors), but is there any way to actually make this work on most devices without physically changing wiring? If the circuits aren't made to take measurements (or the software can't get at the readings) but only set a voltage on the wires, there wouldn't be a way to (ab)use this. I don't know enough about electronics to know whether this is commonly the case

Not that it's not a good thing to be aware of, but do you have any sort of source for what kinds of devices can have their speakers turned into microphones? Then I'll believe you about the government part

Re: How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

#9
post #6
post #5

> [...] and runs a heavily stripped-down version of Linux that lacks systemd and apt. And these are just a few of the issues. ?!

> But what additionally raised red flags was the presence of tcpdump and aircrack - tools commonly used for network packet analysis and wireless security testing. While these are useful for debugging and development, they are also hacking tools that can be dangerously exploited. Must be another AI slop article. Stop feeding your writings into GPT & co to turn into extra long nonsense.

What was wrong with the above paragraph?

Re: How I discovered a hidden microphone on a Chinese NanoKVM

#10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But what additionally raised red flags was the presence of tcpdump and aircrack - tools commonly used for network packet analysis and wireless security testing. While these are useful for debugging and development, they are also hacking tools that can be dangerously exploited. Must be another AI slop article. Stop feeding your writings into GPT & co to turn into extra long nonsense.

What was wrong with the above paragraph?

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