TY - GEN
T1 - MOSQUITO
T2 - 2018 IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing, DSC 2018
AU - Guri, Mordechai
AU - Solewicz, Yosef
AU - Elovici, Yuval
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.
PY - 2019/1/23
Y1 - 2019/1/23
N2 - In this paper we show how two or more air-gapped computers in the same room, equipped with passive speakers, headphones, or earphones can covertly exchange data via ultrasonic waves. Microphones are not required. Our method is based on the capability of a malware to exploit a specific audio chip feature in order to reverse the connected speakers from output devices into input devices-unobtrusively rendering them microphones. We discuss the attack model and provide technical background and implementation details. We show that although the reversed speakers/headphones/earphones were not originally designed to perform as microphones, they still respond well to the near-ultrasonic range (18kHz to 24kHz). We evaluate the communication channel with different equipment, and at various distances and transmission speeds, and also discuss some practical considerations. Our results show that the speaker-To-speaker communication can be used to covertly transmit data between two air-gapped computers positioned a maximum of nine meters away from one another.
AB - In this paper we show how two or more air-gapped computers in the same room, equipped with passive speakers, headphones, or earphones can covertly exchange data via ultrasonic waves. Microphones are not required. Our method is based on the capability of a malware to exploit a specific audio chip feature in order to reverse the connected speakers from output devices into input devices-unobtrusively rendering them microphones. We discuss the attack model and provide technical background and implementation details. We show that although the reversed speakers/headphones/earphones were not originally designed to perform as microphones, they still respond well to the near-ultrasonic range (18kHz to 24kHz). We evaluate the communication channel with different equipment, and at various distances and transmission speeds, and also discuss some practical considerations. Our results show that the speaker-To-speaker communication can be used to covertly transmit data between two air-gapped computers positioned a maximum of nine meters away from one another.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062562413&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/DESEC.2018.8625124
DO - 10.1109/DESEC.2018.8625124
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85062562413
T3 - DSC 2018 - 2018 IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing
BT - DSC 2018 - 2018 IEEE Conference on Dependable and Secure Computing
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Y2 - 10 December 2018 through 13 December 2018
ER -