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Scientists have turned the power supply into an audio speaker that can seamlessly transmit data through sound waves.
Specialists at David Ben-Gurion University in the Negev (Israel) have demonstrated a way to steal data from a physically isolated system through a power supply. During the POWER-SUPPLaY attack, scientists were able to turn the computer's power supply into an audio speaker that can seamlessly transmit data from the attacked host through sound waves.
According to study leader Mordechai Guri, POWER-SUPPLaY allows data to be stolen from devices without speakers. Using specially designed malware, the researchers turned the computer's power supply into a primitive audio speaker that generates basic sound waves. It should be noted that the purpose of the study was only to study the method of extracting data from a physically isolated system, but not how to infect it with malware.
As Guri explained, an attacker can control the electric current in the capacitors of the power supply and cause a phenomenon known as a “singing” capacitor. With this phenomenon, the capacitor generates sound waves when an alternating current with different frequencies passes through it. By controlling the frequency of the alternating current, malware can control sound waves and thereby hide data in them.
The sound signals generated by the “singing” capacitor can be received by a nearby receiver (for example, a smartphone). The device decodes the signal and sends the intercepted data to the attacker over the Internet.
A distinctive feature of POWER-SUPPLaY - malware does not require any special privileges. The attack works on PCs, servers, embedded systems and IoT devices without radio elements. Cons of attack - slow data transmission, the inability to transmit data over long distances (maximum distance is 6 m) and the influence of background noise on the quality of sound waves.
The “singing” of a capacitor is one of the descriptions of the piezoelectric effect. Actually it is the vibration of the capacitor on the printed circuit board, causing low noise.
The piezoelectric effect is the effect of the occurrence of polarization of a dielectric under the action of mechanical stresses.
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Specialists at David Ben-Gurion University in the Negev (Israel) have demonstrated a way to steal data from a physically isolated system through a power supply. During the POWER-SUPPLaY attack, scientists were able to turn the computer's power supply into an audio speaker that can seamlessly transmit data from the attacked host through sound waves.
According to study leader Mordechai Guri, POWER-SUPPLaY allows data to be stolen from devices without speakers. Using specially designed malware, the researchers turned the computer's power supply into a primitive audio speaker that generates basic sound waves. It should be noted that the purpose of the study was only to study the method of extracting data from a physically isolated system, but not how to infect it with malware.
As Guri explained, an attacker can control the electric current in the capacitors of the power supply and cause a phenomenon known as a “singing” capacitor. With this phenomenon, the capacitor generates sound waves when an alternating current with different frequencies passes through it. By controlling the frequency of the alternating current, malware can control sound waves and thereby hide data in them.
The sound signals generated by the “singing” capacitor can be received by a nearby receiver (for example, a smartphone). The device decodes the signal and sends the intercepted data to the attacker over the Internet.
A distinctive feature of POWER-SUPPLaY - malware does not require any special privileges. The attack works on PCs, servers, embedded systems and IoT devices without radio elements. Cons of attack - slow data transmission, the inability to transmit data over long distances (maximum distance is 6 m) and the influence of background noise on the quality of sound waves.
The “singing” of a capacitor is one of the descriptions of the piezoelectric effect. Actually it is the vibration of the capacitor on the printed circuit board, causing low noise.
The piezoelectric effect is the effect of the occurrence of polarization of a dielectric under the action of mechanical stresses.