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LED Lights: Friend or Foe?
elfdump writes: "In an article (pdf) soon
to be published in ACM Transactions
on Information and Systems Security, security researchers have discovered
that data transmitted through modems and routers can be remotely reconstructed
from the equipment's LED status indicators. According to experiments, their
light-to-information retrieval method is successful even when the light is
captured 'at a considerable distance' from the source. If you want to prevent
people from spying on your data, you may want to tape up those blinking LEDs!"
So I should put big, bulky Duck Tape over my beautiful Airport Base Station? No way! Plus, I get poor enough reception in some parts of my own house, never mind my neighbors spying on me. ;-)
I imagine it would need a lot of things to actually monitor my leds so I'm not worried. Plus, I like too look at them and I won't let them take that away from me :)
rxvt, suse, vi, solaris, debian, java, c, feel the love. #unix@IRCnet, #gimp & #gnome@GIMPnet
At one time I worked with what I thought was a highly paranoid CIO for a manufacturing company. He had custom-made black plastic covers made for every modem in the modem pool (this was waaaay back) for this very reason.
I tried not to think about it but he was convinced that eventually someone would create technology that would re-construct the data transmission based on those LEDs.
If he's reading this (and he knows who he is), you paranoid sod, damn you for being right. *grin*
My sigs always suck.
...where the main character, in fear of his computer being Van Eck phreaked, redirects output from a decryption program to turn on-and-off his scroll-lock key in morse-code.
--Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
ibm defaced my slashdot page! :'(
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
It makes quite a bit of sense if you think about it. Audiophiles have been using optical output for years (essentially just an LED and a bit of fiber optic cable). What really caught me off gaurd was the distance they were able to capture the data from. Apparently for some, they found they could capture data from "at least across the street".
Almost makes me wish someone cared enough to spy on me so I could prevent it (Duct tape to the rescue!).
Beez
Monday is a horrible way to spend 1/7 of your life.
I knew I should have heeded this warning:
ACHTUNG! Alles touristen und non-technischen peepers!
Das machine control is nicht fur gerfinger-poken und mittengrabben. Oderwise is easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowen fuse, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
Der machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur geverken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseenen keepen das cotten picken hands in das pockets, so relaxen und watchen das blinkenlights.
I'll just put my modem upside down...that way, everything will transmit backwards...
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
Yeah, but then you get some wag at the manufacturer who programs the LEDs to make it seem as if you spend your entire time looking at porn, downloading strange software and sharing your semi-legal files with other geeks.
(Remembers where he's posting)
Never mind!
Maran
Just hide your hub in a teddy bear, noone will point his eavesdropping device on such an innocent toy, would they?
I intend to live forever, so far so good.
For modifying someone's unsubstantiated "hunch" as informative.
I've seen my lights blink, and I don't think that there's any way
Yes, and I've looked on a CD and I just don't see any data on it.
I wonder where I can get an LED mod that fakes my downloading of the DMV's database. It'll be cool when they take my HDD and horde my pr0n instead.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
You should be in the Guiness book of world records. You apparently have the ability to see lights blinking or modulate at rates in excess of 100 hz.
Going to the movies must be pretty tough on you. Watching all that blank time between frames must be pretty nerve racking. I can't even imagine how terrible television appears to you.
If you read the paper, it is based on some pretty coherent testing and past work by others. I think there would be some peer review before publication of an article. But since you have weighed in with your amazing visual prowess, they should just toss out the guy's work.
That funny. I to sometimes think that if I stare at those blinking lights long enough I would be able to discern a message. I just chalked it up to my familys history of mental illness. But it turns out I was right all along.
When the light is ON, the data is "1"
When the light is off, the data is "0"
I guess that modem in my closet is receiving a lot of 0s then
Good lord.
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
I can backup the whole network by videotaping the front panel of our switch.
.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
First they take away my command line and replace it with windoze. Then they take away my sexy jet-engnine-spin-up sounding RLL and MFM hard drives. And now no blinky lights?!
Sure, I can leave behind the days where troubleshooting Ethernet required a resistance meter, and when you could hear the memory counting up, and when a goddammed power switch was a goddammed power switch, but now I have to give up blinky lights? What is the world coming to where a computer geek can't proudly behold his array of blinky lights!?
Where's the joy? These evil led sniffing bastards simply must be stopped, that's all there is to it. I'll 3DES the signal going to the LEDs before I resort to covering my beloved LEDs. Duck tape be damned.
1) Remove tinfoil from head. This will allow the FBI to read your thoughts and aliens to control your thinking, but this is LED SECURITY!!
2) Place tinfoil over LED (a) at a 45-degree angle reflecting the light towards LED(b). Poke a hole in the tinfoil to allow some light through.
3) Take tinfoil and make covering/receiving/reflecting receptor on LED(b).
When LED(a) lights, any scanning devices will be mercilessly confused by the colighting of LED(b). The secret bat equipment will be useless!
4) Make sure you put tinfoil back on head.
Sure, it takes awhile to learn how to read it...
But after awhile, I just see Blonde here, Brunette there, Redhead over there...