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Hack Air-Gapped Computers Using Heat
An anonymous reader writes Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have discovered a new method to breach air-gapped computer systems called "BitWhisper," which enables two-way communications between adjacent, unconnected PC computers using heat. BitWhisper bridges the air-gap between the two computers, approximately 15 inches apart that are infected with malware by using their heat emissions and built-in thermal sensors to communicate. It establishes a covert, bi-directional channel by emitting heat from one PC to the other in a controlled manner.
Also at Wired.
...welcome our infrared overlords.
Film at 11:00
This article is just a bunch of hot air.
they didn't "hack" the machine using heat!
they gained control of both machines ahead of time, and THEN used heat (etc) to exfil data.
they didn't gain control of an otherwise stock computer using heat over air gap. stop saying "hack".
But how did the malware get on BOTH of the computers in the first place? TFA totally avoids that question.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Governments and business have been doing this for centuries, communicating by nothing more than hot air.
With chips being so complicated these days, who audits them all? What's to stop a manufacturer being exploited and this kind of malware being as standard in a lot of silicon? However, if that's the case then a more traditional attack would be warranted - the data rate here is awful.
Not hack. They have not infected computers using thermal energy. They just demonstrated slow (very slow) communication between two computers using heat and heat sensors. It uses a tremendous amount of battery power of little to no purpose, since both computers need to already have the software on them... stenography would be a more appropriate communication method (hiding communication in seemingly-innocuous em traffic).
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
As evidenced by them calling that gap between the computers 15 inches.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
This is totally Zalewalski shit.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
So, can I use a space heater to extend the range of this new wireless technology?
Just install a mains-powered fan between the two computers.
the air-gapped system must already be infected. So while this is cute and all, on its own it does nothing.
Or you could just go in with lots of guys with guns, take the computers, and dump the bodies at sea.
Now all those viruses can finally give your computer proper disease symptoms.
Now, i seem to be missing something here...
Please enlighten Me, how this is news ?
C'mon ffs, Stalin was spied this way from 50-70 meters using Ir produced by His windows (the Idiot was always yelling) (200ft for those of you who don't buy Royale with cheese).
If your server were air-gapped so totally that all transfers to and from it had to be with a human, malware could just as easily be transmitted by flash drive.
Wow! We have hardwire, ethernet, wifi, bluetooth, infrared, optical.... now heat to transfer data.
I guess the only thing missing is smell data transfer and smoke signals.
Maybe a good kickstarter project...
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
It is slower than a lizard in a blizzard; but the advantage is that it uses the thermal sensors that PCs include for ACPI thermal management/fan speed control/etc. not any of the hardware that is explicitly for communication(ethernet, wifi, IRDA, BT, etc. and thus almost certain to be stripped out/disabled) or that isn't for networking; but is a fairly obvious threat(speaker and mic, laptop ambient light sensors for backlight control, that sort of thing); so it is fairly likely that even computers prepared by the relatively paranoid for use on highly sensitive networks will still have the necessary sensors(and any computer will be unable to avoid having the necessary software-controlled thermal source, barring the development of 100% efficient CPUs).
Like most recent technical advances, this is merely a corollary of pre-existing xkcd research.
Sorry, I forgot there are ads on the Web; I use Lynx.
In addition to all that, both machines have to be essentially idle, so the heat differences can even be noticed.
Have gnu, will travel.
You do not necessarily need a more efficient CPU to block this. Less efficient would also do—just make every operation consume as much power as the worst.
Protect against this hack by placing a hot coffee beside your computer. Only $69.99 per cup of coffee.
Heat, light, ... whether electromagnetic or mechanical, you got waves, we'll talk.
Of course, it requires the computer to be compromised first . . . but once compromised it can turn lights on and off all over your house!
In security terms, "air gap" should be taken to mean "direct communications gap".
If two machines an "talk" to each other without involving a human or a third-party computer* to do your dirty work for you.
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*If the third-party computer is being used "in real time" it doesn't count as a "direct communications gap." However, if the computer hijacks the local router in the stand-alone network so that the next time it is hooked to an external network, it does bad things on behalf of the evil computer, that would be an example of "jumping the direct communications gap".
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Hack the planet! With heat! Wait a minute...
Using heat. Lots of it. I'd call it "fire".
If you have to get the computer that close to the machine you want to hack, then you could just drop by occasionaly and connect a cable/wifi to it and do a data dump.
Replace your wifi. Right??