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Your headphones/speakers used for spying!

DXman

Yes, that's 3100 degrees F. Nine yrs of hard work.
Apr 5, 2005
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Tech & Science Malware Headphones
This article originally was published on the International Business Times.


Headphones can be used to spy on people through malware that turns it into microphones, researchers announced Wednesday.

Headphones, earphones and some types of loudspeakers plugged into a computer can be manipulated and silently turned into eavesdropping microphones through the exploit, researchers at Ben Gurion University in Israel explained in the paper SPEAKE(a)R: Turn Speakers to Microphones for Fun and Profit.

The software that makes this possible is called SPEAKE(a)R, and it can be used to spy, even when the computer doesn’t have a microphone or if a mic is muted, taped or turned off.

"We demonstrated it is possible to acquire intelligible audio through earphones up to several meters away," says acoustic researcher Dr. Yosef Solewicz.

Researchers released a video showing how the malware works.

"This is the reason people like Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg tape up their mic and webcam," says lead researcher Mordechai Guri. "You might tape the mic, but would be unlikely to tape the headphones or speakers," added Guri.

An ordinary computer has a number of audio jacks, used for either input or output. However, audio chipsets in modern motherboards and soundclouds have an option for changing the use of audio port with software, which is a kind of audio port programming known as jack retasking or jack remapping.

“The fact that headphones, earphones and speakers are physically built like microphones and that an audio port’s role in the PC can be reprogrammed from output to input creates a vulnerability that can be abused by hackers,” says Prof. Yuval Elovici, director of the Cyber Security Research Center (CSRC).

To prevent spying through headphones, researchers say disabling audio hardware is a good idea. Using an HD audio driver that alerts someone when a microphone is being accessed is another way to prevent eavesdropping.

Researchers called for “enforcing a strict rejacking policy within the industry,” as well as the development of anti-malware and intrusion detection systems to detect and block eavesdropping.
 
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The US Navy has used "Sound Powered" communication on board ships for years.
You have seen the guys in the navy at battle stations with head phones and a microphones on the chest. They use those because no external power is required to operate. As long as the wires are in tact you have ship wide communications.

Blue tooth is risky as hell too. People can eaves drop from a long distance away. They can hear everything said inside your car.
 
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Knowing that audio amplifiers are a one way device in that they will not allow audio to flow back thru from output to input I find this story highly suspicious. I do however know about hacking into web cams and microphones for snooping but speakers and headphones feeding back thru one-way amps?

Tallman......those voice powered comm sets are pretty neat. They use a very high output dynamic type microphone and generate a high enough output to actually directly drive a set of headphones.
 
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Actually they drive more than just one set of headphones there is usually at least eight stations per network and those can cross link to other nets to and there is the option of operators repeating into cross linked nets, and all links are heard in Combat Information Center and the bridge as well. CIC is two steps away from the bridge and an open door can be voice relayed.
http://www.dynalec.com/Dynalec-Sound-Powered-Telephones-How.htm
 
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Bring out the tin foil, disable your Wi-Fi (remove wireless NIC for best results) & cut your ethernet cable, lol!

No system is 100% secure, and the hardware is advancing to a point where "they" can access your PC while it is in standby mode, heck I was not surprised to learn my laptop connected to the internet before I even logged in, something I'm not used to seeing with Windoze XP or a PC with traditional Bios, now with UEIF the computer does what it wants to first, then you are allowed to log in..

Please see: "this ̶u̶n̶i̶t̶ product contains no user serviceable parts" for more info.

The PC was created to perform computations and in general follow the instruction set we feed it, nowadays internet ads and social media direct the users. :(

http://toucan-system.com/research/blackhat2012_brossard_hardware_backdooring.pdf

I can't let any pesky privacy concerns ruin my day, somebody somewhere has something I need to buy, and I just don't know it yet!
/rant mode off
 
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