Meet USBee, the malware that uses USB drives to covertly jump airgaps | Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/meet-usbee-the-malware-that-uses-usb-drives-to-covertly-jump-airgaps/

This hack makes an USB drive to transmit your secrets in a way a nearby radio can receive it.

Technique works on virtually all USB drives with no modifications necessary.

“We introduce a software-only method for short-range data exfiltration using electromagnetic emissions from a USB dongle,”

The software works on just about any storage device that’s compliant with the USB 2.0 specification. Some USB devices such as certain types of cameras that don’t receive a stream of bits from the infected computer, aren’t suitable. USBee transmits data at about 80 bytes per second, fast enough to pilfer a 4096-bit decryption key in less than 10 seconds.

Radio signal are read by a GNU-radio-powered receiver and demodulator 26 feet away.

As a result, an already-compromised computer can leak sensitive data even when it has no Internet or network connectivity, no speakers, and when both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have been disabled.

 

For more details read the science paper: USBee:   Air-Gap Covert-Channel via Electromagnetic Emission from USB

 

 

0 Comments

Be the first to post a comment.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*