Hacker Turns Secure Computers into Secret-Spewing Radios

So if I understand this correctly, the "hack" works like this:

  1. Install malware onto both the Target and the Receiver computers
  2. Use existing circuitry inside the computer to create a software radio
  3. Use the software radio created in Step 2 to transmit data between Target and Receiver

This demonstration glossed over the difficulty of Step 1, something we saw in play with the Stuxnet virus.

This demonstration failed at Step 2, when a suitable circuit could not be located. Part of that is likely due to the large size of AM radio waves, and thus the large antennas required to generate them effectively. If microwave transmission were used, a suitable circuit would be much easier to find.

There are many questions about the viability of this "hack", not the least of which are the ability to get enough power to the antenna to transmit data through several layers of metal insulation and electromagnetic noise.

Who knows - maybe the future of WIFI won't be discrete hardware antennas, but software that can generate a software antenna from any circuit in the device on-demand. This might be useful for transmitting data short ranges, like just across a CPU core.

OMG. The sky is falling. From the article:

   But people in three-letter organizations will
   no doubt be interested. Assuming, of course,
   that they haven't figured out the trick already.

But, lo and behold, we've known about TEMPEST[1] since 2000, when information was publicly released in heavily redacted form. Here's what it's about:

   TEMPEST is a National Security Agency
   specification and NATO certification referring
   to spying on information systems through leaking
   emanations, including unintentional radio or
   electrical signals, sounds, and vibrations.
   TEMPEST covers both methods to spy upon others
   and also how to shield equipment against
   such spying.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_%28codename%29

"Without a doubt, Cui's research is impressive—and terrifying. Because it doesn't rely on networks policed by firewalls, like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, detecting these transmission is very hard. After all, there's plenty of radio spectrum in which to hide. Cui quipped that with a simple AM radio, he defeated billions of dollars in firewall research."

Mind-blowingly outside the box. Network isolation is not enough. Wow.