Fans can be turned into spies on CPUs, thanks to new malware
Ben Gurion University in Israel has developed a malware capable of turning CPU fans into spies
Rite rite as much as you want, it seems like a joke but it is not.
When I read this news I was peeling myself, but when I finished reading it I was freaking out about the level to which things are taken. I tell you.
One day, a group of friends from Ben Gurion University in Israel were extremely bored, and they came up with a brilliant idea: to create malware that could transmit, listen to, and interpret a series of wave patterns using a kind of Morse code.
Once they finished developing the malware and the code to be interpreted, they said, " Okay, now we need the machine to emit those wave patterns somehow ," and they thought the CPU fan would be a very practical way. Fans can emit different sound frequencies depending on their rotation speed, so... if we take control of the fan... that's it.
And that's how these kids created malware that can be run from a hard drive or a pendrive.
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A malware almost impossible to detect.
This malware needs practically nothing to function, it does not need an Internet connection, no microphones or speakers, it just needs to take control of the CPU fan.
Once this is achieved, it will be possible to alter the fan's revolutions so subtly that it is imperceptible to us , since these waves are emitted at a frequency of 100 Hz. This sound frequency is achieved by slightly varying the revolutions starting from 1000 rpm.
Data transmission is carried out by means of a kind of Morse code that can be received and interpreted by another device, a smartphone for example. Of course, the receiver cannot be more than 8 meters away from the transmitter.
Very slow but very efficient.
One thing is clear, and it is that the processing speed of this malware is not one of its virtues.
The transfer rate is around 900 bits per hour . This raw data probably doesn't mean much to you, so to get an idea of what it means, let's look at a practical example.
Let's imagine we want to transfer a very ordinary image, maybe around 2 megabytes . Do you know how long it would take to transfer the photo? Well, it would take approximately 776 days , or in other words, more than two years. I don't think we'd have that much patience.
But here the objective is not to hack images or large volumes of information, the focus is on transmitting passwords, such as passwords or credit cards.
How did you get into trouble at school? Let's put ourselves to the test with this case.
Let's imagine a super password of 20 characters, and now the question is: how long will this malware need to transmit this super key?
The first thing to know is how many bits a character has: one character = 1 byte and one byte = 8 bits. Therefore, a 20-character key is made up of 160 bits. Knowing this, and using a simple rule of three, we can conclude that it takes just over 10 minutes to transmit . It's important to remember that it doesn't require an internet connection, speakers, microphones, or anything else.
Not bad huh?
And now suppose we want to decrypt this same key with the brute force method, which consists of trying all the possible combinations of those 20 characters until we find the correct one. Would you achieve it in 10 minutes? I have a hunch not.
This isn't the first time something like this has been experimented with. Not long ago, tests were done to achieve the same result using ultrasound emitted through the PC's speakers and thermal methods , causing variations in the processor's temperature. Anyway… what a thing.
In closing, it only remains to congratulate the guys at Ben Gurion University for bringing fresh ideas to the poor Hackers who are so lacking in them.
