Your kettle may be spying on you.

cdxbow

Well-Known Member
I know there a number of proper defence professionals here, so I just thought I would give you a heads up to be careful when you are enjoying a cuppa in the tearoom - the kettle may be spying on you! Not just the kettle but other electronic devices from PRC are allegedly contain wifi chips that will attmpt to get onto a non secure network. The original report was a Russian one, but I saw it first at the BBC

The report also alludes to using ultrasound to transmit malware, there is a report here about it's feasibility, and another where a security expert believes he has seen it as part of 'badBIOS'. There is still uncertainty whether this is real or imagined, but nonetheless very concerning.

So I'm off to dismantle my recently bought, PRC manufactured kettle. I'll whisper a few obsenities to it about Xi Jinping and Pandas first. I'll let you know what I find.
 

Beatmaster

New Member
I know there a number of proper defence professionals here, so I just thought I would give you a heads up to be careful when you are enjoying a cuppa in the tearoom - the kettle may be spying on you! Not just the kettle but other electronic devices from PRC are allegedly contain wifi chips that will attmpt to get onto a non secure network. The original report was a Russian one, but I saw it first at the BBC

The report also alludes to using ultrasound to transmit malware, there is a report here about it's feasibility, and another where a security expert believes he has seen it as part of 'badBIOS'. There is still uncertainty whether this is real or imagined, but nonetheless very concerning.

So I'm off to dismantle my recently bought, PRC manufactured kettle. I'll whisper a few obsenities to it about Xi Jinping and Pandas first. I'll let you know what I find.
Most older motherboards use to have a build-in mic, and its not the first report about the options a mic can provide to hacker/malware/spam/spy related people.
Sound waves are infact data carriers one way or another, which is pretty similar to a data file.
In both cases you can add a additional code or string to it without harming the original data, and in the scenario where a mic is going to be your entry, trans-fare and exit point in order to gain data from the victims computer, or even have the targeted computer execute commands and programs is not completely new as the internal infrastructure is already in place, and works pretty much the same way as a wireless internet connection (in theory)
You might wanna read this: Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics
On top of that the internal chipset of a home pc, laptop, smart phone and other devices is proven to be capable to do much more then the original developer intended it to do.
For example if you see the huge community driven tweaking of firm ware and root level tweaking amongst gamers then it become pretty evident that with the right firmware you can have a PC or a chip do so much more then it was original created for. Obviously this adds another layer to the capacities of high end computers and another layer to its flexibility in terms of tweaking.
Downside is tho that it adds multiple layers of dangers and exploits that could be used by evil minded people.

And old saying by one of the top engineers at IBM was: Think of it and create it.
In other words nothing is impossible as long you can code and decode it.

Cheers
 

cdxbow

Well-Known Member
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
Most older motherboards use to have a build-in mic, and its not the first report about the options a mic can provide to hacker/malware/spam/spy related people.
Sound waves are infact data carriers one way or another, which is pretty similar to a data file.
In both cases you can add a additional code or string to it without harming the original data, and in the scenario where a mic is going to be your entry, trans-fare and exit point in order to gain data from the victims computer, or even have the targeted computer execute commands and programs is not completely new as the internal infrastructure is already in place, and works pretty much the same way as a wireless internet connection (in theory)
You might wanna read this: Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics
On top of that the internal chipset of a home pc, laptop, smart phone and other devices is proven to be capable to do much more then the original developer intended it to do.
For example if you see the huge community driven tweaking of firm ware and root level tweaking amongst gamers then it become pretty evident that with the right firmware you can have a PC or a chip do so much more then it was original created for. Obviously this adds another layer to the capacities of high end computers and another layer to its flexibility in terms of tweaking.
Downside is tho that it adds multiple layers of dangers and exploits that could be used by evil minded people.

And old saying by one of the top engineers at IBM was: Think of it and create it.
In other words nothing is impossible as long you can code and decode it.

Cheers
Thanks for the link. My normal healthy level of paranoia may be in danger of being exceeded. I'm going to shift my household back to an 18th century level of tech; books, paper, gas lights etc. No electronic devices. All enclosed in a faraday cage. Tough on the kids with the school holidays starting. We'll have to talk.
 

My2Cents

Active Member
Better put some black electrician’s tape over the webcam built into your PC too. There has been software around for over a decade that can be appended to a virus to turn it on for peeping toms. :rosie

There are some real sicko's out there, better to play it safe. :lam
 
Top