Android Ping!
Posted on 10/14/2015 2:20:29 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Due to Wired copyright considerations:
This Radio trick silently hacks Siri (and Google Now and probably Cortana) from 16 feet away
Requires headphones and microphone be plugged into mobile device. . . then induced radio waves use the wire as an antenna spoofs the device into picking up radio waves as audio. More at the site.
Obviously they are broadcasting a modulated radio signal at just the right frequencies and amplitudes to be picked up on the headset cable.
For people unfamiliar with the technology, microphones like the one in a corded hands-free headset convert audio (sound waves) from you speaking into electromagnetic waves. This signal is then sent down the wire to the device.
Because your voice naturally rises and falls in intensity and our voices cover a (admittedly small) frequency range this signal is modulated both in amplitude and frequency. Fun stuff for a tech guy like me. ;-)
Well, that wire (wires actually), running from the mic to your phone *can* act like an antenna and pick up electromagnetic energy broadcast at it. Your phone wouldn't be able to tell the difference from that or EM energy coming from the mic.
All good in theory and apparently they were able to gin up a test rig and demonstrate it. However... I'd be very interested to know the details of the headset cord and any modifications they did to it. I believe - though I haven't researched it - that any decent headset is going to use a twisted pair wire scheme. This is a simple and effective way to cancel out EM interference. With twisted pair wiring both the conductor and it's ground/return line are literally twisted around each other. That way any EM signal that is incident upon them conducts onto both equally. If both conductors get equal signal, it cancels out and there is no net/resultant signal on the wire. A wildly simple and effective technique engineers have been using for decades.
So they must have specifically selected a headset cable that does not use twisted pair wiring. (if such a beast exists) or they may have intentionally damaged (ie. cut) one of the conductors to unbalance the signal.
Short version is, I'm not worried. I'm going to keep using my headphones at the gym when working out, and keep trying to remember not to sing out loud. ;-)
This old radio "Ham" observes that, even inside a shielded "faraday cage". they had to use a big, klunky, directional "yagi" beam antenna to focus in and couple enough RF into the mic lead to make the trick work. (And that was from just a couple of feet away).
I can just hear the "spy" now: "Please don't move -- so I can keep my antenna pointed at your phone"... LOL!
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However, I can visualize a FedGov "snooper" van -- with plenty of RF power and the antenna hidden inside a (RF-transparent) fiberglass body...
That one is definitely not funny!
All they'd have to do is mimic the Bluetooth (RF) signal...
Thanks to Swordmaker for the ping!!
I'd think you'd want something more on the order of a radar gun.
to activate Cortana, I actually have to be in the Cortana app...
It can be voiced activated, but it’s so difficult I don’t bother.
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