Researchers hack Siri, Alexa, and Google Home by shining lasers at them

'Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are vulnerable to attacks that use
lasers to inject inaudible—and sometimes invisible—commands into the
devices and surreptitiously cause them to unlock doors, visit
websites, and locate, unlock, and start vehicles, researchers report
in a research paper published on Monday. Dubbed Light Commands, the
attack works against Facebook Portal and a variety of phones.

Shining a low-powered laser into these voice-activated systems allows
attackers to inject commands of their choice from as far away as 360
feet (110m). Because voice-controlled systems often don’t require
users to authenticate themselves, the attack can frequently be carried
out without the need of a password or PIN. Even when the systems
require authentication for certain actions, it may be feasible to
brute force the PIN, since many devices don’t limit the number of
guesses a user can make. Among other things, light-based commands can
be sent from one building to another and penetrate glass when a
vulnerable device is kept near a closed window.

The attack exploits a vulnerability in microphones that use
micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS. The microscopic MEMS
components of these microphones unintentionally respond to light as if
it were sound. While the researchers tested only Siri, Alexa, Google
Assistant, Facebook Portal, and a small number of tablets and phones,
the researchers believe all devices that use MEMS microphones are
susceptible to Light Commands attacks.'

-- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/11/researchers-hack-siri-alexa-and-google-home-by-shining-lasers-at-them/

Cheers, Peter
-- 
Peter Reutemann
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Waikato, NZ
+64 (7) 858-5174
http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/
http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
_______________________________________________
wlug mailing list -- [email protected] | To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/postorius/lists/wlug.list.waikato.ac.nz