BitWhisper: Covert Signaling Channel between Air-Gapped Computers Using Thermal Manipulations

@article{Guri2015BitWhisperCS,
  title={BitWhisper: Covert Signaling Channel between Air-Gapped Computers Using Thermal Manipulations},
  author={Mordechai Guri and Matan Monitz and Yisroel Mirsky and Yuval Elovici},
  journal={2015 IEEE 28th Computer Security Foundations Symposium},
  year={2015},
  pages={276-289}
}
It has been assumed that the physical separation ('air-gap') of computers provides a reliable level of security, such that should two adjacent computers become compromised, the covert exchange of data between them would be impossible. [] Key Method Our method is unique in two respects: it supports bidirectional communication, and it requires no additional dedicated peripheral hardware. We provide experimental results based on the implementation of the Bit-Whisper prototype, and examine the channel's…
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140 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
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Background Citations
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Methods Citations
22

140 Citations

BitJabber: The World’s Fastest Electromagnetic Covert Channel

A new physical covert channel named BitJabber is introduced that is extremely fast and strong enough to even penetrate concrete walls and can enable data exfiltration from an air-gapped computer enclosed in a room with thick concrete walls up to 15 cm.

LaserShark: Establishing Fast, Bidirectional Communication into Air-Gapped Systems

By aiming lasers at already built-in LEDs and recording their response, this work is the first to enable a long-distance, bidirectional, and fast covert communication channel for air-gapped systems without any additional hardware on-site.

Air-Gap Covert Channels

It is empirically demonstrated that using physically unmodified, commodity systems, covert-acoustic channels can be used to communicate at data rates of hundreds of bits per second, without being detected by humans in the environment, and data rates when nobody is around to hear the communication.

SATAn: Air-Gap Exfiltration Attack via Radio Signals From SATA Cables

  • Mordechai Guri
  • Computer Science
    2022 19th Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security & Trust (PST)
  • 2022
The results show that attackers can use the SATA cable to transfer a brief amount of sensitive information from highly secured, air-gap computers wirelessly to a nearby receiver.

MAGNETO: Covert Channel between Air-Gapped Systems and Nearby Smartphones via CPU-Generated Magnetic Fields

GSMem: Data Exfiltration from Air-Gapped Computers over GSM Frequencies

GSMem, a malware that can exfiltrate data through an air-gap over cellular frequencies, is presented and its efficacy and feasibility are demonstrated, achieving an effective transmission distance of 1 - 5.5 meters with a standard mobile phone.

xLED: Covert Data Exfiltration from Air-Gapped Networks via Router LEDs

The experiment shows that sensitive data can be covertly leaked via the status LEDs of switches and routers at a bit rates of 10 bit/sec to more than 1Kbit/sec per LED.

SpiralSpy: Exploring a Stealthy and Practical Covert Channel to Attack Air-gapped Computing Devices via mmWave Sensing

S SpiralSpy is presented, a new covert channel to attack air-gapped computing devices through millimeter-wave (mmWave) sensing technologies and can be adopted on multiple-fan systems and enable a scalable capacity for multi-channel and high-speed information transfer.

On the capacity of thermal covert channels in multicores

A new methodology is devised and exploited that leverages both theoretical results from information theory and experimental data to study these thermal covert channels on modern multicores and shows a communication scheme that achieves rates of more than 45 bps on the same-core channel and more than 5 bPS on the 1-hop channel with less than 1% error probability.

Exfiltrating data from air-gapped computers via ViBrAtIoNs

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