Earlier this year, researchers from Israel's
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2025 10:56 am
The peculiarity of LED attacks is that users may not be aware that they have been hacked — the human eye has difficulty detecting flickering frequencies above 60 Hz. Given that many consumer devices, such as the new iPhone X, have infrared LEDs for transmitting or receiving data, the likelihood of them being hacked is quite high. Many network devices use LEDs to indicate data activity, but they can also signal that traffic is passing through them.
Ben-Gurion University developed a concept called the LED-it-GO attack. It involves reading information through the flickering of an ordinary LED. The researchers' report does not refer to any LED of your choice, but specifically to the HDD indicator LED. Most desktops and many laptops are equipped with such "lights," and few people pay attention to their flickering.
The devices tested in action included GoPro cameras, professional video surveillance cameras, DSLR cameras, HD webcams, smartphone cameras, and even Google Glass. While most gadgets demonstrated a very low panama whatsapp data transfer rate (around 15 bits/s), the GoPro Hero5 model stood out, showing a result of 120 bits/s. The maximum speed that was achieved during the tests was 4000 bits/s (0.5 Kbps). Such speeds allow processing encryption keys, recording a set of characters on the keyboard, and intercepting text and binary files.
In principle, any device that, like HDD, has built-in controllers and a microprocessor can be hacked. It has been previously proven that printers have a hidden data transmission channel.
In addition to modulated indicators, unmodulated LED status indicators are also susceptible to hacking. Information about this is contained in a study titled “Data Exfiltration from Isolated Networks Using Unmodulated LED Status Indicators,” conducted by the Electromagnetic Field Research Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study reveals a method for covertly transmitting data via keyboard LED indicators (such as those that show the status of the Caps Lock or Num Lock keys) and IP cameras without any user intervention.
Ben-Gurion University developed a concept called the LED-it-GO attack. It involves reading information through the flickering of an ordinary LED. The researchers' report does not refer to any LED of your choice, but specifically to the HDD indicator LED. Most desktops and many laptops are equipped with such "lights," and few people pay attention to their flickering.
The devices tested in action included GoPro cameras, professional video surveillance cameras, DSLR cameras, HD webcams, smartphone cameras, and even Google Glass. While most gadgets demonstrated a very low panama whatsapp data transfer rate (around 15 bits/s), the GoPro Hero5 model stood out, showing a result of 120 bits/s. The maximum speed that was achieved during the tests was 4000 bits/s (0.5 Kbps). Such speeds allow processing encryption keys, recording a set of characters on the keyboard, and intercepting text and binary files.
In principle, any device that, like HDD, has built-in controllers and a microprocessor can be hacked. It has been previously proven that printers have a hidden data transmission channel.
In addition to modulated indicators, unmodulated LED status indicators are also susceptible to hacking. Information about this is contained in a study titled “Data Exfiltration from Isolated Networks Using Unmodulated LED Status Indicators,” conducted by the Electromagnetic Field Research Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study reveals a method for covertly transmitting data via keyboard LED indicators (such as those that show the status of the Caps Lock or Num Lock keys) and IP cameras without any user intervention.