Secretly intercepting video signals is a very traditional way to do electronic spying, but experts have found a new that puts a frightening twist to it.
A team of experts from Uruguay has found that it's possible to hack electromagnetic radiation from HDMI cables and process the video via AI.
Using deep learning to trace HDMI signals
University of the Republic experts in Montevideo posted their findings on Cornell's ArXiv service. As per the findings, you can train an AI model to interpret minute fluctuations in electromagnetic radiation released from an HDMI cable. “In this work, we address the problem of eavesdropping on digital video displays by analyzing the electromagnetic waves that unintentionally emanate from the cables and connectors, particularly HDMI,” the researchers said. Despite being a wired standard and digitally encrypted, abundant electromagnetic signals are released from these cables to track without needing direct access.
Detecting and decoding are different, but the experts also found that by pairing an AI model with text recognition software, one can "read" the wireless recorded EM radiation with a surprising 70% accuracy.
It is still distant from a traditional recording, but there's still a 60 percent improvement compared to earlier methods, making it capable of stealing passwords and other sensitive info. One can also do it wirelessly without physical access to attack a computer, from outside a building in real-life situations.
A new method for surveillance
Skimming from wireless electromagnetic signals for spying purposes isn't a new thing. It is a vulnerability called TEMPEST (Transient ElectroMagnetic Pulse Emanation Standard, a very awkward backronym) having links to espionage dating back to World War 2.
However, because HDMI connections are digital transmissions with some kind of encryption utilizing the HDCP standard, they were not thought to be particularly vulnerable to it. The researchers' AI algorithm-assisted technique of assault (dubbed "Deep-TEMPEST") raises some troubling possibilities.
State-sponsored attacks
According to experts, the system and its related alternatives, are already in use by state-sponsored hackers and industrial espionage threat actors. The advanced nature of the methods and the need to be around the target systems suggest that they won’t cause harm to regular users. However, large businesses or government agencies should be on the lookout, to protect their sensitive data, they should consider EM-shielding measures- especially for the employees and stakeholders working from home.
“The proposed system is based on widely available Software Defined Radio and is fully open-source, seamlessly integrated into the popular GNU Radio framework. We also share the dataset we generated for training, which comprises both simulated and over 1000 real captures. Finally, we discuss some countermeasures to minimize the potential risk of being eavesdropped by systems designed based on similar principles,” concluded experts in the report.
