"New Air-Gap Attack Uses MEMS Gyroscope Ultrasonic Covert Channel to Leak Data"

A novel data exfiltration technique has been discovered that uses a covert ultrasonic channel to leak sensitive information from isolated, air-gapped computers to a nearby smartphone without the use of a microphone. The adversarial model, dubbed GAIROSCOPE, is the latest addition to a long list of acoustic, electromagnetic, optical, and thermal approaches developed by Dr. Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D at the Cyber Security Research Center at Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Their malware generates ultrasonic tones in the MEMS gyroscope's resonance frequencies. These inaudible frequencies cause tiny mechanical oscillations in the smartphone's gyroscope, which can then be demodulated into binary data. Air-gapping is considered a critical security countermeasure that entails isolating a computer or network and preventing it from establishing an external connection, thereby creating an impenetrable barrier between a digital asset and threat actors attempting to create a path for espionage attacks. GAIROSCOPE, like other attacks developed against air-gapped networks, relies on an adversary's ability to breach a target environment via infected USB sticks, watering holes, or supply chain compromises to deliver malware. This time, the attack also requires infecting the smartphones of employees working in the victim organization with a malicious app, which is deployed via attack vectors such as social engineering, ads, or compromised websites, among others. This article continues to discuss the new GAIROSCOPE air-gap attack. 

THN reports "New Air-Gap Attack Uses MEMS Gyroscope Ultrasonic Covert Channel to Leak Data"