Fansmitter: Acoustic Data Exfiltration from (Speakerless) Air-Gapped Computers
Mordechai Guri, Yosef Solewicz, Andrey Daidakulov, Yuval Elovici

TL;DR
Fansmitter demonstrates a novel method of data exfiltration from air-gapped computers by modulating noise from internal fans, enabling covert communication even without audio hardware, with potential risks for sensitive information leakage.
Contribution
This paper introduces Fansmitter, a new technique that uses fan noise to covertly transmit data from air-gapped computers lacking audio hardware.
Findings
Successfully transmitted data up to 8 meters distance
Achieved data rates of up to 900 bits/hour
Demonstrated leakage of encryption keys and passwords
Abstract
Because computers may contain or interact with sensitive information, they are often air-gapped and in this way kept isolated and disconnected from the Internet. In recent years the ability of malware to communicate over an air-gap by transmitting sonic and ultrasonic signals from a computer speaker to a nearby receiver has been shown. In order to eliminate such acoustic channels, current best practice recommends the elimination of speakers (internal or external) in secure computers, thereby creating a so-called 'audio-gap'. In this paper, we present Fansmitter, a malware that can acoustically exfiltrate data from air-gapped computers, even when audio hardware and speakers are not present. Our method utilizes the noise emitted from the CPU and chassis fans which are present in virtually every computer today. We show that a software can regulate the internal fans' speed in order to…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAdvanced Malware Detection Techniques · User Authentication and Security Systems · Internet Traffic Analysis and Secure E-voting
