Mice and Covert Channels

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel optical covert channel using optical mice, demonstrating its reliability and bidirectionality, with potential security implications for sensitive systems.

Contribution

The paper presents a new optical covert channel leveraging optical mice's components, showing its effectiveness and exploring factors affecting its performance.

Findings

Transmission rate up to 10 bits per second

Infrared mice are vulnerable to similar attacks

Factors like infrared, distance, and brightness influence channel performance

Abstract

Any secure network is only as secure as its weakest component. With overt channels tightly secured and attackers have started focusing on optical, audible, magnetic, and thermal covert channels to access sensitive systems. In this paper, we present a novel, reliable and bidirectional optical covert channel which uses optical mice. In this channel, the photocell in the mouse is used as a receiver while the LED is used as a transmitter. Our multiple experiments, which use mouse to mouse, mouse to camera and torch to mouse, show that the transmission rate can go as high as 10 bits per second. Additionally, we study the effects of infrared, distance and brightness on mouse input. We also show that infrared mice are susceptible to a similar kind of attack.