Hacking the Air Gap

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josemg
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Hacking the Air Gap

Post by josemg »

I am having trouble with starting my project as I don't understand how I am going to send binary code to my sensors and don't understand how to measure the vibration and audible quantities.
LeungWilley
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by LeungWilley »

Hi josemg,
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with this experiment.

For the sending of binary code, can you tell us what sensor did you decide to use / available on the computer that you are testing? This way, we may be able to help with a better answer of what might work.

For measuring the vibration and audible quantities, there should be an option within the google science journal apps to record and observe them. Please refer to table of 1 of the Procedure Section.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... #procedure

Please let us know if there's anything else we can do to help.
Good Luck with your experiment!
Willey
josemg
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by josemg »

The physical quantity I choose was ultrasonic sound and do I have to do several quantities or only one? I am a little confused how the ultrasonic sound will get detected even after reading every article several times
LeungWilley
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by LeungWilley »

Hi josemg,
It's really up to you in regards to how many different quantity you want to test and how this helps you prove your hypothesis.

In regards to the sending and measuring of the ultrasonic sound, here's an example:

1. Using the online tone generator mentioned in the procedure table, you can create a number of different of tones that you can then use as "code" for each letter of the keyboard.

2. You will then place these files on the target computer and then link each key (via a macro) to play these ultrasonic sound clip each time the key is pressed.

3. Then, using the phone with the google science journal app, you would record the sound as someone is using that computer to type a document. Once you have this sound file, you would then try to decipher what was written on the target computer and see if your scheme works.

I hope that helps. Good Luck and please let us know if you have any other questions.
Willey
josemg
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by josemg »

can you explain how the noise generator part in more depth because I am confused but I know get how I will decode it I am just lost with how typing the document will create the noise
LeungWilley
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by LeungWilley »

Hi josemg,

Please take a look at the following youtube clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSVTY-q0ZQ

Basically, you can use an app such as Clickey and it will generate the sound for each keystroke entered on the keyboard.
The search term "Key Click" or "Home Typist" also generated some additional apps that you can use for this on google. (On a somewhat related topic, this is also one of the technology that we use to assist people with vision impairment to work with computer so you can try that search term as well)

Hope that helps.
Good Luck!
Willey
josemg
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by josemg »

I have attempted to use the keyboard and record the sounds but I occurred a problem which was that each sound sounded the same so it felt useless. I have found an experiment just like it here is the link https://www.wired.com/wp-content/upload ... gate01.pdf. I am now attempting to use it as an example but can't seem to understand how to get the FM signals out and into my phone.
LeungWilley
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by LeungWilley »

Hi josemg,
Sorry to hear that the first attempt didn't work so well. Did you consider modifying the sound file for each key so that they are more distinct? Also, do you have a piece of software that can slow down the sound file so that you can decode?

I have just scanned through the linked document in your post and this sounds like an interesting challenge. Unfortunately, the encoding of the entire screen and then sending an FM signal out of the graphics card is a little more advance than what I know. The author had, intentionally I think, left out the codes so this will have to coded from scratch using some programming language like C or C++.

Sorry that I am not much help on this one. Hopefully, another expert will be able to pick this up and assist.
Good Luck!
Willey
josemg
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by josemg »

I am not so sure how to modify each sound for each key as that wasn't in the video or website, and I do not have a software to slow down the sound file. The software I am using to create the sound files is ClicKey btw
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by LeungWilley »

Hi josemg,
For Clickey, the command line for assigning a separate sound file for each key is "sound="wavefile" Please take a look at this file: https://www.grc.com/freeware/clickey.htm

For the sound slow down tool, I think the one on the tone generator website should work.
http://onlinetonegenerator.com/time-stretcher.html

Good Luck!
Willey
josemg
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by josemg »

I've been looking for ways sites that can create sounds for each separate key and I haven't found any, nor have I found a way to turn the sound to turn into binary. I am very worried as the experiment is almost due and have failed to make any good progress.
LeungWilley
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by LeungWilley »

Hi josemg,
Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with this.
What methods / key term did you tried? I understand the time pressure and a quick suggestion (at least for a proof of concept - is something along the line of https://virtualpiano.net/ where each letter will have a unique sound. At a minimum, this should help prove that the concept will work. Also, if you wish to write your own code, a quick way to test this out is to use the Macro function within a MS product - word, excel, etc...

Here's some sample code that will play a .wav file whenever the key is pressed and the macro is running.

Sub A_1()
Call sndPlaySound32(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\a1.wav", 0)
End Sub
Sub B_1()
Call sndPlaySound32(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\b1.wav", 0)
End Sub
Sub C_1()
Call sndPlaySound32(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\c1.wav", 0)
End Sub
Sub D_1()
Call sndPlaySound32(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\d1.wav", 0)
End Sub
Sub E_1()
Call sndPlaySound32(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\e1.wav", 0)
End Sub

Sub auto_open()
Application.OnKey "{F1}", "A_1"
Application.OnKey "{F2}", "B_1"
Application.OnKey "{F3}", "C_1"
Application.OnKey "{F4}", "D_1"
Application.OnKey "{F5}", "E_1"
End Sub

I am not sure what you mean about turning sound into binary? Please explain.
Good Luck!
Willey
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Re: Hacking the Air Gap

Post by bfinio »

Josemg,

In a simpler version of this project, you would just MANUALLY create sounds (for example by hitting play/pause on an online tone generator). This functions as a proof of concept to send signals in binary. For example to send "1010" you would hit play, wait one second, hit pause, wait one second, hit play, wait one second, hit pause, wait one second. This at least demonstrates that the computer can be used to send binary code to a microphone using sound, although of course it would not be sufficient in a "real world" scenario where you want to record keystrokes. If you are having trouble getting keystrokes to automatically play different sounds, I would suggest using that as a starting point, then at least you will have some data for your project.

Ben
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