A method of compromising smartphones using ultrasonic waves is presented

[Tomcat]

With the advancement of virtual assistant technologies such as Apple's Siri and Google Assistant, users are now able to control their mobile devices with their voice. However, a joint team of scientists from the University of Washington in St. Louis, the University of Michigan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has demonstrated that this functionality can also be used for unseemly purposes, for example, making fraudulent calls from the victim's phone, intercepting SMS messages with a confirmation code, interacting with voice assistant, etc ...

A method developed by scientists, called SurfingAttack, uses ultrasonic waves propagating over surfaces of hard material to attack voice control systems. As the experts explained, SurfingAttack modulates the voice command into an inaudible frequency band and transmits attack signals using a ready-made piezoelectric transducer (converting electrical signals into ultrasonic waves) through tables of various types made of solid materials.

The researchers conducted a series of experiments in which they placed several phones on a table, on the bottom of which a microphone and a PZT were placed, and on the other side a wave generator for correcting signals. Using the SurfingAttack method, they were able to send commands to the voice assistant and thus extract SMS codes or make fraudulent calls.

The team tested 17 different smartphone models, including Google Pixel, Moto G5 and Z4, Samsung Galaxy (S7, S9), Xiaomi (Mi5, 8, Mi 8 Lite), Huawei (Honor View 10, Mate 9) and Apple iPhone (5 , 5c, 6 Plus, X). All of them were vulnerable to SurfingAttack, and the presence of a cover did not matter.

As previously reported, experts from the University of Chicago have invented a curious bracelet that uses ultrasound to muffle nearby microphones, including smart speakers and voice assistants.