Security News > 2022 > August > Air-Gapped Devices Can Send Covert Morse Signals via Network Card LEDs

A security researcher who has a long line of work demonstrating novel data exfiltration methods from air-gapped systems has come up with yet another technique that involves sending Morse code signals via LEDs on network interface cards.

"Information can be encoded via simple encoding such as Morse code and modulated over these optical signals. An attacker can intercept and decode these signals from tens to hundreds of meters away."

A network interface card, also known as a network interface controller or network adapter, is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network.

LEDs integrated into the network connector notify the user of whether the network is connected, and when data activity occurs.

The second phase of the attack relates to data collection and exfiltration, during which sensitive information is encoded and sent over an optical covert channel by using the network card's status LEDs.

What's more, the ETHERLED method is designed to work with peripherals or hardware that are shipped with Ethernet cards, such as printers, network cameras, network-attached storage devices, embedded systems, and other IoT devices.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/08/air-gapped-devices-can-send-covert.html