2013-06-03
Abstract
Researchers show malware on a mobile device can be triggered by music.
Copyright © 2013 Virus Bulletin
Music may soon do more than make the world go round, according to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
The researchers investigated the possibility of malware on mobile devices being activated and controlled via sensing enabled channels – based on acoustic, visual, magnetic and vibrational signalling. They placed a piece of malware on an Android phone and found that they were able to send an activation signal to it using music – from a distance of 55 feet.
The researchers also managed to successfully activate the malware using using music videos; the light emitted from a television, computer monitor and overhead bulbs; vibrations from a subwoofer; and magnetic fields.
Unlike traditional means of controlling malware, which rely on network based channels that can easily be detected and blocked by firewalls and anti-malware products, the methods demonstrated by the UAB researchers would be extremely difficult to detect.
While the researchers acknowledge that an attack such as this is highly sophisticated and currently very difficult to build, they warn that it will become easier to accomplish in the future as technology moves on, and called for the industry to look at creating appropriate defences before these techniques become widespread.
The full paper can be found at http://students.cis.uab.edu/zawoad/paper/asia03-hasan.pdf.
