How Academics Turn RAM Into a Wi-Fi Card and Steal Data
RAM or memory cards are installed on the motherboard or motherboard to act as random access memory in the computer system. A RAM card is like an accomplice to your internal and main processor on the motherboard – it helps your system run smoothly.
A larger set of RAM cards will allow you to do great video editing and gaming as it will give you lots of temporary storage space which will also reduce the load on your physical and virtual devices.
Scientists at an Israeli university have published a new study describing the technique of turning a RAM card into an emergency wireless transmitter and transmitting sensitive data through a device without a connection to the local network or other (airspace devices). no wi-fi card.
Academics turn RAM into a Wi-Fi card and steal data
This technique, known as AIR-FI, originated with Mordechai Guri, head of Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Israel.
Over the past decade, Guri has led dozens of research projects investigating data theft using unconventional methods of systems that are not connected to the local network or otherwise ( Air-gapped systems).
Security researchers call this type of technique a “secret filtering channel.” This is not a computer logging technique, but rather a technique that allows data to be stolen in ways the user does not expect.
Such data pollution channels pose no threat to ordinary users, but a constant threat to airspace network administrators. An air-gapped system is a computer isolated on a local network without external internet access. Air gapped systems are often used on government, military, or corporate networks to store sensitive information.
At the heart of AIR-FI technology is the fact that every electronic component generates an electromagnetic wave when electricity passes through it. Since Wi-Fi signals are radio waves and radio transmitters are electromagnetic waves, Guri claims that malicious code placed on the “air system” by attackers could manipulate the performance in a RAM card, called electromagnetic waves at frequencies compatible with the normal range of the Wi-Fi signal. Fi (2,400 GHz).
In his research report “AIR-FI: Generates a Hidden WiFi Signal From a Computer Covered by Air” Guri points out that perfectly synchronized read and write functions on a computer’s RAM card can cause the card’s memory bus to emit weak electromagnetic waves. Compatible with WiFi signals.
This signal can then be received by anything with a WiFi antenna near the “airspace system” eg, from smartphones, laptops, IoT devices, smartwatches, and more.
According to Guri, he has tested the technology with various computer platforms with an air pass, where the Wi-Fi card has been removed and data can reach devices several meters at speeds of up to 100 bps.
Guri, who has investigated dozens of other hidden data filtering channels in the past, said AIR-FI attacks were one of the simplest because attackers should not be granted root/administrator privileges before running an exploit.
Source of information: zdnet.com
