• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

 | 

Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

 | 

Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

 | 

Unpatched flaw in EoL LG LNV5110R cameras lets hackers gain Admin access

 | 

Koske, a new AI-Generated Linux malware appears in the threat landscape

 | 

Mitel patches critical MiVoice MX-ONE Auth bypass flaw

 | 

Coyote malware is first-ever malware abusing Windows UI Automation

 | 

SonicWall fixed critical flaw in SMA 100 devices exploited in Overstep malware attacks

 | 

DSPM & AI Are Booming: $17.87B and $4.8T Markets by 2033

 | 

Stealth backdoor found in WordPress mu-Plugins folder

 | 

U.S. CISA adds CrushFTP, Google Chromium, and SysAid flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

U.S. CISA urges FCEB agencies to fix two Microsoft SharePoint flaws immediately and added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Sophos fixed two critical Sophos Firewall vulnerabilities

 | 

French Authorities confirm XSS.is admin arrested in Ukraine

 | 

Microsoft linked attacks on SharePoint flaws to China-nexus actors

 | 

Cisco confirms active exploitation of ISE and ISE-PIC flaws

 | 

SharePoint under fire: new ToolShell attacks target enterprises

 | 

CrushFTP zero-day actively exploited at least since July 18

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • BitWhisper – hacking Air-Gapped PCs through heat emissions

BitWhisper – hacking Air-Gapped PCs through heat emissions

Pierluigi Paganini March 25, 2015

Israeli Researchers have defined a new exfiltration technique dubbed BitWhisper that is based on the heat emissions and built-in thermal sensors.

According researchers at the Ben Gurion University in Israel, by detecting the heat from one computer to an adjacent computer, is possible to establish a channel that can  claiming can facilitate the spread of keys, malicious code and more in general any kind of data.

This sort of bridge between the two computers was dubbed BitWhisper by the researchers  that demonstrated how to exploit it to transfer information between the two air-gapped systems. The channel relies on something so called “thermal pings,” a term used by the researchers to identify the repeated fusion of two networks via proximity and heat.

The BitWhisper attack is very complex, but it is very interesting because it doesn’t require any dedicated or modified hardware.

bitwhisper

The researchers involved in the experiment are Researchers Mordechai Guri, Matan Munitz and the professor Yuval Elovici, the three experts plan to publish a paper, entitled “BitWhisper: Covert Signaling Channel between Air-Gapped Computers Using Thermal Manipulations,” describing the BitWhisper technique and findings of their experiment.

“At this stage, the attacker can communicate with the formerly isolated network, issuing commands and receiving responses,” states the report.

The researchers placed two computers at up to 15 inches from each other, they tried to transmit up to 8 bits of data per hour, an amount of information that could be enough to steal sensitive data like user’s credentials and secret keys, or to send commands to any agent listening on the target machine.

An Air-gapped network still represent a stringent security measure when it is necessary to isolate a system from the Internet to preserve it and the data it manages, typical applications are military networks and industrial control systems architectures.

Unfortunately a persistent attacker could by pass the security measure in different ways, by infecting a network with a USB key, like happened to the Stuxnet virus or the Fanny tool used by the Equation Group APT).

On October 2014, Israeli researchers demonstrated how to hack air gapped networks by using other techniques. One research relied on an all-in-one printer, complete with a built-in scanner, to infiltrate an air-gapped network, or a system, and steal sensitive data. The experts demonstrated that it is possible to compromise air-gapped networks controlling the malware with a long-distance laser which could be installed on a drone.

Early 2014, a group of researcher at Ben Gurion University demonstrated how to infect machines in air gapped networks through a cell phone and use the mobile device as an attack vector to hit the computer in the vicinity.

The BitWhisper bridge allows to establish a bidirectional communication channel between two computers by using the heat emitted by various internal components. The experts explained that in order to compromise the machine it is sufficient to infect the machine in the air-gappep network with a malware.

“BitWhisper provides a feasible covert channel, suitable for delivering command and control (C&C) messages, and leaking short chunks of sensitive data such as passwords,” continues the paper. 

In their experimental scenario, the researchers placed two computers parallel to each, one of the machines was connected to the Internet and the other was connected to the air-gapped network.

Hypothesizing that a malicious code was installed on both computers, on sender-end the heat generated by internal component workload (i.e. CPU, GPU) is transferred to the recipient which monitors the changes in temperature.

“BitWhisper establishes a covert channel by emitting heat from one PC to the other in a controlled manner. By regulating the heating patterns, binary data is modulated into thermal signals. In turn, the adjacent PC uses its built-in thermal sensors to measure the environmental changes. These changes are then sampled, processed, and demodulated into binary data,” explained the researchers.

Below the BitWhisper video proof of concept.

 

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  BitWhisper,   air-gapped network)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

air-gapped network BitWhisper Hacking malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 27, 2025
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 27, 2025
Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 55

    Malware / July 27, 2025

    Security Affairs newsletter Round 534 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

    Breaking News / July 27, 2025

    Law enforcement operations seized BlackSuit ransomware gang’s darknet sites

    Cyber Crime / July 26, 2025

    Arizona woman sentenced for aiding North Korea in U.S. IT job fraud scheme

    Intelligence / July 26, 2025

    Operation CargoTalon targets Russia’s aerospace with EAGLET malware,

    Intelligence / July 25, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT