What if your phone starts making calls, sending text messages and browsing Internet itself without even asking you ?
Its just like in imaginations – because hackers found a new way and it’s possible to make that happen using your phone’s personal assistant Siri or Google Now.
Security researchers were discovered that a new hack ‘Radio Wave’ could allow hackers to make the calls / sms / browser a malware site and do other activites using your iOS / Android devices personal assistant Siri or Google Now – without your permission.
A group of researchers from French government agency ANSSI have discovered that a hacker can control your device remotely and silently transmitting radio commands from 16 feet away from you..
How does it works ?
It is very interesting and a mind-blowing technique.
The Hack utilizes:
- An iPhone or Android handset with headphones plugged in
- A radio transmitter
The radio transmitter sends radio waves to silently trigger voice commands on any iPhone or Android phone (with a pair of microphone-enabled headphones plugged in) that has Siri or Google Now enabled respectively.
Where the headphones’ cables act as radio antennas, which can be exploited to trick an iPhone or Android phone user into believing that the voice commands are coming from the user’s microphone.
This could leverage a hacker to do whole lots of things on victim’s mobile phone without even speaking a word, including:
- Make calls
- Send text messages
- Dial the hacker’s number to turn victim’s phone into an eavesdropping device
- Browse to malware websites
- Send phishing and spam messages using Facebook, Twitter or email
“You could imagine a bar or an airport where there are lots of people,” Vincent Strubel, the director of the research group at ANSSI told Wired. “Sending out some electromagnetic waves could cause many smartphones to call a paid number and generate cash.“
Dependencies:
The hack only requires:
- A headphone-connected iPhone or Android phone
- Siri enabled from the lockscreen — which is Apple’s Default setting.
In its smallest form, this hack could be performed from a range of around six and a half feet.
A more powerful hack that ranges to more than 16 feet requires larger batteries and could only fit inside a car, the researchers said..
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