Researchers demonstrated a unique attack method.
A group of researchers at the University of Texas, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Institute of Technology show in a research paper that attackers can utilize the mobile battery to utilize a smartphone.
Researchers demonstrated a unique attack method.
A group of researchers at the University of Texas, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Institute of Technology show in a research paper that attackers can utilize the mobile battery to utilize a smartphone.
Attacks through the battery
According to the group, an infected battery can collect enough battery usage information that can reveal how the owner uses the device, thus linking power streams to keystrokes, the context in which it occurs and what happened in advance or after printing. For example, a malicious battery may detect that the user visits a particular webpage and the attacker can exploit this.
"Together, these sections of information build a coherent image of the user's activity, which dramatically enhances the possibility of individual attacks", writes the group about the disclosures.
The research group demonstrated the method of implanting a microcontroller in the battery to monitor the battery power in and out at 1 kHz, to associate it with various actions on the smartphone.
Fortunately, it does not appear that one has to worry about such attacks with the first one. The solution has only been tested under controlled conditions and is currently difficult to exploit.