Security researchers from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have explained that security cameras infected with malware can receive hidden commands and disclose sensitive data from the same monitoring devices used to protect buildings.
The researchers said that the technique will run on both professional and home security cameras, and even LED doorbells, which can detect infrared light (IR), not apparent to the human eye.
According to the researchers:
“In this paper, we show how attackers can use surveillance cameras and infrared light to establish bi-directional covert communication between the internal networks of organizations and remote attackers. We present two scenarios: exfiltration (leaking data out of the network) and infiltration (sending data into the network).”
The malware is able to leak and steal data from an infected system such as credentials and cryptographic keys, at a speed of 15 bit/sec, and then transform it into a series of ones and zeros that is then transmitted by blinking the IR LEDs. But, in this technique, the attacker must find a way to insert the compromised hardware into the building.
Infrared light is transparent to humans but can be optically recorded by many kinds of cameras. Attackers can exploit indoor and outdoor monitoring cameras for data exfiltration and infiltration via IR illumination
