Researchers Reveal How Malware May Be Secretly Transmitted Through Audio Signals

Cybercrooks and hackers are always on the lookout for new ways to spread their malware while avoiding any potential roadblocks. Researchers have recently published a paper on covert communication channels that utilize audio signals to transmit data from one computer to another and found where experts have a prototype malware capable of sending small amounts of data through inaudible audio signals.

The use of audio signals to transmit data is nothing really new under the sun. However, the idea of sending malicious software from one computer to another system via audio signals that the human ear cannot recognize is relatively new and uncharted territory.

While researchers have landed on this ground of uncertainty when it comes to sending malicious software to computers through audio signals, the whole idea circulates around a particular type of malware. The specific malware used in this proof of concept can be extremely dangerous for organizations that keep certain systems isolated from the network or the internet. Such systems are usually ones storing sensitive data or information that firms or organizations cannot afford to allow access to over a normal network.

This malware is somewhat of a recall of the badBIOS malware, which is still a mystery to researchers today where it was thought to use methods to jump air gaps to spread from system to system. Such a piece of malware would essentially be capable of infecting systems through means of an audio signal transmission. This air gap is essentially the space made between systems connected to a network or Internet and ones that are disconnected from the connectivity so that the stored data remains in a much safer environment. BadBIOS or a similar threat could very well be part of bridging that gap with the assistance of transmitting inaudible audio signals back and forth.

Researchers believe to this day that using audio signals could end up being a serious threat to systems that are intentionally left out of the connection loop of a network. The paper that started this whole debacle is currently available in the Journal of Communications.

After perusing over the data found in the report, it is safe to conclude that the newfound idea of transmitting malware through audio signals is a feasible means of infecting systems vulnerable outside of the normal networking infrastructure.