A
combined research has been conducted by UC Berkeley and Georgetown
University to demonstrate how distorted voice commands hidden in
YouTube videos can be used to attack a smartphone. The research shows
that certain
harmful commands that can be understood by our voice
assistants can be hidden inside a YouTube video.
peech recognition systems have trailed on the path of
advancement faster than what the world has expected. We’re very well
aware of the presence of mind shown by Siri and Cortana. But these
qualities manifested by our beloved voice
assistants have now become a matter of concern.
According to a research paper titled as
Hidden Voice Commands, an attacker can use video from YouTube or any
other source to hack your smartphone. Sounds next to impossible but the
idea is not that insane as you may assume. The researchers are
sure about the experiments they’ve carried out.
What
exactly happens is that voice commands which can be understood by voice
assistants are packed inside a YouTube video such that a human
can’t understand them.
Once you start playing a YouTube video on your computer or
laptop on speakers, the hidden commands in the malicious video can
trigger operations in your smartphone lying nearby. Tasks like opening a
particular web page and downloading some malware
can be accomplished even without the knowledge of the user. This would
allow the attacker to perform things on your device which you might
regret.
Two
models have been proposed in the research conducted at UC Berkeley and
Georgetown University. First, the black-box model, which consists
of testing with voices which can be deciphered by a human if he
concentrates. A prime benefit described is that if the listener already
knows that command present in the distorted voice, then it would be easy
for him to understand it by unconsciously hearing
the message.
Listen
yourself:
The
White-box model involves totally distorted voices for which chances are next to impossible of being understood by a human.
Example:
The
researchers are also working on an alarming system which would warn the
users if any such command gets initiated on their smartphone. The
attack detection accuracy
is 99.8% with a machine learning approach and a challenge response
system created by the researchers. You can visit the Hidden Voice Commands website for more such commands and other technical stuff about the research.
Security
issues like these are a great worry in the century when tech giants are
busy enhancing
the ability of their voice assistants. For example, Google is working
on a version of Google Now which works without the internet.
Check
out the demo video uploaded by the researchers. In the video, they have
shown how the smartphone response to distorted voice commands:
Feel free to share
your views about these developments in the comments below.
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