Researchers from the University of the Negev (Israel) published an article that showed how you can extract data from the system using a SATA cable. At the same time, it does not matter at all whether this system is connected to the Internet, data transmission occurs at a distance of up to 1 meter, since the cable itself acts as a wireless transmitter, and data can be intercepted in the form of a radio signal in the 6 GHz band. And all this without physical intervention in the system, modification of the SATA cable or other equipment. This attack is called SATAn.
SATA is used in billions of devices around the world to connect hard drives and solid state drives, making this interface an ideal target for attackers. Some systems that store sensitive data are isolated from any connection to the outside world and do not have any data communication equipment (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi), so sophisticated methods are required to hack them.
Mordechai Guri turned a standard SATA cable into a radio transmitter without any modifications. The SATA interface generates electromagnetic interference during normal operation, this interference can be controlled, and also used for data transfer, duplicating them on a neighboring machine. In this case, the SATA cable acts as a wireless antenna operating in the 6 GHz frequency band. The attack can be used in conjunction with keyloggers to steal passwords or other sensitive data.
Naturally, the attacker must first install malicious software on the target machine, but this is quite possible, as practice shows. After that, it encodes the necessary data, accesses the file system to generate a signal on the cable. The receiving device must be nearby, as there may be errors when transmitting data over a distance.
Researchers offer several ways to prevent such attacks, but all of them are not reliable. In addition to the usual network security rules, you can exclude the use of SATA drives. Another option is to add additional electromagnetic shielding to the cable or to the computer case. The attack itself is too complex and unlikely to affect users of conventional home systems.
Source: Trash Box
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