Viral Wiretap?

["Dave Falloon" <dave.falloon () analogda com>]

Hello,
        This is more of a thought experiment than a problem.  I recently read an
article in 2600 about remotely operating the microphone on a computer to
record what a user is saying.  Potentially this could be extended to the
following situation:

- A virus attacks and arbitrary code running exploit on a machine
- it starts up the microphone and runs something similar to RecAll which is
used by ham operaters to record traffic that is identified as human voice
- As traffic is recorded it is transcribed to text using something similar
to the eff's ears program
- Then the compressed text is send via the network to different hosts p2p
style masking the virus originators identity, then the text could be worked
on easily with a home built perl script that grabs any important numbers
credit cards, phone numbers, really anything and everything about a person
could be found out

Think of the sensitive data that would be flowing if this hit your office?
An unscrupulous individual could sell your trade secrets to your competition
or perhaps blow the doors wide open on your enron-esque embezzlement scheme.

Is there anything really stopping something like this from happening?  I for
one disconnected the mic on my gaming headset, but how many people out there
are using the default setup they got from dell including the little built in
microphone on your monitor, or where ever it may be?

Just some more dire thoughts to get the ulcer working over time.  Any
comments on the feasibility of this type of bug?

Dave Falloon

White Hat, Black Hat, Asshat, which h4x0r will get you?


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