Machines in the sky could read data from unsuspecting users' mobile phones, says a computer security company. For that reason it presented Snoopy, software for small drones that deceives smartphones by masquerading as friendly wireless networks.
The company's Snoopy exploits the fact that Wi-Fi enabled phones constantly search for familiar wireless networks — such as the user's home or work network — to automatically connect to those networks.
The signals emitted by the phone during the search reveal, in the first phase, the unique MAC identity of the phone, explains Glen Wilkinson, the researcher at SensePost who developed Snoopy
«When the smartphone searches for access points it had previously connected to, it reveals the MAC address. This is the device’s unique number, through which we can recognize that a device is in a specific location and at a specific time» says Wilkinson.
In other words, a small drone in which a small computer with Snoopy has been installed can continuously monitor the movements of a specific user. This can even happen when the drone is at a relatively great distance and the user cannot see or hear it.
Snoopy, however, does not stop here. After recognizing a specific user's device, the software launches a “karma attack», in which it mimics one of the user's familiar wireless networks and invites the phone to connect to it.
This allows the interception of data entered by the user while connected to the rogue network -from passwords to email messages and banking data.
At the Black Hat hacking conference held in Singapore, Wickinson demonstrated the system to the BBC correspondent. The software, which ran on a laptop instead of a drone, was able to determine the home address of a user who was in the hall and display a photo of the street of that address.
Wickinson even admits that for the past year and a half he has been collecting data from the mobile phones of researchers attending conferences in order to monitor who went to which event.
His advice to users is to turn off the Wi‑Fi function on the phone when they don’t need it.
Source: koutipandoras.gr
