3 ms·

Analog headphone amplifiers are quite easy to come by and can fix the problem for the ultimate paranoids.

• mojuba 10y ago
  Or USB amps for that matter.
  • mark-r 10y ago
    The original exploit shows that you really can't trust any digital device connected to the headphones. USB doesn't provide any isolation, it can be used for input as well as output.
  • Florin_Andrei 10y ago
    If the USB amp uses the same RealTek chip, then good luck with trusting it.
    • planteen 10y ago
      If it is constructed just that there is an amplifier after what is supposed to be the output channel, you would probably be fine even if it was the the RealTek chip. There isn't going to be much coupling between a signal input to the output of the amplifier going back to the input as an output.
• mikey_p 10y ago
  This exploit only works with analog headphones. They don't solve anything.
  • detaro 10y ago
    You won't get any signal back through an amplifier between the ouput (now input) and the headphones, so yes, adding one helps.
    • qb45 10y ago
      This ought to be true in most HP amps out there but there may be exceptions and possibly (I wonder if anybody ever investigated it?) some parasitic coupling too. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13014435#13018118 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13014435#13018118