6 ms·

Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces prevented 95% of wifi attacks

causality0 4y ago
Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces prevented 95% of wifi attacks is not only not the original title, it is also misleading. The article is about preventing the use of wi-fi sensing to track individuals inside their homes. The correct title is Preventing eavesdropping via the Internet of Things
- transpute 4y ago
  Most consumers are not familiar with Wi-Fi sensing, which can be used to remotely monitor keyboard typing, human heartbeats and other business or home motion by humans and pets. The 2024 launch of IEEE 802.11bf Wi-Fi 7 Sensing will make "X-Ray Vision" accessible to hundreds of millions of consumers globally, unless nation-state regulators intervene. E.g. the introduction of radar sensing on 2.4Ghz/5Ghz/60Ghz could be delayed until local construction/building codes are upgraded to define standards for wireless shielding. Prior discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30172647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30172647 Intel (2020) presentation on Wi-Fi 7, slides #19 and #20 describe Wi-Fi Sensing, https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/pdf/wi-fi-7-and-beyond.pdf https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents...
  - samstave 4y ago
    Assume a building with zero wifi in it.... Can't an enemy simply place wifi routers of its own around the building and monitor what they want freely from their own radios?
    - transpute 4y ago
      Yes, of course. The threat is from wardriving/neighboring wireless devices outside building walls, whose radio waves (2.4Ghz) penetrate the walls of your business or home. This can be done today with $20 ESP32 devices and custom firmware, the difference with Wi-Fi 7 is that it will be built into consumer routers and sold as a feature for monitoring humans (babies, elderly, security, Minority Report-style 3D gesture recognition combined with VR/AR 3D room models from iPhone/iPad Pro lidar). Through-wall Wi-Fi sensing potentially affects anyone who types a password into a computer without 2FA, or uses a physical safe with combination lock or electronic button. Many physical door locks are not secure, so an intruder can enter a building once without detection, to perform a detailed 3D scan of the interior for correlation with external Wi-Fi sensing observations. e.g. here is a photorealistic 3D model of an apartment in San Francisco, generated by an iPhone Pro lidar interior scan by an AirBnb customer, https://poly.cam/capture/C0EBFFE1-FF80-49FC-B308-A8A3E67930FF https://poly.cam/capture/C0EBFFE1-FF80-49FC-B308-A8A3E67930F.... If Wi-Fi 7 Sensing becomes widely available, the interior 3D lidar+photo scan could be combined with an exterior 3D radar scan of the interior. Do AirBnB hosts know their properties can be 3D-scanned?
      - samstave 4y ago
        WOW. Ive not seen one of those iphone lidar caps before... Cant wait until the "obsolete" iphones are just "brain-cards" you slot into a drone body of whatever format you want send it off, and when it returns you just pull the iphone from the slot... or better yet - the drone delivers it as a payload to a spot... What if you have a "drone vending/rental machine" , you select what drone body you want to rent thats compatible with your cpu-drone-phone... rent the thing, stick in the phone to access and control it... with the app on the phone all configured to your settings (wherre it will upload, who controls it, blah blah) When your rental is over - the drone 'phones-home' and sheds its exoskeleton and you take your plane-brain with you!
- jalk 4y ago
  But still a tinfoil hat for the house :-)
  - SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
    They all laughed because of my lead paint. Well who is laughing now?
nonrandomstring 4y ago
This seems to be adding noise in the spatial dimension. However, we know that it's possible to remove added noise using statistical methods, so observers using passive RF monitoring may eventually adapt their algorithms. Ultimately, TEMPEST-like and illumination threats require shielding, and that's expensive in building materials and work. If this became sophisticated enough though, it could be used to simulate false positives, so simulate human presence in a room, throw off the observer or create unreliable evidence. Those are useful counter-surveillance capabilities on their own.
- wolverine876 4y ago
  > it's possible to remove added noise using statistical methods How do the economics work out on the measures and countermeasures? I would guess that not all noise costs the same to remove.
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    It's a cat and mouse game as you probably surmise. What the surveillant wants is a clear signal with features corresponding to known information. The surveilee tries to send noise that most closely mimics those features, so the signal is lost in, and cannot be separated from, that noise. The adversaries each try to find a space unknown to the other (much like cryptography - cryptanalysis) (and undiscoverable by the other in a viable timeframe/information set) For example, speech was traditionally though to be well masked by white noise. But modern filter technology makes short work of removing broadband noise even if the signal is fully buried in it. Instead we now use speech-like fragments as an adversarial mask, as close to the speaker's spectrum and timing as possible. In terms of computational cost it's not a big deal. If it _can_ be removed it probably can in real-time by a well equipt agent.
    - transpute 4y ago
      Is there a Metasploit equivalent for wireless cat-and-mouse games? If not, what would it take to start one, e.g. live CD with pre-configured GNU radio code/plugins that is compatible with low-cost and USRP SDRs? An awesome-wifi-sensing list could be a starting point for aggregation of OSS projects.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
PaulHoule 4y ago
I know that Russian anti-aircraft radars like this one https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/06.missile/karte013.en.html https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/06.missile/karte013.e... have a set of phase-shifting reflectors that steer the beam that goes in and out of a feedhorn. That particular radar, the "Big Bird" has a similar mission to the radar on the US Patriot missile in that it is particularly effective for ballistic missile targets that come in at a high angle. It operates in quite a few modes, as a phased array antenna it can send the beam in different directions without the antenna moving but this loses effectiveness as the angle moves far away from normal... So most of the time it spins around with feedhorns on both sides active and scanning in both directions at once. Alternately it can stop moving and tilt back to optimize the performance in a particular direction.
O__________O 4y ago
Paper’s name is, “IRShield: A Countermeasure Against Adversarial Physical-Layer Wireless Sensing” — and maybe downloaded here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.01967 https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.01967 YouTube of the presentation at the “43rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy” is here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CeXy_KriHEk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CeXy_KriHEk Other presentations from the same event are here: https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2022/program-papers.html https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2022/program-papers.html
transpute 4y ago
Industrial radiant barrier with aluminum on one side and white vinyl for aesthetics on the other side is about $0.25/sq.ft. in the US. Available perforated or impermeable vapor barrier. When grounded, it can be used to shield walls from external surveillance of human activity. Doors and windows require more effort. Intro to shielding: https://www.eiwellspring.org/shielding.html https://www.eiwellspring.org/shielding.html DIY faraday cage: https://mpkb.org/home/special/emf/whitezones/faradaycage https://mpkb.org/home/special/emf/whitezones/faradaycage
- PaulHoule 4y ago
  They put in some insulation between my kitchen and my wood shed which has a metal foil layer on it. WiFi waves are effectively blocked on it and if I want to use WiFi in the wood in the summer I plug in a Ubiquiti AP and a powerline network adapter there.
- teruakohatu 4y ago
  I think our building code in New Zealand no longer allow foil insulation on new buildings for electrical safety reasons.
  - samstave 4y ago
    The safety of the Electronic Surveillance State is threatened by foil insulation, thus we will ban it :-)
  - transpute 4y ago
    Foil insulation should be grounded, both for electrical safety and EMF shielding performance.
    - teruakohatu 4y ago
      It should, but the problem is when 20 years later the grounding is detached (for example new owners are not aware it is even installed). That is why it is banned here and installing it on a new building can carry a six figure fine.

Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces prevented 95% of wifi attacks is not only not the original title, it is also misleading. The article is about preventing the use of wi-fi sensing to track individuals inside their homes. The correct title is Preventing eavesdropping via the Internet of Things

transpute 4y ago
Most consumers are not familiar with Wi-Fi sensing, which can be used to remotely monitor keyboard typing, human heartbeats and other business or home motion by humans and pets. The 2024 launch of IEEE 802.11bf Wi-Fi 7 Sensing will make "X-Ray Vision" accessible to hundreds of millions of consumers globally, unless nation-state regulators intervene. E.g. the introduction of radar sensing on 2.4Ghz/5Ghz/60Ghz could be delayed until local construction/building codes are upgraded to define standards for wireless shielding. Prior discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30172647 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30172647 Intel (2020) presentation on Wi-Fi 7, slides #19 and #20 describe Wi-Fi Sensing, https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/pdf/wi-fi-7-and-beyond.pdf https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents...
- samstave 4y ago
  Assume a building with zero wifi in it.... Can't an enemy simply place wifi routers of its own around the building and monitor what they want freely from their own radios?
  - transpute 4y ago
    Yes, of course. The threat is from wardriving/neighboring wireless devices outside building walls, whose radio waves (2.4Ghz) penetrate the walls of your business or home. This can be done today with $20 ESP32 devices and custom firmware, the difference with Wi-Fi 7 is that it will be built into consumer routers and sold as a feature for monitoring humans (babies, elderly, security, Minority Report-style 3D gesture recognition combined with VR/AR 3D room models from iPhone/iPad Pro lidar). Through-wall Wi-Fi sensing potentially affects anyone who types a password into a computer without 2FA, or uses a physical safe with combination lock or electronic button. Many physical door locks are not secure, so an intruder can enter a building once without detection, to perform a detailed 3D scan of the interior for correlation with external Wi-Fi sensing observations. e.g. here is a photorealistic 3D model of an apartment in San Francisco, generated by an iPhone Pro lidar interior scan by an AirBnb customer, https://poly.cam/capture/C0EBFFE1-FF80-49FC-B308-A8A3E67930FF https://poly.cam/capture/C0EBFFE1-FF80-49FC-B308-A8A3E67930F.... If Wi-Fi 7 Sensing becomes widely available, the interior 3D lidar+photo scan could be combined with an exterior 3D radar scan of the interior. Do AirBnB hosts know their properties can be 3D-scanned?
    - samstave 4y ago
      WOW. Ive not seen one of those iphone lidar caps before... Cant wait until the "obsolete" iphones are just "brain-cards" you slot into a drone body of whatever format you want send it off, and when it returns you just pull the iphone from the slot... or better yet - the drone delivers it as a payload to a spot... What if you have a "drone vending/rental machine" , you select what drone body you want to rent thats compatible with your cpu-drone-phone... rent the thing, stick in the phone to access and control it... with the app on the phone all configured to your settings (wherre it will upload, who controls it, blah blah) When your rental is over - the drone 'phones-home' and sheds its exoskeleton and you take your plane-brain with you!
jalk 4y ago
But still a tinfoil hat for the house :-)
- SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
  They all laughed because of my lead paint. Well who is laughing now?

nonrandomstring 4y ago

This seems to be adding noise in the spatial dimension. However, we know that it's possible to remove added noise using statistical methods, so observers using passive RF monitoring may eventually adapt their algorithms. Ultimately, TEMPEST-like and illumination threats require shielding, and that's expensive in building materials and work. If this became sophisticated enough though, it could be used to simulate false positives, so simulate human presence in a room, throw off the observer or create unreliable evidence. Those are useful counter-surveillance capabilities on their own.

wolverine876 4y ago
> it's possible to remove added noise using statistical methods How do the economics work out on the measures and countermeasures? I would guess that not all noise costs the same to remove.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago
  It's a cat and mouse game as you probably surmise. What the surveillant wants is a clear signal with features corresponding to known information. The surveilee tries to send noise that most closely mimics those features, so the signal is lost in, and cannot be separated from, that noise. The adversaries each try to find a space unknown to the other (much like cryptography - cryptanalysis) (and undiscoverable by the other in a viable timeframe/information set) For example, speech was traditionally though to be well masked by white noise. But modern filter technology makes short work of removing broadband noise even if the signal is fully buried in it. Instead we now use speech-like fragments as an adversarial mask, as close to the speaker's spectrum and timing as possible. In terms of computational cost it's not a big deal. If it _can_ be removed it probably can in real-time by a well equipt agent.
  - transpute 4y ago
    Is there a Metasploit equivalent for wireless cat-and-mouse games? If not, what would it take to start one, e.g. live CD with pre-configured GNU radio code/plugins that is compatible with low-cost and USRP SDRs? An awesome-wifi-sensing list could be a starting point for aggregation of OSS projects.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

PaulHoule 4y ago

I know that Russian anti-aircraft radars like this one https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/06.missile/karte013.en.html https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/06.missile/karte013.e... have a set of phase-shifting reflectors that steer the beam that goes in and out of a feedhorn. That particular radar, the "Big Bird" has a similar mission to the radar on the US Patriot missile in that it is particularly effective for ballistic missile targets that come in at a high angle. It operates in quite a few modes, as a phased array antenna it can send the beam in different directions without the antenna moving but this loses effectiveness as the angle moves far away from normal... So most of the time it spins around with feedhorns on both sides active and scanning in both directions at once. Alternately it can stop moving and tilt back to optimize the performance in a particular direction.

O__________O 4y ago

Paper’s name is, “IRShield: A Countermeasure Against Adversarial Physical-Layer Wireless Sensing” — and maybe downloaded here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.01967 https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.01967 YouTube of the presentation at the “43rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy” is here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CeXy_KriHEk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CeXy_KriHEk Other presentations from the same event are here: https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2022/program-papers.html https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2022/program-papers.html

transpute 4y ago

Industrial radiant barrier with aluminum on one side and white vinyl for aesthetics on the other side is about $0.25/sq.ft. in the US. Available perforated or impermeable vapor barrier. When grounded, it can be used to shield walls from external surveillance of human activity. Doors and windows require more effort. Intro to shielding: https://www.eiwellspring.org/shielding.html https://www.eiwellspring.org/shielding.html DIY faraday cage: https://mpkb.org/home/special/emf/whitezones/faradaycage https://mpkb.org/home/special/emf/whitezones/faradaycage

PaulHoule 4y ago
They put in some insulation between my kitchen and my wood shed which has a metal foil layer on it. WiFi waves are effectively blocked on it and if I want to use WiFi in the wood in the summer I plug in a Ubiquiti AP and a powerline network adapter there.
teruakohatu 4y ago
I think our building code in New Zealand no longer allow foil insulation on new buildings for electrical safety reasons.
- samstave 4y ago
  The safety of the Electronic Surveillance State is threatened by foil insulation, thus we will ban it :-)
- transpute 4y ago
  Foil insulation should be grounded, both for electrical safety and EMF shielding performance.
  - teruakohatu 4y ago
    It should, but the problem is when 20 years later the grounding is detached (for example new owners are not aware it is even installed). That is why it is banned here and installing it on a new building can carry a six figure fine.