RE: Infrared Vulns on laptops

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To: 'Joseph Mathews' <jmathews@gwu.edu>, "'pen-test@securityfocus.com'" <pen-test@securityfocus.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 08:16:17 -0400

You know, just a thought, what if someone was able to upload a program with
a PDA with IR, then execute it?
J

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Mathews [mailto:jmathews@gwu.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 1:05 PM
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: RE: Infrared Vulns on laptops

You can use a plain mirror to bounce IR signals, however it is subject to
heavy interference. A room with dim external lighting would minimize some.
A neat little trick to tell if your transmitter (or hack) is actually
sending data is to take a digital camera with LCD viewfinder, and point it
at the IR LED. You should be able to see the IR LED blinking through the
viewfinder. You can test this out with a TV remote control and digital
camera.

-----Original Message-----
From: cpreston@gci.net [mailto:cpreston@gci.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 1:05 AM
To: pen-test@securityfocus.com
Subject: Re: Infrared Vulns on laptops

In-Reply-To: <7CD77D0C2B0C6141A928C5F5DC97C4C006514C@ukwtm201>

This is pure speculation, so ... As far as IR range goes, I expect that it
could be dramatically extended by using a good light-gathering device on the
receiving end. If the laptop/device were close to something that reflects
IR, maybe the port wouldn't have to be directly aimed at the receiver. If
you want to have two-way communication, an IR laser is cheap. Getting the
target PC to cooperate would probably be the same order of difficulty as
getting other executable code into a system. Of course, not every laptop
spends most of its hours in the same position on a desk, and not every
executive uses the same laptop in the same airport waiting room frequently,
but... Careful people looking for possible information leaks check for IR
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<7CD77D0C2B0C6141A928C5F5DC97C4C006514C@ukwtm201> >From: "Brewis, Mark"
<mark.brewis@eds.com> >To: "'Whiteside, Larry [contractor]'"
<BAE14@SSP.NAVY.MIL>, > pen-test@securityfocus.com >Subject: RE: Infrared
Vulns on laptops >Da
te: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 19:12:56 +0100 >MIME-Version: 1.0 >X-Mailer: Internet
Mail Service (5.5.2656.59) >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1"
> >Larry, > >There isn't much out there about IrDA vulnerabilities and
hacking, other >than hacking Furbies, or getting your laptop to programme
your video. > >The IR protocol is unicast, so it won't talk to another IrDA
device once a >connection has been made to a particular device. It will
drop and restart >if a connection between one device is lost and another
created. > >Under Windows (including CE) the IrDA connection can be
configured so that >the user has to accept an incoming data transfer. I've
had patchy luck >getting phones and PDA's to talk under Linux, so someone
better versed >should comment on that, but I seem to remember it was much
the same. > >Unless the user has actually enabled and is running the IrDA
interface then >it isn't possible to send anything to a user. Good security
practice is
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• Previous message: Mark Sayer: "Pls. help identify strange service listening on TCP port 25"
• Maybe in reply to: Whiteside, Larry [contractor]: "Infrared Vulns on laptops"
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