From: cpreston@gci.net
Date: Thu Aug 14 2003 - 01:04:51 EDT
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 sources among other wireless possibilities.
cmp
>Received: (qmail 2581 invoked from network); 11 Aug
2003 18:46:42 -0000
>Received: from outgoing2.securityfocus.com
(205.206.231.26)
> by mail.securityfocus.com with SMTP; 11 Aug 2003
18:46:42 -0000
>Received: from lists.securityfocus.com
(lists.securityfocus.com [205.206.231.19])
> by outgoing2.securityfocus.com (Postfix) with QMQP
> id C85488F35A; Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:49:15 -0600 (MDT)
>Mailing-List: contact pen-test-help@securityfocus.com;
run by ezmlm
>Precedence: bulk
>List-Id: <pen-test.list-id.securityfocus.com>
>List-Post: <mailto:pen-test@securityfocus.com>
>List-Help: <mailto:pen-test-help@securityfocus.com>
>List-Unsubscribe:
<mailto:pen-test-unsubscribe@securityfocus.com>
>List-Subscribe:
<mailto:pen-test-subscribe@securityfocus.com>
>Delivered-To: mailing list pen-test@securityfocus.com
>Delivered-To: moderator for pen-test@securityfocus.com
>Received: (qmail 23410 invoked from network); 11 Aug
2003 12:07:04 -0000
>Message-ID:
<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
>Date: 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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Sat Apr 12 2008 - 10:53:38 EDT