A novel acoustic attack named ‘PIXHELL’ can leak secrets from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems, and without requiring speakers, through the LCD monitors they connect to.
In a PIXHELL attack, malware modulates the pixel patterns on LCD screens to induce noise in the frequency range of 0–22 kHz, carrying encoded signals within those acoustic waves that can be captured by nearby devices such as smartphones.
The researchers’ tests showed that data exfiltration is possible at a maximum distance of 2 meters (6.5 ft), achieving a data rate of 20 bits per second (bps).
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