Hacking has reached to a new level and this time, a team of seven researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University have discovered a loophole that could be used by hackers to take control of your smartphone. Thank’s to Google Now and Apple’s Siri the voice recognition services for making it easier to hack devices. As we all know that Voice recognition services like Google Now, Cortana and Apple’s Siri which runs on Android, Windows, and iOS devices are able to recognize sounds that are even inaudible to a human ear. So in this case, some modular commands may be hidden in the form of Youtube Videos, Audio files or download files by torrent. According to the sources, when a user is viewing a tainted Youtube video on Laptop, PC, TV and Smartphone that contains hidden commands and if any of voice recognition services are left open on the smartphone, then it is pretty sure the mangled voice from tainted Youtube video is to be picked up by your smartphone. Moreover, some filtering features are also included with Siri or Google now that will make it easier for hackers by cleaning out unwanted sounds and executing the commands. Researchers had also recorded a video of their attack, which clearly shows that some of the mangled voice commands are easy to understand for humans paying enough attention, but some of the commands are not.
The type of hidden commands inside some videos ranges from simple Google searches to download and install malware which can allow hackers to take full control of the device. Researchers recommend that the developer of voice recognition systems create filters able to recognize the difference between human and synthesized voices or simply notifying the user when voice commands are accepted.
