Comment by mikestew
21 hours ago
“One of the higher-frequency harmonics inevitably created by any real-world DAC during playback will then be the original fundamental, which should leak to the environment as a short-range radio transmission via the ad-hoc antenna formed by the physical wires and circuit traces in the audio output path.”
Sometimes I think I’m a smart guy…and then I read of people doing shit like this.
THIS is what you call hacking
A shame this hasn't shot to number 1 on HN and stayed there. At least it's getting reasonable upvotes.
This is a truly fantastic piece of hacking, going by the original meaning of the word as used within the dawn of the computer era.
Van Eck Phreaking dates back to 1982, which used CRTs, and if you're aware of that, it's not an insurmountably huge logical leap to realize that modern hardware can be exploited the same way (thanks to greater sensitivity in receiving devices).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking
I first learned about this while reading Cryptonomicon. It seemed too fantastical to be a real thing.
Pretty sure it was in Snow Crash
Reminds me of the theremin. Turning an interference into something useful (or beautiful)
Came here to say this, I literally can't believe this works.
It's like a couple of years ago where someone showed a proof of concept of turning a HDD into a microphone
It turns out those shopping car wheel locks use the same kind of low-frequency RF that can leak from your phone speaker. Someone made an app that allows you to lock or unlock certain shopping carts.
… and I thought the Scanjet 5p “Ode to Joy” easter egg was incredible.