Beware Of SurfingAttack Unless You Want To Share Your Texts

Suffering A Rather Embarrassing Ultrasonic Attack

Your phone can hear a wider range of sound than you, as we have seen in previously revealed vulnerabilities involving inaudible sounds and today we have heard of a new threat called SurfingAttack.  As a proof of concept the researchers tested this attack on 17 different mobile devices, 13 with Google Assistant, and four with Apple’s Siri active and succeeded on all but two of them.

While the attack does not directly steal information or take ownership of the device there are many that will find what it does even worse than that.  It will allow the attacker to convince your virtual assistant to start reading your texts, aloud over the speaker on your phone.  There is good news for those who would rather death than having their texts shared out loud, as the attack requires the ultrasonic commands to be in your own voice.  The Register also helpfully points out that you can disable the feature which allows your voice to unlock the phone, which should also save you from embarrassment.