A group of researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have developed a way to use the sensors in high-quality optical mice to capture subtle vibrations and convert them into audible data. According to the abstract of Mic-E-Mouse (full PDF here), the high polling rate and sensitivity of high-performance optical mice pick up acoustic vibrations from the surface where they sit. By running the raw data through signal processing and machine learning techniques, the team could hear what the user was saying through their desk.
Mouse sensors with a 20,000 DPI or higher are vulnerable to this attack. And with the best gaming mice becoming more affordable annually, even relatively affordable peripherals are at risk. It all begins when a user has a mouse like this attached to a compromised computer.
Mic-E-Mouse Pipeline Demonstration - YouTube
Although this is a novel method for extracting audio from unsuspecting targets, it’s not exactly the first time that someone has attempted to covertly record targets. One famous example from the Cold War was when the KGB gifted the American ambassador in Moscow a replica of the Great Seal with an embedded passive microphone. It only activated when it was hit by a high-frequency radio signal, leaving it undetected for nearly seven years.
The concept of the Mic-E-Mouse is similar — using an unsuspecting device to capture audio data. However, this method is empowered by AI models, allowing the researchers to get a speech recognition accuracy of about 42 to 61%, effectively turning your mouse into an eavesdropping microphone, though.
The proof of concept is certainly unnerving, but it will hopefully prompt future steps taken to prevent this sort of acoustic privacy violation, the kind that would have been unthinkable in a world before AI.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!