Linux is the only way to defend against "sound transfer malware"

Scientists have developed a new type of malware that uses sound waves for self-propagation. It seems that Linux is the only operating system capable of defending against such attacks.

Scientists from Germany, Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz, have developed a technology that allows malware to spread itself to other computers through microphones and speakers.

"You only need to establish a communication connection in some unexpected ways in the computer system, and some hidden channels can bypass the security policies of the system and the network. We have constructed a secret channel between different computer operating systems to exchange data between computer systems using audio encoding/decoding and air as media ." Two scientists published their papers in Journal of communications.

This method proves a very powerful method to infect computers, especially because infected computers do not even need to access the network. The condition required by this method is "close range ".

Another problem is that, in fact, the operating system does not have any ready-made defense measures to defend against such attacks. The good news is that Linux users can get the necessary protection through some small modifications.

The developer introduced that the Linux system itself can be adjusted by any programming, which is relatively easier to adapt to this new form of attacks.

"If the audio input/output device cannot be closed, audio filtering settings may be an alternative to prevent malicious software from being triggered to join the private network ."

"In a Linux-based operating system, audio filtering software can use ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Advanced Linux audio Architecture) work with LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API Linux Audio Developer Simple plug-in API) to implement the above filtering function."

"Sound transfer malware" is a new thing. It's no wonder there is no defense against it, but from another perspective, this also reflects why Linux is a safer operating system.