SATA cable leveraged in novel air-gap attacks

Threat actors could leverage Serial ATA cables to exfiltrate data from air-gap computers, reports The Hacker News. "Although air-gap computers have no wireless connectivity, we show that attackers can use the SATA cable as a wireless antenna to transfer radio signals at the 6GHz frequency band," wrote Ben Gurion University Cyber Security Research Center R&D Head Dr. Mordechai Guri. Dubbed SATAn, the novel hacking technique involves the use of a SATA cable for electromagnetic signal emanation that would facilitate wireless transfers of sensitive data from air-gapped computers to receivers more than a meter away. Following initial penetration, attackers could then perform reconnaissance, data collection, and data exfiltration from workstations with active SATA. "The receiver monitors the 6GHz spectrum for a potential transmission, demodulates the data, decodes it, and sends it to the attacker," said Guri. Usage of an external radio frequency system for identifying 6GHz frequency band anomalies has been recommended to avert such an attack.