Yaniv Balmas

We all know what FAX is, and for some strange reason most of us need to use it from time to time. Hard to believe its 2018, right? But can FAX be something more than a bureaucratic burden? Can it actually be a catastrophic security hole that may be used to compromise your entire network? Come watch our talk and find out …

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past 30 years or so, you probably know what a fax machine is. For decades, fax machines were used worldwide as the main way of electronic document delivery. But this happened in the 1980s. Humanity has since developed far more advanced ways to send digital content, and fax machines are all in the past, right? After all, they should now be nothing more than a glorified museum item. Who on earth is still using fax machines? The answer, to our great horror, is EVERYONE. State authorities, banks, service providers and many others are still using fax machines, despite their debatable quality and almost non-existent security. In fact, using fax machines is often mandatory and considered a solid and trustworthy method of delivering information. What the Fax?! We embarked on a journey with the singular goal of disrupting this insane state of affairs. We went to work, determined to show that the common fax machine could be compromised via mere access to its fully exposed and unprotected telephone line – thus completely bypassing all perimeter security protections and shattering to pieces all modern-day security concepts. Join us as we take you through the strange world of embedded operating systems, 30-year-old protocols, museum grade compression algorithms, weird extensions and undebuggable environments. See for yourself first-hand as we give a live demonstration of the first ever full fax exploitation, leading to complete control over the entire device as well as the network, using nothing but a standard telephone line. This talk is intended to be the canary in the coal mine. The technology community cannot sit idly by while this ongoing madness is allowed to continue! The world must stop using FAX!

Other people: Eyal Itkin

Key-Loggers are cool, really cool. It seems, however, that every conceivable aspect of key-logging has already been covered: from physical devices to hooking techniques. What possible innovation could be left in this field?

Well, that’s what we used to think too. That is until we noticed that little grey box sitting there underneath a monitor, next to yesterday’s dirty coffee cup. The little grey box that is most commonly known as ‚KVM‘. The talk will tell the tale of our long journey to transform an innocent KVM into a raging key-logging monster. We will safely guide you through the embedded wastelands, past unknown IC’s, to explore uncharted serial protocols and unravel monstrous obfuscation techniques. Walking along the misty firmware woods of 8051 assembly we will challenge ambiguous functions, and confront undebuggable environments. Finally, we will present a live demo of our POC code and show you that air-gapped networks might not be as segregated as you imagined. You will witness that malware code could actually reside outside your computer, persisting through reboots, wipes, formats, and even hardware replacements. You might laugh, you might cry, but one thing is certain – you will never look at your KVM the same as before Our presentation will guide the audience trough an entire research project process: from the choice of a research subject, the learning stage, trough the many failures along the way, and until a complete success is finally achieved. Our research process provides useful insights for both entry-level and experienced researchers in the hardware hacking area. This research sheds light on a brand new field that has yet to be uncovered by the security community. We believe that CCC, as one of the world’s largest security convention, will provide the most suitable stage to share our research story and its implications. And finally, this talk is the product of a long research project which was both fulfilling and exciting, we are confident the audience will relive our experiences throughout the presentation.