PowerHammer: Exfiltrating Data from Air-Gapped Computers through Power Lines

Understand

In this paper we provide an implementation, evaluation, and analysis of PowerHammer, a malware (bridgeware [1]) that uses power lines to exfiltrate data from air-gapped computers.

• In this case, a malicious code running on a compromised computer can control the power consumption of the system by intentionally regulating the CPU utilization.
• Data is modulated, encoded, and transmitted on top of the current flow fluctuations, and then it is conducted and propagated through the power lines.
• This phenomena is known as a 'conducted emission'.