Monitors Vulnerable To Hijacking And Spying

Researchers have found a way to hack into monitors so they can see what is being displayed, as well as manipulate pixels so they can display different images. One billion monitors are reportedly susceptible, as most use the same processor that is vulnerable to this exploit.

During a demo at the Red Balloon offices in New York City earlier this week, Cui and his colleagues showed me how the hack works. Essentially, if a hacker can get you to visit a malicious website or click on a phishing link, they can then target the monitor's embedded computer, specifically its firmware. This is the computer that controls the menu to change brightness and other simple settings on the monitor.

The hacker can then put an implant there programmed to wait for further instructions. Then, the way the hacker can communicate with the implant is rather shrewd. The implant can be programmed to wait for commands sent over by a blinking pixel, which could be included in any video or a website. Essentially, that pixel is uploading code to the monitor. At that point, the hacker can mess with your monitor.

In practice, Cui said this could be used to both spy on you, but also show you stuff that's actually not there. A scenario where that could dangerous is if hackers mess with the monitor displaying controls for a power plant, perhaps faking an emergency.