Stephenson:Neal:Cryptonomicon:303:Van Eck phreaking(Alan Sinder)
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This Cryptonomicon page is on Phreaking
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There are kinks in every geek ... Someone is knocking on his door. Randy gets up and puts on his plush white hotel bathrobe. He peers through the peephole, half expecting to see a pygmy standing there with a blowpipe, though he wouldn't mind a seductive Oriental courtesan. But it's just Cantrell. Randy opens the door. Cantrell is already holding up his hands, palms out, in a cheerful "shut up already" gesture. "Don't worry," Cantrell says, "I'm not here to talk about Biz." "In that case I won't break this beer bottle over your head," Randy says. Cantrell must feel exactly the same way Randy does, which is that so much wild shit happened today that the only way to deal with it is not to talk about it at all. Most of the brain's work is done while the brain's owner is ostensibly thinking about something else, so sometimes you have to deliberatelyfind something else to think and talk about. "Come to my room," Cantrell says. "Pekka is here." "The Finn who got blown up?" "The same." "Why is he here?" "Because there's no reason not to be. After he got blown up he adopted a technomadic lifestyle." "So it's just a coincidence, or--" "Nah," Cantrell says. "He's helping me win a bet." "What kind of bet?" "I was telling Tom Howard about Van Eck phreaking a few weeks ago. Tom said it sounded like bullshit. He bet me ten shares of Epiphyte stock that I couldn't make it actually work outside of a laboratory." "Is Pekka good at that kind of thing?" By way of saying yes, Cantrell adopts a serious look and says, "Pekka is writing a whole chapter about it for the Cryptonomicon. Pekka feels that only by mastering the technologies that might be used against us can we defend ourselves." This sounds almost like a call to arms. Randy would have to be some kind of loser to retreat to his bed after that, so he backs into the room and steps into his trousers, which are standing there telescoped into the floor where he dropped them upon his return from the sultan's palace. The sultan's palace! The television is now broadcasting a news story about pirates plying the waters of the South China Sea, making freighter crews walk the plank. "This whole continent is like fucking Disneyland without the safety precautions," Randy observes. "Am I the only person who finds it surreal?" Cantrell grins, but says, "If we begin talking about surreal, we'll end up talking about today." "You got that right," Randy says. "Let's go." *** * *** "We've got bits," Cantrell says. "Are you in the middle of something?" "Nothing I'm not eager to get out of," Randy says, putting the palm-top down. He gets off the bed and stands behind Pekka. The screen of Pekka's computer has a number of windows on it, of which the biggest and frontmost is the image of another computer's screen. Nested within that are various other windows and icons: a desktop. It happens to be a Windows NT desktop, which is noteworthy and (to Randy) bizarre because Pekka's computer isn't running Windows NT, it's running Finux. A cursor is moving around on that Windows NT desktop, pulling down menus and clicking on things. But Pekka's hand is not moving. The cursor zooms over to a Microsoft Word icon, which changes color and expands to form a large window. This copy of Microsoft Word is registered to THOMAS HOWARD. "You did it!" Randy says. "We see what Tom sees," Pekka says. A new document window opens up, and words begin to spill across it. Note to myself: let's see "Letters to Penthouse" print this! I don't suppose that graduate students of either gender are exactly sought out by sexual connoisseurs for their great fucking skills. We think about it too much. Everything has to be verbalized. A person who believes that fucking is a sexual discourse is simply never going to be any good in the sack. I have a thing about stockings. They have to be sheer black stockings, preferably with seams up the back. When I was thirteen years old I actually shoplifted some black pantyhose from a grocery store just so that I could play with them. Walking out of that store with those L'eggs in my backpack, my heart was pounding, but the excitement of the crime was nothing compared to opening up the package and pulling them out, rubbing them against my fuzzy, adolescent cheeks. I even tried pulling them on, but this just looked grotesque--what with my hairy legs--and did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't want to wear them. I wanted someone else to. I masturbated four times that day. ...
Community Entry: Van Eck Phreaking
Wim van Eck was born in Zeist (Netherlands). He graduated from Twente University of Technology in 1981 on his research subject, "Automatic on-line Exercise Electrocardiography in patients unable to perform leg exercise." He was a member of the Bio-engineering Group of the Electronics Department of the TUT. In January 1982 he joined the Propagation and Electromagnetic Compatibility Department of Dr. Neher Laboratories of the Netherlands PTT. He was in charge of several EMC research projects, ranging from NEMP protection to emission and susceptibility aspects of telecommunications equipment.
This paper by van Eck describes the results of research into the possibility of 'eavesdropping' on video display units by picking up and decoding the electromagnetic interference produced by this type of equipment. During the research project, which started in 1983, it became more and more clear that this type of information theft can be committed very easily using a normal TV receiver.
Van Eck phreaking is a form of eavesdropping in which special equipment is used to pick up telecommunication signals or data within a computer device by monitoring and picking up the electromagnetic fields (EM fields) that are produced by the signals or movement of the data. This electromagnetic radiation is present in, and with the proper equipment, can be captured from computer displays that use cathode ray tubes (CRTs), from printers, and from other devices.
Here is an example: The image on a CRT is created by electron beams that scan across the screen in a series of horizontal lines from left-to-right and top-to-bottom, in the same way you read a page of text (except much faster). This occurs at a specific frequency for each individual monitor; there are only a few standard frequencies in existence, and every monitor uses one of them. The intensity of the electron beams determines the relative red, blue, and green brightness for each pixel (picture element) on the screen. As a result, the CRT produces a modulated EM field that contains all the information in the image displayed on the screen at any moment. This information looks like a meaningless, irregular waveform if viewed directly on an oscilloscope. But, like a television (TV) signal, it can be demodulated with special equipment, and the image on the screen thereby retrieved, from some distance away.
This term combines the name of Wim van Eck, who in 1985 authored an academic paper that described this form of electronic eavesdropping, with the term phreaking, the earlier practice of using special equipment to make phone calls without paying. Van Eck phreaking is identified in the U.S. government project known as Tempest and, although some information remains classified, has probably been used to spy on suspected criminals and in espionage. The Tempest project has also led to advice and some standards development for how to shield devices so that eavesdropping is not possible. However, the cost of shielding means that many commercial devices are still vulnerable and, for this and other reasons, some of the details about what equipment is required to do van Eck phreaking remains classified. Susceptibility to eavesdropping can also be minimized by designing equipment that generates little EM energy.
Depending on the type of CRT used, the sensitivity of the detection equipment, and the general level of EM energy in the area, Van Eck phreaking can be done over distances ranging from a few meters up to several hundred meters.
Phreak Defined:
A phreak is someone who breaks into the telephone network illegally, typically to make free long-distance phone calls or to tap phone lines. The term is now sometimes used to include anyone who breaks or tries to break the security of any network. Recently, the phone companies have introduced new security safeguards, making phreaking more difficult. According to Eric Raymond's The New Hacker's Dictionary, phreaking was originally a more innocent occupation and hackers would sometimes take up the challenge. The typical phreak was or is usually equipped with a specially-made "box" designed to "fool" the network in some way. Different boxes, somehow named for different colors but not necessarily painted any color, are used for different phreak approaches. A "black box" allows you to make free calls from a home phone; a red box" to make free calls on a pay phone; and the infamous "blue box" provides complete control over the telephone system. If you look hard enough on the Web, you'll probably find directions on how to make all of these boxes. (But note that using the boxes as directed is probably illegal and any directions you find may be out-of-date.)