Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels

Tao Ni; Xiaokuan Zhang; Chaoshun Zuo; Jianfeng Li; Zhenyu Yan; Wubing Wang; Weitao Xu; Xiapu Luo; Qingchuan Zhao

doi:10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322

Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels

Tao Ni
, Xiaokuan Zhang
, Chaoshun Zuo
, Jianfeng Li
, Zhenyu Yan
, Wubing Wang
, Weitao Xu
, Xiapu Luo
, Qingchuan Zhao^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

56 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Today, there is an increasing number of smartphones supporting wireless charging that leverages electromagnetic induction to transmit power from a wireless charger to the charging smartphone. In this paper, we report a new contactless and context-aware wireless-charging side-channel attack, which captures two physical phenomena (i.e., the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation) generated during this wireless charging process and further infers the user interactions on the charging smartphone. We design and implement a three-stage attack framework, dubbed WISERS, to demonstrate the practicality of this new side channel. WISERS first captures the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation emitted by the wireless charger, then infers (i) inter-interface switches (e.g., switching from the home screen to an app interface) and (ii) intra-interface activities (e.g., keyboard inputs inside an app) to build user interaction contexts, and further reveals sensitive information. We extensively evaluate the effectiveness of WISERS with popular smartphones and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless chargers. Our evaluation results suggest that WISERS can achieve over 90.4% accuracy in inferring sensitive information, such as screen-unlocking passcode and app launch. In addition, our study also shows that WISERS is resilient to a list of impact factors. © 2023, Tao Ni. Under license to IEEE.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023
Publisher	IEEE
Pages	3399-3415
Number of pages	17
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-6654-9336-9
ISBN (Print)	978-1-6654-9337-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322
Publication status	Published - 2023
Event	44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2023) - Hybrid, San Francisco, United States Duration: 22 May 2023 → 26 May 2023 https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2023/index.html https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/sp/2023/1He7WWuJExG

Publication series

Name	Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy
ISSN (Print)	1081-6011
ISSN (Electronic)	2375-1207

Conference

Conference	44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2023)
Abbreviated title	IEEE S&P
Place	United States
City	San Francisco
Period	22/05/23 → 26/05/23
Internet address	https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2023/index.html https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/sp/2023/1He7WWuJExG

Bibliographical note

Information for this record is supplemented by the author(s) concerned.

Research Keywords

wireless charging
Side channel attack

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10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322

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Cite this

Ni, T., Zhang, X., Zuo, C., Li, J., Yan, Z., Wang, W., Xu, W., Luo, X., & Zhao, Q. (2023). Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels. In Proceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023 (pp. 3399-3415). (Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322

@inproceedings{1b6946d5e1b941bebfa7c351a3bce58b,

title = "Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels",

abstract = "Today, there is an increasing number of smartphones supporting wireless charging that leverages electromagnetic induction to transmit power from a wireless charger to the charging smartphone. In this paper, we report a new contactless and context-aware wireless-charging side-channel attack, which captures two physical phenomena (i.e., the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation) generated during this wireless charging process and further infers the user interactions on the charging smartphone. We design and implement a three-stage attack framework, dubbed WISERS, to demonstrate the practicality of this new side channel. WISERS first captures the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation emitted by the wireless charger, then infers (i) inter-interface switches (e.g., switching from the home screen to an app interface) and (ii) intra-interface activities (e.g., keyboard inputs inside an app) to build user interaction contexts, and further reveals sensitive information. We extensively evaluate the effectiveness of WISERS with popular smartphones and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless chargers. Our evaluation results suggest that WISERS can achieve over 90.4\% accuracy in inferring sensitive information, such as screen-unlocking passcode and app launch. In addition, our study also shows that WISERS is resilient to a list of impact factors. {\textcopyright} 2023, Tao Ni. Under license to IEEE.",

keywords = "wireless charging, Side channel attack",

author = "Tao Ni and Xiaokuan Zhang and Chaoshun Zuo and Jianfeng Li and Zhenyu Yan and Wubing Wang and Weitao Xu and Xiapu Luo and Qingchuan Zhao",

note = "Information for this record is supplemented by the author(s) concerned.; 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2023), IEEE S\&P ; Conference date: 22-05-2023 Through 26-05-2023",

year = "2023",

doi = "10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-6654-9337-6",

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booktitle = "Proceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023",

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Ni, T, Zhang, X, Zuo, C, Li, J, Yan, Z, Wang, W, Xu, W, Luo, X & Zhao, Q 2023, Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels. in Proceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023. Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, IEEE, pp. 3399-3415, 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2023), San Francisco, California, United States, 22/05/23. https://doi.org/10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322

Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels. / Ni, Tao; Zhang, Xiaokuan; Zuo, Chaoshun et al.
Proceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023. IEEE, 2023. p. 3399-3415 (Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy).

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels

AU - Ni, Tao

AU - Zhang, Xiaokuan

AU - Zuo, Chaoshun

AU - Li, Jianfeng

AU - Yan, Zhenyu

AU - Wang, Wubing

AU - Xu, Weitao

AU - Luo, Xiapu

AU - Zhao, Qingchuan

N1 - Information for this record is supplemented by the author(s) concerned.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Today, there is an increasing number of smartphones supporting wireless charging that leverages electromagnetic induction to transmit power from a wireless charger to the charging smartphone. In this paper, we report a new contactless and context-aware wireless-charging side-channel attack, which captures two physical phenomena (i.e., the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation) generated during this wireless charging process and further infers the user interactions on the charging smartphone. We design and implement a three-stage attack framework, dubbed WISERS, to demonstrate the practicality of this new side channel. WISERS first captures the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation emitted by the wireless charger, then infers (i) inter-interface switches (e.g., switching from the home screen to an app interface) and (ii) intra-interface activities (e.g., keyboard inputs inside an app) to build user interaction contexts, and further reveals sensitive information. We extensively evaluate the effectiveness of WISERS with popular smartphones and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless chargers. Our evaluation results suggest that WISERS can achieve over 90.4% accuracy in inferring sensitive information, such as screen-unlocking passcode and app launch. In addition, our study also shows that WISERS is resilient to a list of impact factors. © 2023, Tao Ni. Under license to IEEE.

AB - Today, there is an increasing number of smartphones supporting wireless charging that leverages electromagnetic induction to transmit power from a wireless charger to the charging smartphone. In this paper, we report a new contactless and context-aware wireless-charging side-channel attack, which captures two physical phenomena (i.e., the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation) generated during this wireless charging process and further infers the user interactions on the charging smartphone. We design and implement a three-stage attack framework, dubbed WISERS, to demonstrate the practicality of this new side channel. WISERS first captures the coil whine and the magnetic field perturbation emitted by the wireless charger, then infers (i) inter-interface switches (e.g., switching from the home screen to an app interface) and (ii) intra-interface activities (e.g., keyboard inputs inside an app) to build user interaction contexts, and further reveals sensitive information. We extensively evaluate the effectiveness of WISERS with popular smartphones and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) wireless chargers. Our evaluation results suggest that WISERS can achieve over 90.4% accuracy in inferring sensitive information, such as screen-unlocking passcode and app launch. In addition, our study also shows that WISERS is resilient to a list of impact factors. © 2023, Tao Ni. Under license to IEEE.

KW - wireless charging

KW - Side channel attack

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85166468437

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85166468437&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322

DO - 10.1109/SP46215.2023.10179322

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 978-1-6654-9337-6

T3 - Proceedings - IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy

SP - 3399

EP - 3415

BT - Proceedings - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, SP 2023

PB - IEEE

T2 - 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP 2023)

Y2 - 22 May 2023 through 26 May 2023

ER -

Uncovering User Interactions on Smartphones via Contactless Wireless Charging Side Channels

Abstract

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Research Keywords

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