The researcher discovered a new flaw in Windows 10 lock Protection that allows attackers to access the Cortana Voice Commands in the locked system and visit a malicious website to install the malware.
Cortana is a virtual assistant created by Microsoft for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1.Cortana can recognize natural voice without the requirement for keyboard input, and answer questions using information from the Bing search engine.
Cortana Voice-command systems help to avoid to type every command into a keyboard but this ease of use comes new ways for hackers to control of computers and smartphones.
Researchers find this flaw in locked Windows 10 computer by abusing Cortana agent that responds to some voice commands even when computers are asleep and locked.
This future could be abused by the attacker and gaining the physical access to plug a USB with a network adapter into the computer, then verbally instruct Cortana.
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Later the instruction which is given to the Cortana by attacker computer’s browser and go to a web address that does not use https.
An inserted adaptor will intercept the request and redirect it visit the malicious website and launch the malware.
“Default setting tells Cortana to respond to any voice calling “Hey Cortana,” even when the computer is locked. An alternate setting tries to limit this to just the computer owner by telling Cortana to “try to respond only to me.”
According to Motherboard, Once an attacker compromises a Cortana machine, per Be’ery and Shulman’s technique (Reserchers who finds this issue), and has this initial foothold, he or she can use the same concept to amplify the attack and move laterally to infect other computers in a room where that computer resides or on a local network
This would allow an attacker to download a malware through bypassing Windows 10 lock and install it too compromised computer to do an ARP poisoning method that tricks local machine to control by an attacker.
“The attack Be’ery and Shulman work because Cortana allowed direct browsing to websites, even when a machine was locked—or at least it did until Microsoft fixed the problem after the researchers disclosed it to the company.” Motherboard said.
