Sound Injection Research Articles

Dropping malware through sound injection: A comparative analysis on Android operating systems

Trojan droppers are regularly ranked among the top 5 worst malware threats; especially for Android. Software for malware detection opts to either identify the payload when executed in memory or detect the connection from which droppers attempt to download malicious payloads. Much effort has been put into securing network channels and stopping droppers from delivering their payloads. This paves the way for alternative routes of infiltration. Our paper extends work on inaudible sound covert channel attacks and audio fingerprinting to use them for close vicinity attacks as potential mass dropper techniques. We demonstrate that malware modules can be dropped over the air to multiple devices using the same sound medium from approximately four to five meters away. Instead of using network connections, we conceal the malware within musics inaudible frequencies. Then we use a seemingly innocent app that implements an algorithm similar to Shazams audio fingerprinting to transmit the payload over the devices microphone and execute it. To accomplish this, we combine Short-Time Discrete Fourier Transform, peak frequency mapping and dilation techniques to a Meterpreter payload as fluctuations in magnitude within inaudible frequencies. To our knowledge, there is currently no technique capable of transmitting payloads to multiple neighboring systems without discrete network connections between the payload remote location and the device. We, therefore, present realistic attack cases and provide solutions for these attack vectors, including modulation and high-peak compression of sound dependent channel frequencies.

Aesthetic applications for botulinum toxin type A: treating the upper and lower face

The background, mode of action and formulations of licensed botulinum toxin type A (BoNTA) are explored in this paper, as well as immunogenicity considerations. Some common aesthetic facial indications are discussed, along with contraindications and reported complications. A sound injection technique, accurate anatomical awareness, and the use of small gauge needles and/or precise injection devices can reduce the incidence of complications, and provide accurate product placement. Literature derived from meta-analyses demonstrates evidence documenting the clinical benefits of standard and high-dose levels of all active BoNTA vs placebo; however, the extent of evidence to guide selection between active formulations is limited. Equally, data are lacking with respect to the longevity of effects with different aesthetic treatment regimens.

Rheology of a sonofluidized granular packing

We report experimental measurements on the rheology of a dry granular material under a weak level of vibration generated by sound injection. First, we measure the drag force exerted on a wire moving in the bulk. We show that when the driving vibration energy is increased, the effective rheology changes drastically: going from a non-linear dynamical friction behavior --weakly increasing with the velocity-- up to a linear force-velocity regime. We present a simple heuristic model to account for the vanishing of the stress dynamical threshold at a finite vibration intensity and the onset of a linear force-velocity behavior. Second, we measure the drag force on spherical intruders when the dragging velocity, the vibration energy, and the diameters are varied. We evidence a so-called "geometrical hardening" effect for smaller-size intruders and a logarithmic hardening effect for the velocity dependence. We show that this last effect is only weakly dependent on the vibration intensity.

Rheology and mobility in a sono-fluidized granular packing

Dynamics near jamming (glassy phase, aging, memory effects and intermittency) shows amazing analogies among a variety of very different systems (colloids, dense suspensions, foams, granular materials). Recently, several proposals have emerged with the aim of describing in a general and unified way this behavior. With the purpose of testing experimentally some of these ideas, we performed several experimental studies on dry granular materials under vibration. We found that even with a weak level of vibration, such as sound injection, the behavior of granular matter is changed dramatically. We directly observe that the grains undergo a sub diffusive collective dynamics on a very long time scale which results on global compaction effects. In this regime, we have studied the rheology of an intruder moving in the bulk as a function of the level of energy injected, the driving velocity and the shape of the moving object. We also present a simple model to account for the observed behavior.