# NUANCE: Near Ultrasound Attack On Networked Communication Environments

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10358 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10358/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 15 of its 80 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Apr 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Adversarial Attacks Against Automatic Speech Recognition Systems via Psychoacoustic Hiding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.05665/) (2018)
- [DolphinAtack: Inaudible Voice Commands](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.09537/) (2017)
- [Did you hear that? Adversarial Examples Against Automatic Speech Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.00554/) (2018)
- [Can You Hear It? Backdoor Attacks via Ultrasonic Triggers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.14569/) (2021)
- [SirenAttack: Generating Adversarial Audio for End-to-End Acoustic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.07846/) (2019)
- [Unacceptable, where is my privacy? Exploring Accidental Triggers of Smart Speakers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.00508/) (2020)
- [Inaudible Voice Commands](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.07238/) (2017)
- [Learning the Associations of MITRE ATT&CK Adversarial Techniques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.01654/) (2020)
- [GhostTalk: Interactive Attack on Smartphone Voice System Through Power Line](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.02585/) (2022)
- [Protecting Voice Controlled Systems Using Sound Source Identification Based on Acoustic Cues](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.07018/) (2018)
- [A Survey on Amazon Alexa Attack Surfaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.11442/) (2021)
- [An Overview of Vulnerabilities of Voice Controlled Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.09156/) (2018)
- [Acoustic Denial of Service Attacks on HDDs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.07816/) (2017)
- [MOSQUITO: Covert Ultrasonic Transmissions between Two Air-Gapped Computers using Speaker-to-Speaker Communication](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.03422/) (2018)
- [GAIROSCOPE: Injecting Data from Air-Gapped Computers to Nearby Gyroscopes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.09764/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Adversarial Agents For Attacking Inaudible Voice Activated Devices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.12204/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study investigates a primary inaudible attack vector on Amazon Alexa voice services using near ultrasound trojans and focuses on characterizing the attack surface and examining the practical implications of issuing inaudible voice commands. The research maps each attack vector to a tactic or technique from the MITRE ATT&CK matrix, covering enterprise, mobile, and Industrial Control System (ICS) frameworks. The experiment involved generating and surveying fifty near-ultrasonic audios to assess the attacks' effectiveness, with unprocessed commands having a 100% success rate and processed ones achieving a 58% overall success rate. This systematic approach stimulates previously unaddressed attack surfaces, ensuring comprehensive detection and attack design while pairing each ATT&CK Identifier with a tested defensive method, providing attack and defense tactics for prompt-response options. The main findings reveal that the attack method employs Single Upper Sideband Amplitude Modulation (SUSBAM) to generate near-ultrasonic audio from audible sources, transforming spoken commands into a frequency range beyond human-adult hearing. By eliminating the lower sideband, the design achieves a 6 kHz minimum from 16-22 kHz while remaining inaudible after transformation. The research investigates the one-to-many attack surface where a single device simultaneously triggers multiple actions or devices. Additionally, the study demonstrates the reversibility or demodulation of the inaudible signal, suggesting potential alerting methods and the possibility of embedding secret messages like audio steganography.