Here is a list of tweaks and tips for the Eckbox - An Open Source van Eck Phreaker. Note, I've not gotten this to work yet - it's for reference only.
Received E-mail on the Eckbox Project: E-Mail One
Also, be sure to view my hardware-based van Eck-style Radiation Interception Experiments. This I have gotten to work, somewhat.
What Eckbox Is For
Eckbox is software that allows a user to remotely shoulder surf on a target computer's monitor (this is known as van Eck Phreaking). It requires a certain amount of hardware that must be made by the user. Instructions for building this hardware is located on Eckbox's SourceForge Project Page, although some day if I'm not lazy, it will be included in this document and the man pages too.
How To Install It
After untarring (tar xvzf eckbox-v0.9b2.tar.gz) the archive, cd to the directory eckbox and run make, and make install.
configure doesn't actually do anything.
How to Use It
First, see the Eckbox Project Page to build the hardware needed.
After that, you'll need to calibrate Eckbox. To do this, on a separate computer, run the bw program in the eckbox directory. This should display a screen of alternating black and white pixels on the monitor. It helps if the monitor on the separate, target computer's resolution is the same as the resolution that you intend to be spying on.
Once you have bw running on the separate computer, place the radio from your hardware next to the separate computer's monitor, and run eckboxcalib (just typing it at the prompt will do).
Now you can just type "eckbox" at the prompt, and it will do the shoulder surfing for you. If you experience any problems, examine your hardware, jiggle your radio, and read the man pages.
How It Will Improve Your Life
If you're a corporate spy, I'm certain you'd love to be able to book a hotel room next to a target CEO and read everything right off his laptop through the wall.
If you're a security freak, I'm sure you'll love the ability to develop hardware and software to counter this type of attack.
Hardware
This is where I explain how to build the hardware necessary to utilize the Eckbox software. Don't worry, I built mine in less than $30.
First, here are the materials you'll need: an 8-bit analog/digital (ADC) converter (available as a free sample from many online wholesalers), some wire, a (cheap) AM/FM radio, a spare speaker, a male audio connector, and a 25-pin M/F parallel port extender cable. Some solder and a breadboard might come in handy too.
I've always been a fan of the acronym RTFM. So get the docs that came with your specific A/D converter. In it should be a listing of the function of each individual pin. Locate the analog input pin, and solder it to the analog output lead of the audio connector. The analog output is the inner wire, if you were to look at a cross-section of the wire. Connect the outer wire of the line out to a ground. If you've done all of this right, you should have a radio with an audio jack stuck into it, which is then giving input to your ADC.
After this, again you'll want to RTFM some more about your specific ADC to find out which pins are the 8 digital outputs. Connect these to pins 2-9 of your 25-pin parallel port extender cable. Be sure that output lead #8 goes to pin #9 on your parallel cable, #7 goes to #8 and so forth. If you don't know which pins are which on your parallel port, I can help with that, just have a look at the below highly sophisticated, CAD modeled diagram of the pin labels:
__________________________________________ \13 12 11 10 *09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02* 01/ \25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 /Ok, so at this point, you have data going into your radio, from the radio to your ADC, and out to the parallel port. Next, we just need to tune the radio, and get some power running to it and your ADC. I'm sure you can figure out the radio on your own, and by examining the docs on your ADC, you can figure that out too. On the tuning, tune your radio to the highest frequency of FM that it can go that does NOT have a station. If you have tuned it right, it will be at about 108 MHz (roughly), and white noise will be coming from its speakers. After this, you're done. Just put the radio next to the target monitor and run Eckbox, and it will display (roughly) the image displayed on the target monitor. woot for you.
SVGA Library
Required library needed for Eckbox, which you may not have with your distribution. For RedHat distributions, install using the command: rpm -ivh svgalib-1.4.1-9.i386.rpm
- svgalib-1.4.1-9.i386.rpm SVGAlib 1.4.1, low-level graphics library for Linux
- svgalib-devel-1.4.1-12.i386.rpm SVGAlib-devel 1.4.1, header files and man pages
Source Directory
Source code for Eckbox v0.9b2
- eckbox-v0.9b2 Source Directory
- eckbox-v0.9.4.tar.gz (3k GZIP TAR)
- eckbox-v0.9b2.tar.gz (20k GZIP TAR)
- README
Notes
- Use a direct diode-detector tap (AM) of your radio receiver, or raw video output if you use a synchronous detector IC. This will give a more wideband and unfiltered signal.
- The bandwidth of the receiver's final IF should be equal to about one-half the pixel clock frequency. Example: 28 MHz pixel clock monitor would need a receiver with a final IF bandwidth of 14 MHz.
- Use a log-periodic TV reception antenna mounted vertically for your receiving antenna.
- Use old cable TV distribution amplifiers as the receiver pre-amplifier. These tend to have very wide bandwidths and high dynamic ranges.
- Most analog-to-digital converters (ADC) can be placed into free-running mode by connecting the INTR to the WR input, with the CS pin tied to ground.
- An anti-aliasing (low-pass) filter will need to be placed before the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), to attenuate signals above the sample rate (Nyquist Frequency) of the ADC.
Links / Papers
- Lots of links at the bottom of the hardware van Eck page
- Maxim MAX1198 8-bit ADC Example of a high-speed analog-to-digital converter. You'll need a 50 million samples-per-second or better ADC.
- National Semiconductor High-Speed ADC Evaluation Boards Purchase online for about $150 each
- Signal Processing Applications for Information Extraction from the Radiation of VDUs (415k PDF)
- Information Extraction from the Radiation of VDUs by Pattern Recognition Methods (240k PDF)
- The Threat of Information Theft by Reception of Electromagnetic Radiation from RS-232 Cables (370k PDF)
- A Very Good French TEMPEST Paper
- The TEMPEST Method of Computer Data Interception by Al Muick