Specialists from the US Cornell University and Israel's Ben-Gurion University have developed a method to hack smartphones։ their system can obtain encryption keys by analyzing the performance of power LED indicators.

According to a personal blog post by one of the experts working on this project, using this technique requires constantly capturing the screen of the target smartphone. For this purpose, ordinary video surveillance cameras or phone cameras, for example iPhone cameras, can be used.

During the research, a group of American and Israeli scientists recovered the encryption key on the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone using the SIKE algorithm. This was made possible by looking at the power indicator of the USB speakers connected to the device. An iPhone 13 Pro Max camera was used for video surveillance.

According to experts, a device equipped with a power LED indicator is necessary for a successful hacking attack, but in its absence, a peripheral device with such an indicator can also be used. It is important that the brightness or color of the indicator corresponds to the power consumption of the main device.