Scientists have identified a new way to wiretap Android smartphones

Researchers from the US have shared information about the possible vulnerability of a wide range of smartphones running Android 13 and higher. They found that wiretapping of conversations can be carried out without direct recording of sound, which requires system permissions. The new method involves only providing access to a standard sensor, which is available in almost all current devices.




The unusual listening technique was called EarSpy. It is focused on fixing the accelerometer indicators, which appear during the microvibrations of the conversational speaker. It is noted that the vulnerability exists in relatively new device models, since older smartphones do not have sufficiently powerful speakers. The result of wiretapping is also affected by the placement of components inside the smartphone case and the quality of its assembly.




OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 9 devices were used as “experimental” specimens. During testing, a fragment of a speech recording was played through the speakers, while the Physics Toolbox Sensor Suit utility recorded accelerometer readings. Further, the results were processed through a neural network trained on examples of many samples of manual “decoding” of human speech.




On the OnePlus 9 device, the gender of the speaker was correctly identified in 88.7% of cases, identification of the person was correct in 73.6% of cases, and specific words were correct in 33.3% to 41.6% of cases. The accuracy of determining the same parameters for OnePlus 7T ranged from 77.7%, 63% and 51.8%, respectively.

Researchers have not yet found confirmed facts of the use of such a wiretapping technique. To prevent this kind of privacy threat, they advise turning down the speaker volume.