Source: Hackaday
Researchers have demonstrated that LED keyboard backlights can be modulated to encode and transmit data from air-gapped systems—machines intentionally isolated from networks to prevent breaches. The attack exploits a genuine security blind spot: while IT teams lock down network interfaces and USB ports, peripheral LEDs remain largely unmonitored and controllable through standard operating system drivers, creating an invisible exfiltration path that existing detection tools don't flag. The attack expands the attack surface from intentional data channels (USB, network) to any device with visible light output, forcing security teams to either disable hardware features wholesale or implement far more granular peripheral controls.