Only Tape Can Be Trusted: Engineers Achieve Stealth Recording by Disabling ThinkPad Camera LED Indicator
Brook.X
The photo of Mark Zuckerberg with his laptop camera taped over sparked widespread discussion years ago. Most laptops come with front-facing cameras, which, if the system is compromised, could be exploited by hackers.
However, sticking tape over the camera can solve this problem, as hackers can't physically remove the tape through the internet. If the tape can't be removed, at least it prevents video surveillance through the camera.
For security reasons, many laptops now include LED indicators or even physical switches. For example, when the camera is activated, the LED light is powered on to inform the user that recording is in progress.
Nonetheless, it has been proven that tape or physical hardware switches are more reliable because Linux security engineer Andrey Konovalov has demonstrated that camera LED indicators are not trustworthy.
The camera LED indicator is fundamentally driven by the camera component's firmware, and since it's firmware, it could potentially be tampered with. At the POC 2024 security conference held last month, Andrey Konovalov introduced a method to secretly turn off the LED indicator of a ThinkPad camera.
The core operation involves reflashing the firmware of the ThinkPad X230 camera to turn off the LED indicator, allowing for stealth recording without the user's knowledge, posing a potential privacy security risk.
Andrey Konovalov's proof of concept program has been released on Github. Although this proof of concept specifically targets the ThinkPad X230, it's clear that hackers could perform similar operations on devices from other brands if they choose to.
With that said: remember to close your laptop lid after use as it covers the camera. Or, if you prefer, you could take a page from Zuckerberg's book and tape over the camera, given that most users rarely use their cameras daily.
