Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Vista voice control

Vista voice control

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
htmlcomsecurityquestion
31 Posts 9 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • P Paul Watson

    I'm just picking on you. ;)

    regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

    Shog9 wrote:

    I don't see it happening, at least not until it becomes pointless.

    B Offline
    B Offline
    Bradml
    wrote on last edited by
    #14

    Somehow I may just recover


    Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

    P 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • B Bradml

      Somehow I may just recover


      Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

      P Offline
      P Offline
      Paul Watson
      wrote on last edited by
      #15

      Sure you will, you're an Aussie, I could throw anything at you and you'd recover. Part of being an Aussie I reckon.

      regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

      Shog9 wrote:

      I don't see it happening, at least not until it becomes pointless.

      B 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • P Paul Watson

        Sure you will, you're an Aussie, I could throw anything at you and you'd recover. Part of being an Aussie I reckon.

        regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

        Shog9 wrote:

        I don't see it happening, at least not until it becomes pointless.

        B Offline
        B Offline
        Bradml
        wrote on last edited by
        #16

        It's the South African in me. You could shoot me in the foot and I would just give you a funny look and walk home.


        Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • C Chris Buckett

          David Wulff wrote:

          people have to take responsibility for their own actions, you can't blame everything on someone else.

          I quite agree, but I can imagine my dad (for example, or any other non techie) turning on voice control (because he's used to telling his secretary what to do, and the computer is just a version of that:) ), and being left vulnerable to this flaw without realising. You can only take responsibility for your actions if you are aware of the consequences. If there was a suitable warning when turning it on, then fair enough.

          David Wulff wrote:

          b) configure the system for voice recognition and train it for your attackers voice.

          How long is it going to be before someone figures out the right generic vocal tones (rather than actual voice commands) to perform actions on a pc. Now that you can have sound auto playing when you visit a web page, there's all sorts of dodgy stuff you could do. As an aside, I'm now imagining the fun you could have with a colleages computer. 5 mins access to their computer and you could train it to shutdown everytime you ask them if they want a coffee. :)

          ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

          D Offline
          D Offline
          David Wulff
          wrote on last edited by
          #17

          Just nitpicking here, but there is no 'Shutdown' command. I just tried it on my machine to see what the fuss is about and I can't get it to shutdown from the menu either. The closest I've got is 'start, click run, delete that, shutdown space forward-slash s, enter'. You can do it with the mousegrid too, but only if the start button is in the lower left corner. This is fun.


          Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
          Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
          I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

          C A 2 Replies Last reply
          0
          • D David Wulff

            Just nitpicking here, but there is no 'Shutdown' command. I just tried it on my machine to see what the fuss is about and I can't get it to shutdown from the menu either. The closest I've got is 'start, click run, delete that, shutdown space forward-slash s, enter'. You can do it with the mousegrid too, but only if the start button is in the lower left corner. This is fun.


            Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
            Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
            I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

            C Offline
            C Offline
            Chris Buckett
            wrote on last edited by
            #18

            David Wulff wrote:

            there is no 'Shutdown' command.

            Can't you stick that in a batch file and associate it with a voice command? (part of the 5 mins with the colleagues computer). I've just pulled the hard drives out of my vista box, so I can't experiment at the moment. I was more hypothesising than basing my ideas on fact.

            David Wulff wrote:

            This is fun.

            :-D

            ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

            D J 2 Replies Last reply
            0
            • C Chris Buckett

              David Wulff wrote:

              there is no 'Shutdown' command.

              Can't you stick that in a batch file and associate it with a voice command? (part of the 5 mins with the colleagues computer). I've just pulled the hard drives out of my vista box, so I can't experiment at the moment. I was more hypothesising than basing my ideas on fact.

              David Wulff wrote:

              This is fun.

              :-D

              ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

              D Offline
              D Offline
              David Wulff
              wrote on last edited by
              #19

              You can use a number grid too. -- modified at 8:55 Thursday 1st February, 2007 Only the number for the shutdown popup is not fixed, it varies depending on how many items are on your start menu list.


              Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
              Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
              I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • C Chris Buckett

                I thought this[^] was interesting. It essentially says that if you have enabled voice control, then sound coming out of the speakers and being picked up by the mic could control the pc (uac permitting). Imagine a "virus" being distributed as a podcast! "Hello, welcome to my podcast. Format C:, Yes I'm sure" :)

                ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

                E Offline
                E Offline
                Ed Preston
                wrote on last edited by
                #20

                Hi Chris, Its easy to see your interest in the idea and I had fun thinking about it too. :) I do have a problem with that article; it was sensationalist garbage. It's good to see everyone here (and many who posted in response) know how to take it. Why not take it a step further? I'm going to write up an article suggesting to remove the phones next to peoples' desks. Someone might call and give them bad instructions. We can call it the "command recognition audio proxy speech vulnerability" or just the CRAPS vulnerability. :-D Ed

                C 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • D David Wulff

                  In order to present a problem, you will need to: a) disable all of Windows' inbuilt security features, i.e. UAC, and b) configure the system for voice recognition and train it for your attackers voice. I don't see that as any different from having someone physically at your PC from a risk position -- people have to take responsibility for their own actions, you can't blame everything on someone else.


                  Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
                  Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
                  I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

                  R Offline
                  R Offline
                  Rich Leyshon
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #21

                  David Wulff wrote:

                  b) configure the system for voice recognition and train it for your attackers voice.

                  Do you really still have to do this on Vista? My telephone has voice dialling/commands with no training - you just set your chosen language and speak any name in the address book! And it works very well - as well as the old version where you had to store a sample of you speaking any name you wanted voice reognition for. Rich

                  D 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • C Chris Buckett

                    I thought this[^] was interesting. It essentially says that if you have enabled voice control, then sound coming out of the speakers and being picked up by the mic could control the pc (uac permitting). Imagine a "virus" being distributed as a podcast! "Hello, welcome to my podcast. Format C:, Yes I'm sure" :)

                    ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

                    A Offline
                    A Offline
                    Antony Clements
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #22

                    :laugh:

                    Chris Buckett wrote:

                    Hello, welcome to my podcast. Format C:,

                    Did you forget that drives that are in use can not be formatted?

                    Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                    C 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • A Antony Clements

                      :laugh:

                      Chris Buckett wrote:

                      Hello, welcome to my podcast. Format C:,

                      Did you forget that drives that are in use can not be formatted?

                      Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                      C Offline
                      C Offline
                      Chris Buckett
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #23

                      Antony Clements wrote:

                      Did you forget that drives that are in use can not be formatted?

                      Yes, I did forget, (but i was being a little facetious just to make the point :)).

                      ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

                      A 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • D David Wulff

                        In order to present a problem, you will need to: a) disable all of Windows' inbuilt security features, i.e. UAC, and b) configure the system for voice recognition and train it for your attackers voice. I don't see that as any different from having someone physically at your PC from a risk position -- people have to take responsibility for their own actions, you can't blame everything on someone else.


                        Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
                        Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
                        I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

                        A Offline
                        A Offline
                        Antony Clements
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #24

                        David Wulff wrote:

                        I don't see that as any different from having someone physically at your PC from a risk position -- people have to take responsibility for their own actions, you can't blame everything on someone else.

                        This is the difference between word recognition and voice recognition. I think that Microsoft would opt for the word recognition because it makes things easier to use for every user of that system.

                        Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • E Ed Preston

                          Hi Chris, Its easy to see your interest in the idea and I had fun thinking about it too. :) I do have a problem with that article; it was sensationalist garbage. It's good to see everyone here (and many who posted in response) know how to take it. Why not take it a step further? I'm going to write up an article suggesting to remove the phones next to peoples' desks. Someone might call and give them bad instructions. We can call it the "command recognition audio proxy speech vulnerability" or just the CRAPS vulnerability. :-D Ed

                          C Offline
                          C Offline
                          Chris Buckett
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #25

                          Ed Preston wrote:

                          sensationalist garbage

                          Oh yes, but behind most sensationalism there's usually a grain of truth.

                          Ed Preston wrote:

                          the CRAPS vulnerability

                          Something that goes along with the job description :-D? At my last job I was fortunate enough not to have a phone :) (still had msn and email though :()

                          ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • D David Wulff

                            Just nitpicking here, but there is no 'Shutdown' command. I just tried it on my machine to see what the fuss is about and I can't get it to shutdown from the menu either. The closest I've got is 'start, click run, delete that, shutdown space forward-slash s, enter'. You can do it with the mousegrid too, but only if the start button is in the lower left corner. This is fun.


                            Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
                            Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
                            I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

                            A Offline
                            A Offline
                            Antony Clements
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #26

                            David Wulff wrote:

                            Just nitpicking here, but there is no 'Shutdown' command.

                            There is actually a shutdown command line in every windows version to date. In XP it was called oddly enough, Shutdown. I'm not going to touch Vista for at lerast 6 months, probably closer to a year. But it still has a shutdown command line, it's just a matter of knowing what it is called. Shutdown from the start menu makes a remote call to this .EXE so it is entirely possible to write a snippet of code for example that runs in the background that will shut the system down when it hears a certain word. I have, just for the fun of it, a small .EXE that shells out the shutdown .EXE with an immediate forced shutdown without any warning of any kind.

                            Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                            D 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • C Chris Buckett

                              Antony Clements wrote:

                              Did you forget that drives that are in use can not be formatted?

                              Yes, I did forget, (but i was being a little facetious just to make the point :)).

                              ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

                              A Offline
                              A Offline
                              Antony Clements
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #27

                              Chris Buckett wrote:

                              Yes, I did forget, (but i was being a little facetious just to make the point ).

                              Never the less... it will still be a fun prank. :laugh:

                              Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • C Chris Buckett

                                David Wulff wrote:

                                there is no 'Shutdown' command.

                                Can't you stick that in a batch file and associate it with a voice command? (part of the 5 mins with the colleagues computer). I've just pulled the hard drives out of my vista box, so I can't experiment at the moment. I was more hypothesising than basing my ideas on fact.

                                David Wulff wrote:

                                This is fun.

                                :-D

                                ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

                                J Offline
                                J Offline
                                Joe Brinkman
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #28

                                Removing your hard drives is one way to increase security, but isn't that going to the extreme? How do you get any work done?:laugh:

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • A Antony Clements

                                  David Wulff wrote:

                                  Just nitpicking here, but there is no 'Shutdown' command.

                                  There is actually a shutdown command line in every windows version to date. In XP it was called oddly enough, Shutdown. I'm not going to touch Vista for at lerast 6 months, probably closer to a year. But it still has a shutdown command line, it's just a matter of knowing what it is called. Shutdown from the start menu makes a remote call to this .EXE so it is entirely possible to write a snippet of code for example that runs in the background that will shut the system down when it hears a certain word. I have, just for the fun of it, a small .EXE that shells out the shutdown .EXE with an immediate forced shutdown without any warning of any kind.

                                  Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                                  D Offline
                                  D Offline
                                  David Wulff
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #29

                                  Antony Clements wrote:

                                  There is actually a shutdown command line in every windows version to date

                                  Yeah, it is in my subject line. ;)


                                  Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
                                  Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
                                  I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

                                  A 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • R Rich Leyshon

                                    David Wulff wrote:

                                    b) configure the system for voice recognition and train it for your attackers voice.

                                    Do you really still have to do this on Vista? My telephone has voice dialling/commands with no training - you just set your chosen language and speak any name in the address book! And it works very well - as well as the old version where you had to store a sample of you speaking any name you wanted voice reognition for. Rich

                                    D Offline
                                    D Offline
                                    David Wulff
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #30

                                    It works well out of the box, but training will improve it significantly. Vista's actually trains itself constantly while you are using it, so over a few hours of use it gets used to your accent.


                                    Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
                                    Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
                                    I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • D David Wulff

                                      Antony Clements wrote:

                                      There is actually a shutdown command line in every windows version to date

                                      Yeah, it is in my subject line. ;)


                                      Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
                                      Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
                                      I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk

                                      A Offline
                                      A Offline
                                      Antony Clements
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #31

                                      David Wulff wrote:

                                      Yeah, it is in my subject line.

                                      But you said you couldn't find it. :). they still have a DOS prompt of some description in Vista. Windows will never fully be rid of DOS despite their claims to the contrary. Don't you just love the half truths of the big green hairy monster? I know i do. ;P

                                      Life is nothing but an individuals perception of an immortals dream. - ME

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      Reply
                                      • Reply as topic
                                      Log in to reply
                                      • Oldest to Newest
                                      • Newest to Oldest
                                      • Most Votes


                                      • Login

                                      • Don't have an account? Register

                                      • Login or register to search.
                                      • First post
                                        Last post
                                      0
                                      • Categories
                                      • Recent
                                      • Tags
                                      • Popular
                                      • World
                                      • Users
                                      • Groups