SPECTER: Covert Data Exfiltration from Air-Gapped Systems via USB Power Modulation

Hyeongjun Choi, Ji Hyuk Jung, Ji Won Yoon · 2026 · arXiv

DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2610.28401 · open-access PDF

Abstract

We present SPECTER, a post-compromise covert channel that uses host-side USB power control to exfiltrate information from air-gapped and network-segregated systems. A transmitter with administrative privileges encodes bits through USB power-management or device-state operations without placing the payload in USB data transfers. The resulting signals are recovered through three alternative receiver paths based on smartphone charging states, visible peripheral behavior, and near-field RF activity. Experiments on Windows 10 and Ubuntu 22.04 demonstrate the channel on commodity hardware, with char

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