Eavesdropping Video Monitors With TempestSDR RTL-SDR

Here I show you how to eavesdrop on video monitors using an SDR receiver along with TempestSDR software.
Supports Airspy, RTL-SDR, SDRPlay, HackRF
Original Github: github.com/mar...
Package Version: github.com/eri...
These are the EXTIO DLLs which worked for me on Windows 10, latest build as of todays date. I would recommend that you download each of these DLLs from the original source. Use google to search for them.
EXTIO DLLS: drive.google.c...
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#TechMinds #SDR #TempestSDR

[@leozendo3500]

Anything + SDR = magic

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

Can this be downloaded on Android

[@EntropicRemnants]

Very similar to what we called "Van Eyck Phreaking" back in the '70's. Then it was picking up the signal from composite video. Somewhere around in my archives I might have an old "underground" pamphlet explaining how to snoop monitors and televisions. The circuitry was analog and by today's standards simplistic but it worked.

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

Quick question is this available for Android on rtl-sdr Plus

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

can this be used on a Chromebook

[@egementutkunforreal]

​@@MarkGreen-pp3qyno

[@soulife8383]

Are we really not going to mention *_WHY_* the monitor frequency plays that song?

[@RareN7]

He had a PowerPoint presentation alternating slides of horizontal lines of various specific sizes. The specific size of the lines creates a tone, and you can arrange slides in such a way to make music.

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

right kinda spooky right

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

Kinda of like a secret code

[@jemoeder1147]

would be nice if these options would be available in the mayhem firmware to make it portable , cheers for the vid tech

[@sincerelyyours7538]

Interesting. The Tempest specification was originally designed to prevent our enemies from eavesdropping on us from miles away. It was thought to even be possible from orbit so an entire industry was created to prevent that, including hardened underground bunkers and shielded printers, monitors and other devices, all of which cost the taxpayers millions of dollars each year. If your device didn't meet those specs you weren't allowed to use it on secure networks or in those facilities. I used to think it was all a bit paranoid but now that we see it is possible to eavesdrop with just an SDR I see the value in the specification. Scary.

[@RareN7]

TEMPEST Tech here! It's sad to say that even if a piece of equipment or facility doesn't meet our standards, a higher up can just say "Yeah, I accept that risk", and ignore the results of our tests. They basically just see us as an item on a list of things they have to check off on rather than actually taking us seriously.

[@Twitchy228]

I'm pretty sure the tempest testing was part of the reason I still have PTSD from unmarked UH-60s hovering over my bedroom.... as a child.... with one of the best CRT monitors in a 50 mile radius on the second floor.

[@OneShotStop229]

​@@RareN7the most frustrating part of being a tempest manager is that nobody understands it, so nobody cares. They check the box and move on. They move stuff around in their CPA without saying anything, etc. And the rules change all the time. It's a terrible program that really needs new regulations because the stuff we're trying to counter is not being used anymore. There are way easier and more practical ways to get the same information.

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

can this be used on a Android cell phone

[@BrokenSignal]

Careful Eavesdropping on other peoples monitors, you might not like what you see...

[@clips_from_everything]

Shut your corny ahh up😭

[@nick_nt7574]

I've done something similar to this years ago with a small black and white television. I'd have the antenna behind the computer monitor, and have it fine tuned to UHF channel 34 (the video frequency was around 530 MHz I think) and I would get 3 divided screens. it looks whack, yet it was some experiment that I discovered on accident.

[@Shreyam_io]

when I was a kid... our neighbour had a console game....whenever they used to play ...we were able to see what game he was playing with clear scores and all on my TV

[@goku445]

O.O

[@n_0_body]

Speaking of glitches I had an Xperia x10 mini and every time the cell phone rang, if I didn't pick up, I could hear clearly the person talking while my phone was ringing so sometimes I left it ringing for a long time. I never knew why and if the other Xperias were the same as mine.

[@timg5tm941]

Enjoyed that! Fascinating stuff 73

[@murlock666]

If this isn't a massive wake up call to readers/viewers then it should be.. uplike and share as much as you can. Stay safe and Secure never became so apparent. Tiny investment to defeat so many levels of security! Scary stuff indeed.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Definitely!

[@soulife8383]

@@resonancewaves9659 Aluminum foil

[@RareN7]

Proper additional shielding, distance between wires, and/or just using fiber cables are all great ways to lower the chances of a leak.

[@AliasUndercover]

Tempest was still top secret when I first heard about it in 2600 magazine. Damn, times have changed over 35 years.

[@fotografm]

Exactly. In my lab it was hushhush !

[@rogue_spirit]

Long ago there was a documentary depicting a similar technology used by the German intelligence to pick up video signal from CRT monitors behind walls. Nice to see it open to public so we can play around with it (supposing there is a serious use of it :) )

[@Ash-dk7kn]

Thanks for the video, did you have the chance of trying RTL-SDR or Hack-RF?. If yes, how was the quality compared to Airspy?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

HackRF worked perfectly due to the wide bandwidth, RTL-SDR did work, but not aswell due to lower bandwidth. Yet, it still works

[@DavidStevens420]

First documented in 1943, a teletype caused electromagnetic interference, and was eventually converted into plaintext by the war dept.. Then, it was rediscovered by the CIA in 1951 and then got the codeword "TEMPEST". It's nothing new.. I used to get my neighbors porn off of his cable (accidentally) when I was 5 because the cables ran parallel after the splitter.. **sigh**

[@BeatboxNorwich]

Well this is rather scary! I had NO idea about video signals and count myself as a tech-head and electronics geek and I've owned a NooElec RTL2838 SDR for years and only just found out about this. I couldn't get a clear picture at all but it was definitely my computer screen (I'm running HDMI and DVI so unsure what it's picking up) but my antenna is on the roof above my flat. Shame the Tempest thing can't fine tune as it seems to skip quite large frequencies. If anyone knows different please let me know! Thanks :)

[@TRIPPLEJAY00]

1st Comment. Get in. Great video, I discovered something last night I was talking to my friend in Telegram on my PC, turned on my Baofeng to 136.200mhz and could hear everything we was both saying. I believe picked up either processor, Crystal Oscillator, or mic. Very strong signal and tested upto 1.5 metres.

[@Dixitkushagra175]

Can you tell more about your setup ? Were you using telegram with an external mic or something ?

[@brunoneves878]

@@Dixitkushagra175 This happens to me too but is my PC mic that i get in several frequencies across the spectrum.

[@MilanKarakas]

I discovered that it rather pickup signal from HDMI cable than from the screen. One of my 'monitor' is actually Samsung TV used as a 4K monitor. I can get okay picture with 1080p (picture is double, and distorted, but still visible). Then I switched to TV mode, but unable to get picture from TV program. Even If I turn off that TV/monitor, the same signal remains. So, bad impedance matching on the HDMI cable maybe is the cause of the signal leaking? EDIT: on TempestSDR, there is no 4K resolution, so I am using 1/4 of that (1080p).

[@zerosploit]

that's really cool thanks for the video.

[@monolofiminimal]

I remember tempest was the name of a tool used by certain agencies back in the day to monitor crt screens remotely. It had to be changed when lcd's came along though.

[@net28573]

I bet the range on those CRTs was much farther.

[@monolofiminimal]

@@net28573 for sure, but with the change in tech we also got newer sensitive equipment to work with so I don't know what the range variances are between them when the switch happened. Definitely something to ponder about. It was easier and straighforward to tune into a crt though.

[@RareN7]

TEMPEST is the codename of the government's emissions security program.

[@monolofiminimal]

@@RareN7 👍

[@DavidLindes]

@@RareN7 "avoid the spikes"? :)

[@TheHermitHacker]

Just got a hackrf one. Going to try this out.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

You’ll love it! Let us know how you get on with it :) thanks for watching 🙏

[@myname-mz3lo]

seems like getting the hackrf is worth it because its less hassle with compatibility? im thinking of getting a sdr are the nooelec any good?

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

Will it work using a Android

[@jamesholster67]

Explains why my electronic always run like shit

[@CesarSchrega]

Actually This stuff can get ya murdered.

[@CesarSchrega]

Actually This stuff can get ya murdered.

[@knoxieman]

Bookmark this video guys, Tech Minds has brought us something very special here, this is both bloody fascinating and alarming at the same time, my video cards can be detected 200m from my house.

[@BobWidlefish]

Detected as in you can hear the music tones, or you can get an image of what’s on the screen?

[@Dabaiko]

Hi @Knoxieman please could you write the measurements of your Yagi? Thank you!

[@williamvanhefner]

What type of "video cable" is being monitored in this video? It obviously can't be HDMI as the content of HDMI is both digital AND encrypted.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Yes it was HDMI and display port. I could see both.

[@knoxieman]

@@TechMindsOfficial superb video this, I had no idea mine was doing it till the other day, I saw the noise months ago in SDRPLAY and thought it was elsewhere, pretty scary, my signals radiate well over 200m from my house, I put a video up about it last week. One cable was HDMI and the other DVI connection, both doing the same.

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Yup, kinda scary to think that people can view what we’re looking at, especially if it’s financial things etc

[@knoxieman]

@@TechMindsOfficial Always look forward to your videos, I had no idea you could do what you did in your video, I was trying to suppress the signals as they are affecting PMR use by my kids here at home, really very scary and a massive security issue IMO, I dont do banking on my PC but still this is a real problem, I cant stop mine doing it, I have tried everything, my card is a GTX1030 passive Nvidia nothing special in any way, more powerful cards are supposed to be worse. If you knock up a tape measure yagi I bet you can pick up other screens, use your laptop and switch off any local HDMI screens as I found my CCTV system also radiates, I would bet in a built up area it would be easy enough to eavesdrop.

[@Dlck.C.Normous]

HDMI is not encrypted its encoded unless a HDCP data stream is needed for devices that have certain DRM's. Btw it doesn't matter if the data is digital or analog it can still be decoded easily.

[@glenwoofit]

Interesting

[@frequencywatchers]

It Doesnt Work For Me, It WORKS, But I cant get Nothing Good ToS how Up,. I used SDR To Get Active Frequencies, But NOTHING ! :(

[@rhfweb]

Can you test hooking it up to a Yagi + LNA and see if you can get some distance?

[@knoxieman]

200m I got using my home made tape measure Yagi, very scary, HDMI and DVI ports both doing it, worse on high end video cards like NVIDIA, I can see screens in all directions using my setup.

[@soulife8383]

@@knoxieman what about standard laptop monitors? Does this only work on specific displays?

[@xxxXXXCH04XXXxxx]

@@knoxieman O_O

[@RareN7]

@@soulife8383 any and every piece of electronic equipment you have emanates. The moment you plug your laptop in to charge, someone could probably see what's on your screen through the power lines a quarter mile up the street

[@joelortiz6528]

Airspy is not working for me. It juset closes the application after loading ExtlO source

[@kekethetoad]

Time for some optical HDMI/DP solutions 😬

[@stronglift1873]

In sdr++ i hear the song but when i open tempestsdr on that frequency i see nothing no matter what i do, any tips?

[@DerBarde2012]

Neuer heard oh sdr, how much is it?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Can be cheap, less that $20, look at the NooElec range of products, they are a good starter kit.

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

not to get a good one

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

like 30 dollars

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

for 30 dollars you get the full kit

[@Evil_ddddd]

nice~ can you share extio file? or where to download it?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

There is a link in the description to the EXTIO DLLS :-) 👍

[@danielchavez1327]

I'm unable to listen to the test tune on sdrsharp, also when using the tempest sdr with the airspy dll my pc crashes. Any tips?

[@paulfrancis8836]

I get nothing on the HackRF One, or the RSPduo. The monitor resolution you show is much lower than mine. Maybe that's the problem.

[@BrianAnderson1095]

I wish this would be ported to Android

[@dstoper]

Zip file is no longer available is there anyone that can share it Thank you

[@MarkZuckerbergsMom]

How did you find that your screen was 409.816?

[@RareN7]

When you raster an image, they come in frames across the RF spectrum. He just happened to find that specific frame at that frequency.

[@markg6jvy135]

Thanks for the video and opening up a new rabbit hole I can lose hours down 😂😉👍

[@rockwithme5346]

My thoughts exactly.

[@rickt1866]

would this work on say cellphone screens ?

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Very much doubt it

[@openfi]

HI，What kind of antenna do you use in the video-Eavesdropping Video Monitors With Airspy？

[@TechMindsOfficial]

I just used a small antenna from a walkie talkie

[@mlo7238]

Really nice video. How difficult would be this in a real scenario? I mean what kind of antenna like into between two rooms?

[@RareN7]

The difficulty depends on if the equipment under test has proper shielding and/or distance between other wires.

[@meshalabdullah8210]

thank you 👍

[@arf20]

I can't find the signal

[@RareN7]

I know you commented this over 2 years ago, but check your bandwidth. Typically, you raster signals around 5M bandwidth.

[@molo4nijmyss]

VGA ? DVI? HDMI??

[@RareN7]

You can pull an image from any of those.

[@ingmarm8858]

There is a lot more to the radiations than what is being leaked by the monitor cable. Often it's from the cable, the board, the drive electronics etc etc. The old panasonic toughbook for example had bad leakage from the flat ribbon connecting the LCD to the main body. This application works surprisingly well compared to say a few hundred meg bandwidth dedicated tempest receiver from a few decades ago ;-)

[@RareN7]

If you don't mind me asking, what is the "dedicated TEMPEST" receiver you're talking about? A few decades ago, the go-to receiver was an AEL receiver.

[@rohnkd4hct260]

sorry OM you lost me this time.

[@JNET_Reloaded]

why not just upload all them files you edited and made and then we all wont have to re do all your work!

[@TechMindsOfficial]

Mainly because not everyone wants all of the SDRs I listed, and the zip file was around 350Mb with them all in. Also, it’s really easy to do. But if people get stuck then I’ll upload them if requested.

[@JNET_Reloaded]

@@TechMindsOfficial torrents are another way so if its popular itl live on if not it wont maybe lol

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

​@@TechMindsOfficialis this going to be on Android

[@akakrieger]

What kind of distance can you receive the signals

[@RareN7]

I've heard of a guy doing it with an SDR from about a quarter mile away.

[@goku445]

@@RareN7 fake

[@RareN7]

@@goku445 lol okay

[@goku445]

@@RareN7 Where is the proof?

[@incrediblemichael]

i try that with an neighbor of mine and we recieved his monitorsignal roughly over 90 - 100 meters we use an hackrf one and some sdr sticks and airspy because your video makes us curious also we try it with my laptop but that working not so well think because in a laptop arent cables they long enough to transmit the signal well enough

[@BobWidlefish]

Could you see an image of what was on his screen at that distance, or just get the music?

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

can this be used with a Android phone

[@incrediblemichael]

@@BobWidlefish we succsessfully recieved both in a circle roughly 70 meters from his position farther away and we recieved just static with random music parts

[@incrediblemichael]

@@MarkGreen-pp3qy its difficult to use but honestly we didnt try it

[@MarkGreen-pp3qy]

Yeah because I was getting excited In wanted to no if I I can use a android phone

[@dm4859]

Searching for info on whether new company I'm in training for is using this kind of tech to spy on us trainees. All the equipment is their's, preloaded, VPN connection, Dell thin, 2 HP monitors, headset, and you can only turn it on 5 minutes before shift. Layers of security, and company could afford it. I'm aware they track what we look at and monitor our idle time, etc. My big question is if they are using anything that will act as a camera. How prevalent is this in 2021 for remote workers?

[@Thebloggermustdie]

tried using a RTL and when I launch the tempest and click load from source nothing happens when I manually load the dll it allows me to start it but I dont get the user interface like you do and the screen slowly turn compleatly white :(