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CVE-2021-38544

Sony SRS-XB33 and SRS-XB43 devices through 2021-08-09 allow remote attackers to recover speech signals from an LED on the device, via a…

Medium5.9EPSS 1.3%
Published
Updated
Reserved
Assigned by
mitre

Description

Sony SRS-XB33 and SRS-XB43 devices through 2021-08-09 allow remote attackers to recover speech signals from an LED on the device, via a telescope and an electro-optical sensor, aka a "Glowworm" attack. The power indicator LED of the speakers is connected directly to the power line, as a result, the intensity of a device's power indicator LED is correlative to the power consumption. The sound played by the speakers affects their power consumption and as a result is also correlative to the light intensity of the LEDs. By analyzing measurements obtained from an electro-optical sensor directed at the power indicator LEDs of the speakers, we can recover the sound played by them.

Timeline

  1. ID reserved

    By mitre

  2. Published

  3. · 3 years later

    Record updated

Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.

Scores

CVSS scores of CVE-2021-38544, by who scored it
Scored byCVSSScoreVector
NVDNVD · Modified3.1Medium5.9CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
1.3% · top 30% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
Loading the EPSS history…

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.9.

Weakness

  • n/a

Affected products

  • n/a

    • affected n/a

References (1)

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

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Record last updated .