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Hacking Voice-Controllable Devices

  • Book
  • © 2026

Overview

Authors:
  1. Sergio Esposito

    1. Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

  2. Daniele Sgandurra

    1. Independent Researcher, Egham, UK

  3. Giampaolo Bella

    1. Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

  4. Daniel O’Keeffe

    1. Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

  • Provides deep insight on the security of voice-controllable devices
  • Offers a general framework to analyse self-activation attacks
  • Examines potential countermeasures and introduces an original one

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About this book

Voice-controllable devices allow hands-free interactions, offering a modern user experience and helping impaired users. However, the voice channel that enables this interaction is also one of their main weaknesses.

Higher usability often comes with higher security and privacy risks. As Voice-Controllable Devices are no exception to this, a plethora of new attacks have been carried out against them in recent years. In this book, several attacks are analysed against the voice channel available in the literature; it then devises a bespoke kill chain to facilitate the classification of attack steps and future research. Additionally, the work analyses the design of the notorious Alexa vs Alexa attack, which turned Echo Dot devices against themselves in 2022. Finally, the present volume explores measures against all these attacks and raise important questions about their suitability for user needs.

Topics and features:

  • Discusses timely security and privacy challenges in IoT devices, with an emphasis on voice-controllable devices
  • Provides a framework for assessing and studying attacks against the voice channel
  • Addresses practical attacks successfully carried out against real devices, showing that an impactful attack need not be complex
  • Explores advanced safeguards from a new perspective, questioning whether research is proceeding in the right direction

This powerful volume—containing tips, tricks, and techniques used by ethical hackers to breach the voice channel—serves as the perfect guide for researchers conducting security and privacy research on IoT. It also provides food for thought for graduate students and enthusiasts of these subjects who do not shy away from the mathematics behind the world of machine learning.

Keywords

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Voice-Controllable Devices (VCDs)

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Introduction

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 3-11

    3. Technological Background

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 13-42

  3. Foundations of Attack and Defense

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The HAVOC Model for Attacking VCDs

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 45-86

    3. A Taxonomy of Measures Against Voice Spoofing Attacks

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 87-99

  4. Exploiting and Defending in the Real World

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 101-101
      Download chapter PDF

    2. The Alexa Versus Alexa Attack

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 103-130

    3. Analysis of AvA in the Real World

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 131-144

    4. An Intelligent Measure Against Self-activation

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 145-169

    5. Conclusion

      • Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe
      Pages 171-177
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Authors and Affiliations

  • Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Sergio Esposito, Giampaolo Bella

  • Independent Researcher, Egham, UK

    Daniele Sgandurra

  • Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

    Daniel O’Keeffe

About the authors

Sergio Esposito and Giampaolo Bella are affiliated with the University of Catania. Sergio Esposito is an Assistant Professor, and Giampaolo Bella is a Full Professor. Daniele Sgandurra is currently an independent researcher. Daniel O’Keeffe is affiliated with Royal Holloway, University of London, where he is Senior Lecturer.

Accessibility Information

PDF accessibility summary

This PDF has been created in accordance with the PDF/UA-1 standard to enhance accessibility, including screen reader support, described non-text content (images, graphs), bookmarks for easy navigation, keyboard-friendly links and forms and searchable, selectable text. We recognize the importance of accessibility, and we welcome queries about accessibility for any of our products. If you have a question or an access need, please get in touch with us at [email protected]. Please note that a more accessible version of this eBook is available as ePub.

EPUB accessibility summary

This ebook is designed with accessibility in mind, aiming to meet the ePub Accessibility 1.0 AA and WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards. It features a navigable table of contents, structured headings, and alternative text for images, ensuring smooth, intuitive navigation and comprehension. The text is reflowable and resizable, with sufficient contrast. We recognize the importance of accessibility, and we welcome queries about accessibility for any of our products. If you have a question or an access need, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Hacking Voice-Controllable Devices

  • Authors: Sergio Esposito, Daniele Sgandurra, Giampaolo Bella, Daniel O’Keeffe

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-88145-9

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-88144-2Published: 23 July 2025

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-88147-3Due: 06 August 2026

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-88145-9Published: 22 July 2025

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 177

  • Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations, 21 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Systems and Data Security, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence

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