Mobile malware can be activated with sound, light or vibration

I like to read and get informed about vulnerabilities and malicious software for mobile devices. There are news on that field every day and those are the ones that are public. I can’t imagine what else is not known due to the fact that are not yet published or are found by black hat hackers and remain secret. University of Alabama’s researches have published a research paper with the title “Sensing-Enabled Channels for Hard-to-Detect Command and Control of Mobile Devices”. In this paper they show that it is possible to activate a malware hidden in your mobile device with sound, light or vibration. The researches were able to trigger a malicious application with music that was played 17 meters away from the mobile device in a crowded hallway. This means that it has also resistance to noise and the attacker can be in a distance. Cameras and microphones are the easiest way to do it but it is also possible with the magnetometer and the vibration sensor. They propose to start building defenses for such malwares before it is too late.