CVE-2021-38543Public exploit

Speech recovery via power-LED optical leakage

Published Aug 11, 2021 · Updated Aug 4, 2024

Information disclosure in TP-Link UE330 devices through 2021-08-09 allows physically proximate attackers to recover played speech. The power indicator LED is wired directly to the power line, causing its intensity to track speaker-driven power consumption and encode the audio signal. Exploitation requires powered audio-output equipment, line of sight to the LED, a telescope, and an electro-optical sensor; the demonstrated consequence is speech disclosure.

CVSS severity5.9
Medium
EPSS probability1.29%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Information disclosure in TP-Link UE330 devices through 2021-08-09 allows physically proximate attackers to recover played speech. The power indicator LED is wired directly to the power line, causing its intensity to track speaker-driven power consumption and encode the audio signal. Exploitation requires powered audio-output equipment, line of sight to the LED, a telescope, and an electro-optical sensor; the demonstrated consequence is speech disclosure.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-38543
Published
Aug 11, 2021
Updated
Aug 4, 2024
Vendor
Unknown vendor
Product
Unknown product
Classifications
T1123
Attack vector
adjacent
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Aug 11, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Affected buildAffected product and version details are unavailable.

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectoradjacent
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.

Published CVSS scores

4.3NIST NVDAV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
5.9NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 9, 2026Sep 15, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 15, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectoradjacent
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

T1123Audio Capture

Public exploit references

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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