martinmarinov/TempestSDR

TempestSDR is a legendary project in the SDR and cybersecurity communities, boasting over 1,500 stars and significant longevity (over 12 years). It implements the complex physics of Van Eck phreaking—reconstructing video from electromagnetic leakage—which requires deep domain expertise in digital signal processing (DSP) and radio frequency (RF) physics. Its defensibility is rooted in this technical depth; while the code is open-source, the 'moat' is the specialized knowledge required to refine and adapt these algorithms to modern hardware (e.g., transitioning from VGA to digital HDMI/DisplayPort signals). Frontier labs (OpenAI, Google) have zero incentive to build in this space as it sits firmly in the 'offensive security/intelligence' niche rather than general-purpose AI or cloud services. The primary risk is not platform displacement but rather the evolution of display technology (e.g., shielded cables, spread-spectrum clocking) which makes TEMPEST attacks harder, though the tool remains the de facto standard for researchers in this field. Its high star count and persistent forks indicate it is the go-to reference implementation for this specific physical side-channel attack.