Probably a good idea to repeat at least one character.
Depends on what the password is for. If it can be brute forced offline then you’ll need a lot more than one character to make any difference.
Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
31–40 of 94 posts
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#32at first, this seems completely harmless, but there are a few scenarios in which this could potentially be a viable attack. I doubt it's much use on computers, but imagine someone rigging a candid infrared camera across the street from an ATM. You'd block the cameras view while typing, but then you leave and it's game over.
This is why I habitually run my fingers across the keypad after entering my PIN. Paranoid thinking? Maybe.
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#33Apparently the attacker has never seen my macbook air running a heavy compilation job. Fan is cranked and the keyboard is so hot that there is no way they are getting my password!
Nothing but noise to a thermal camera...
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#34If the adversary has the level of physical access required to pull this off you've already lost.
One can easily attach a long tele lens to one of these cameras, so one could capture passwords through windows. Specialized IR lenses are expensive, but regular lenses can do a good enough job. Edit: my bad IR doesn't go through most glass material. Still, laptops are commonly used in public, and through lenses or otherwise, your password can be leaked. That's worrying enough to stop the "physical access means total…
Good IR tele lenses are not just expensive, the don't even have prices, they have "phone numbers".
So you would have to get money from really a lot of people just to pay they IR camera and the lenses.
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#35True story: A friend who was a heavy smoker asked me to fix his computer. I went to his house and saw the beige desktop and CRT were stained tobacco brown from second hand smoke. After fixing his "screen's all blurry" problem with some Windex I was ready to go in and see what kind of spyware and viruses he had managed to install on the machine.
I was about to ask for his password when I noticed the only spots not covered in ashes on his keyboard were the W, S, C, B, U, N, and I keys. Knowing he was a die hard Chicago Cubs fan it took me one try to guess the password: cubswin.
It was a nasty job but he was a good friend so I got his machine all straightened out for him without judgement.
The things I do for beer...
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#36True story: A friend who was a heavy smoker asked me to fix his computer. I went to his house and saw the beige desktop and CRT were stained tobacco brown from second hand smoke. After fixing his "screen's all blurry" problem with some Windex I was ready to go in and see what kind of spyware and viruses he had managed to install on the machine. I was about to ask for his password when I noticed the only spots not cov…
Isn't Windex bad for computer screens?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17416298 says "no Windex, as tempting as it might be!"
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#37> THERMANATOR - The hottest attack of the summer! Coming soon to a computer near you!
Are our jobs really this dull that we have to give our projects stupid hollywood names
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#38True story: A friend who was a heavy smoker asked me to fix his computer. I went to his house and saw the beige desktop and CRT were stained tobacco brown from second hand smoke. After fixing his "screen's all blurry" problem with some Windex I was ready to go in and see what kind of spyware and viruses he had managed to install on the machine. I was about to ask for his password when I noticed the only spots not cov…
Isn't Windex bad for computer screens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17416298 says "no Windex, as tempting as it might be!"
It's fine for CRTs as far as I know. And even if it's not, it's probably an improvement on tar.
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#39True story: A friend who was a heavy smoker asked me to fix his computer. I went to his house and saw the beige desktop and CRT were stained tobacco brown from second hand smoke. After fixing his "screen's all blurry" problem with some Windex I was ready to go in and see what kind of spyware and viruses he had managed to install on the machine. I was about to ask for his password when I noticed the only spots not cov…
Isn't Windex bad for computer screens? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17416298 says "no Windex, as tempting as it might be!"
I'm guessing this was a while ago when screens were still glass bubbles
Re: Thermanator Attack Steals Passwords by Reading Thermal Residue on Keyboards
#40Probably a good idea to repeat at least one character.
Yeah, and just use lots of characters. And at least one use of the shift key :)