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KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

samy.pl

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Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#41

Post by bigiain »

egeozcan wrote: post #8
edwintorok wrote: post #6

Does this apply to all bluetooth keyboards? Sounds like some public-key crypto could make it safe: embed some unique keys at manufacturing time and use some small crypto library (like tweetnacl) to communicate and have mutual authentication. For the paranoid there could be a way to update the keys so that not even the vendor can sniff the keystrokes. Isn't there a RFC for something similar?

I'm curious if something like this could affect the battery life significantly.

It's passive. The keyboard doesn't know it's being listened to.

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#43

Post by omgitstom »

Xeoncross wrote: post #31
tylersmith wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's done a number of (in)famous things. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samy_%28computer_worm%29

This case still gets me. Showing some text on MySpace is a "felony" charge? > Felonies: Felonies are the most serious types of crimes... ...Felonies are usually crimes that are viewed severely by society, and include crimes such as murder, rape, burglary, kidnapping, or arson. However, felonies can also be punished in a range of ways so that the punishment matches the severity of the crime. - http://criminal.findlaw.…

Some states view these types of crimes as crimes of 'moral turpitude' and it doesn't matter if it is a felony or misdemeanor. It will definitely effect your ability to get a security clearance or job in the security space.

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#44

Post by tokenizerrr »

cortesoft wrote: post #26
mrb wrote: post #24

The most frustrating thing when reading about keyboard vendors implementing such insecure protocols is knowing that the nRF24LE1 chip Microsoft uses has all it needs for security: hardware accelerated support for AES , as well as a hardware random number generator [1]. Some comments here suggest using public/private crypto as a fix, but it would not even be necessary. During manufacturing they could simply generate a…

Logitech keyboards (and probably others as well) let you use a single receiver for all the logitech wireless devices ( http://www.logitech.com/en-us/promotions/6072 ). If you have a unique key embedded in each keyboard/dongle pair, you would lose the ability to do this. In addition, if you lost the dongle, you would be SOL. I think more people will care about the convenience instead of the security. Ideally, you coul…

> If you have a unique key embedded in each keyboard/dongle pair, you would lose the ability to do this. In addition, if you lost the dongle, you would be SOL.

I'm not sure I understand why? If public/private key cryptography were used then each dongle & keyboard would contain a private key. The dongle then contains a store for up to X public keys.

The pairing procedure starts due to a physical button press on the two devices, they find each other and exchange public keys. All future communication is then encrypted & signed using the private keys these devices hold. The attack described in venaoy's edit still applies though, an active attacker present during pairing may pretend to be an access point & keyboard, overpowering the original access point and acting as a sort of relay. The link would however break if this relay were to leave the vicinity.

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#45

Post by egeozcan »

bigiain wrote: post #41
egeozcan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious if something like this could affect the battery life significantly.

It's passive. The keyboard doesn't know it's being listened to.

No, I meant the preventive measures. Would encryption be such a big battery-hog that they preferred security through "obscurity" or did they just overlook the fact that those devices were broadcasting users' keystrokes to the open air? It's unjustifiable in either case but just wondering. (BTW I also don't get the down-vote. Did I say something unrelated?)

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#47

Post by ajarmst »

Xeoncross wrote: post #31
tylersmith wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's done a number of (in)famous things. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samy_%28computer_worm%29

This case still gets me. Showing some text on MySpace is a "felony" charge? > Felonies: Felonies are the most serious types of crimes... ...Felonies are usually crimes that are viewed severely by society, and include crimes such as murder, rape, burglary, kidnapping, or arson. However, felonies can also be punished in a range of ways so that the punishment matches the severity of the crime. - http://criminal.findlaw.…

Don't you know that there's no difference between doing that and starting a global thermonuclear war! They're the same thing! Don't you watch movies?

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#48

Post by bigiain »

egeozcan wrote: post #45
bigiain wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's passive. The keyboard doesn't know it's being listened to.

No, I meant the preventive measures. Would encryption be such a big battery-hog that they preferred security through "obscurity" or did they just overlook the fact that those devices were broadcasting users' keystrokes to the open air? It's unjustifiable in either case but just wondering. (BTW I also don't get the down-vote. Did I say something unrelated?)

Ahh right.

The datasheet for the nRF24LE1 talks about it's AES encryption/decryption accelerator (section 15) and thermal noise random number generator (section 16), but the power consumption specs (section 26.1) talk about the rng using 0.5mA and don't even mention the AES hardware (even though they list other modules all the way down to 0.5uA). The RX/TX modules use over 10mA, so an order of magnitude more than the hardware RNG, and possibly 4 orders of magnitude more than the AES hardware.

I doubt the encryption would even register in battery life - completely obscured by the power consumed by the TX/RX modules.

http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/content/download/2443/29442/fi...

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#49

Post by comboy »

lgeek wrote: post #22

The added electronics just rest against the adapter's boards: http://samy.pl/keysweeper/testingsize.jpg . This looks quite unsafe because of reduced clearances. It has a chance of either exposing HV on the LV (USB power) side or shorting the various boards, potentially starting a fire. It's a pretty cool proof-of-concept, but I wouldn't connect anything to the USB port. These issues could be solved for deployment by…

You could just epoxy it, but I don't think it's meant to be production ready.

Re: KeySweeper – Arduino-based passive wireless keyboard sniffer

#50

Post by r00fus »

curiously wrote: post #42

this is scary as hell! what about other wireless keyboards, especially the mac? I will switch to a mac keyboard if it's safe.

Apple wireless keyboards all use Bluetooth, so if BT were broken it would likely be a bigger problem than a single vendor's issues.
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