Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
windytan.com
Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
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Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#2Reminds me of an episode of Due South (the tv series about a Canadian mountie working as a detective in Chicago) in which he correctly works out a password from just the sound of someone typing it.
Turns out this is not so far-fetched after all:
"If you have an audio recording of somebody typing on an ordinary computer keyboard for fifteen minutes or so, you can figure out everything they typed."
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/acoustic-snooping-...
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#3So how far can you go and still eavesdrop on the signal? I haven't the first clue regarding signals, but I guess you'd have to plant a bug on the underside of the desk as opposed to a radar dish on the other side of the wall?
But yeah, another post from windytan that's left me amazed. If you're uninitiated, this is the same woman that figured out how to read from bus timetable display radio signals [1].
I'll stick to my USB wired keyboard for now, though, until encrypted wireless keyboards come down from £70-100.
[1]: http://www.windytan.com/2013/11/decoding-radio-controlled-bu...
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#4So how far can you go and still eavesdrop on the signal? I haven't the first clue regarding signals, but I guess you'd have to plant a bug on the underside of the desk as opposed to a radar dish on the other side of the wall? But yeah, another post from windytan that's left me amazed. If you're uninitiated, this is the same woman that figured out how to read from bus timetable display radio signals [1]. I'll stick to…
… or get a wireless keyboard with Bluetooth – it should be safe enough.
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#5If you don't have consent, this would be one of the RARE instances of a Title I violation under the ECPA.
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#6Reminds me of an episode of Due South (the tv series about a Canadian mountie working as a detective in Chicago) in which he correctly works out a password from just the sound of someone typing it. Turns out this is not so far-fetched after all: "If you have an audio recording of somebody typing on an ordinary computer keyboard for fifteen minutes or so, you can figure out everything they typed." https://freedom-to-t…
There was a great talk at Defcon in 2009 about sniffing keystrokes with voltmeters and lasers. It's worth watching the video[1] if you're interested in this audio technique.
The first part of their presentation uses a novel method to pick up PS/2 keystrokes from a system's ground connection. This presentation was what lead me to design the PS/2 tap[2] to sniff keystrokes with my sound card.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zq9DQAbWmU [2] https://github.com/dominicgs/PS2_tap
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#7So how far can you go and still eavesdrop on the signal? I haven't the first clue regarding signals, but I guess you'd have to plant a bug on the underside of the desk as opposed to a radar dish on the other side of the wall? But yeah, another post from windytan that's left me amazed. If you're uninitiated, this is the same woman that figured out how to read from bus timetable display radio signals [1]. I'll stick to…
… or get a wireless keyboard with Bluetooth – it should be safe enough .
If you get an Ubertooth http://ubertooth.sourceforge.net/ you can sniff bluetooth as well. If you use the default PIN (0000 or 1234) then it's possible to decrypt the signal. Here's an overview of how feasible decryption is: http://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2012/projects/echai-bendorff-...
Also, Bluetooth LE provides no eavesdropping protection. If an attacker can capture the pairing frames, they may be able to determine the "long-term key". Here's the NIST guidance paper on Bluetooth security: http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=911133
The attack surface can be minimized if the keyboard manufacturer implements crypto properly, requires encryption at the protocol level, uses a long and complex PIN, etc. The manufacturer with the best reputation right now is Microsoft. They got burned pretty hard when their propriety wireless encryption was hacked back in 2007, and it looks like their bluetooth keyboards are doing everything right.
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#8This is why Apple's iBeacon was never going to be a viable method of payment, unlike NFC. The range on Bluetooth is just too long to safely do something like payments with it.
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
… or get a wireless keyboard with Bluetooth – it should be safe enough .
If you get an Ubertooth http://ubertooth.sourceforge.net/ you can sniff bluetooth as well. If you use the default PIN (0000 or 1234) then it's possible to decrypt the signal. Here's an overview of how feasible decryption is: http://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2012/projects/echai-bendorff-... Also, Bluetooth LE provides no eavesdropping protection. If an attacker can capture the pairing frames, they may be able to determi…
(As a side note) Seeing the comment on acoustic fingerprinting, I guess it applies to wireless keyboards as well - even if the exact keycodes could be securely encrypted, keypress timing data, paired with finger movement model and typist habits analysis, would probably still leak information on what's typed.
Re: Eavesdropping on a wireless keyboard (2013)
#10This is why Apple's iBeacon was never going to be a viable method of payment, unlike NFC. The range on Bluetooth is just too long to safely do something like payments with it.
The range of Internet is incomparably greater, but we still somehow manage to perform payments over that in a reasonably secure manner.
We just have to establish the secure channel and securely authenticate peers to each other. The medium over which this is made is mostly irrelevant.