reghakr
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Security researchers found that poor shielding on some keyboard cables means useful data can be leaked about each character typed. By analyzing the information leaking onto power circuits, the researchers could see what a target was typing. The attack has been demonstrated to work at a distance of up to 15m, but refinement may mean it could work over much longer distances.
“Our goal is to show that information leaks in the most unexpected ways and can be retrieved,” wrote two individuals of security firm Inverse Path, in a paper describing their work. The research focused on the cables used to connect PS/2 keyboards to desktop PCs. Usefully, said the pair, the six wires inside a PS/2 cable are typically “close to each other and poorly shielded.”
This means that information travelling along the data wire, when a key is pressed, leaks onto the earth (ground in the U.S.) wire in the same cable. The earth wire, via the PC’s power unit, ultimately connects to the plug in the power socket, and from there information leaks out onto the circuit supplying electricity to a room. Even better, said the researchers, data travels along PS/2 cables one bit at a time and uses a clock speed far lower than any other PC component. Both these qualities make it easy to pick out voltage changes caused by key presses. A digital oscilloscope was used to gather data about voltage changes on a power line and filters were used to remove those caused by anything other than the keyboard.
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“Our goal is to show that information leaks in the most unexpected ways and can be retrieved,” wrote two individuals of security firm Inverse Path, in a paper describing their work. The research focused on the cables used to connect PS/2 keyboards to desktop PCs. Usefully, said the pair, the six wires inside a PS/2 cable are typically “close to each other and poorly shielded.”
This means that information travelling along the data wire, when a key is pressed, leaks onto the earth (ground in the U.S.) wire in the same cable. The earth wire, via the PC’s power unit, ultimately connects to the plug in the power socket, and from there information leaks out onto the circuit supplying electricity to a room. Even better, said the researchers, data travels along PS/2 cables one bit at a time and uses a clock speed far lower than any other PC component. Both these qualities make it easy to pick out voltage changes caused by key presses. A digital oscilloscope was used to gather data about voltage changes on a power line and filters were used to remove those caused by anything other than the keyboard.
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My Computer
- Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
- Cheap $399.00 E-Machine
- OS
- Windows 7 Pro & Vista Home Premium
- CPU
- Athlon 64 3800+ (Orleans) 2.40GHz
- Motherboard
- Winfast
- Memory
- 2GB DDR2 RAM DIMM
- Graphics Card(s)
- NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512 MB memory HDMI out
- Sound Card
- creative X-Fi Exteme 7..1 channel
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Acer V223W 22" widescreen DVI
- Screen Resolution
- 1680x1050
- Hard Drives
- WDC WD5 500GB
WDC WD25 250GB
- PSU
- OCZ 550 watt
- Case
- Gateway
- Cooling
- 2 fans
- Keyboard
- Dell
- Mouse
- Sony Vaio
- Internet Speed
- 18MB/s down - .72MB /s up
