Keystrokes Can Be Sniffed Without the PC Being Compromised

Post by **ph0bYx** » 21 Oct 2008, 05:41

Two Swiss researchers have demonstrated, in James Bond-like experiments, that sniffing the keystrokes from a wired keyboard is possible by capturing the electromagnetic radiations that are emitted when the keys are pressed. The researchers devised four methods of attack, one of which successfully decodes the pressed keys from a distance up to 20 meters, through an office wall, with a rather simple wireless antenna.

Read more: Softpedia

Uner · Post by **Uner** » 21 Oct 2008, 05:57

Takes so long to decode...

str33tl0rd · Post by **str33tl0rd** » 21 Oct 2008, 06:23

very nice actually i love the idea...

Post by **ph0bYx** » 21 Oct 2008, 07:01

Never knew that electromagnetic radiations are emitted from the keyboard when the keys are pressed.

Post by **bad_brain** » 21 Oct 2008, 07:56

well, the key on a keyboard is nothing but a switch that opens/closes an electronic circuit...and when there is electricity then there also is an electromagnetic field...

with the right equipment (receiver/antenna) you can even "sniff" the radiation of a monitor and display the content on your laptop while sitting in a car in front of the victim's house.

Nerdz · Post by **Nerdz** » 21 Oct 2008, 08:55

Good luck filtering it...

An office of 10 employee... hard

Post by **floodhound2** » 21 Oct 2008, 08:56

I totally disagree. This is not possible in the manner that you are describing.

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Fact #1
electromagnetic energy is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical quantity. This means that the distance that you mentioned is far far far far, to far and degrades exponentially with that distance.  

Fact #2
The magnetic intensity caused from a button being pressed is so extremely small it could not be measured with an oscilloscope. Fans and an AC outlet would create more magnetic fields than a keyboard.

Fact #3
Denouncing effect of a button would make it virtualy impossiable to determine the button pressed.

Fact #4
determining the difference between "A" and "x" would all look the same even if an electromagnetic field was produced. So trying to decide if the 
"A" was pressed vs the "x" would be impossible.

In closing your reading is a hoax. Don't believe everything you read.

Nerdz · Post by **Nerdz** » 21 Oct 2008, 08:59

Looks like the new new phone coming up...

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http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

isapiens · Post by **isapiens** » 21 Oct 2008, 09:23

Ye someone told this about this yesterday, it was on engadget.

I really have no idea how would they filter those signals from all the other ones. Even if they do somehow distinguish between monitor and keyboard noise, chances are there are several people typing on different keyboards.

Does anyone have a link to a website with more details on this project?

Post by **floodhound2** » 21 Oct 2008, 09:30

Read my post. This is a joke! its impossible learn about de-bouncing and that alone discredits this idea.

Post by **DNR** » 21 Oct 2008, 10:28

Well you might start by reading about TEMPEST, the old school technology used to read what is displayed on a computer monitor - it has its inherent weakness.
http://fas.org/irp/program/security/tempest.htm
"Transient Electromagnetic Pulse Surveillance Technology"

"The interception/propagation ranges and analysis of such emanations are affected by a variety of factors, e.g., the functional design of the information processing equipment; system/equipment installation; and, environmental conditions related to physical security and ambient noise."
"TEMPEST monitoring technology has gotten to the point that it is possible for an intruder to park in a van on the street and observe on their receiver exactly what a user is doing on an unprotected personal computer. Emissions from a video monitor normally exist at around 55-245 MHz, and can be picked up as far as one kilometer away."

I have to agree with Floodie, there is not enough EM energy released from a keyboard's button being pressed to travel on the other side of a wall. - In an office environment, running the A/C, cellphones, and microwave ovens. You'd need a very sterile environment (a lab!) and time to decode each signal, of each keystroke as Uner said.

Nerdz · Post by **Nerdz** » 21 Oct 2008, 12:31

I can't see the videos... I'm not at home.

http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/keyboard/

Post by **floodhound2** » 21 Oct 2008, 13:18

Nerdz its the same video that the top post gave.

Look people this is not possible. This is such a joke. The only feasible way that this could work is if the keyboard was wireless and the signal was received.

Pft. I am wasting my time writing more on this.

Post by **bad_brain** » 21 Oct 2008, 13:30

yeah, floody is absolutely right. what they can do in theory is to prove that a key has been pressed...but never which one. and even this will most likely only work in a room that is shielded from any disturbances from the outside, else the electromagnetic impulse that was caused by pressing the key would go under in the electromagnetic background noise like a whisper in a Motörhead concert..

Post by **Lundis** » 23 Oct 2008, 04:56

Actually, I know a guy who worked (this summer) in a company dealing with these things. They used a machine that showed what key you typed on the keyboard, but the "safe" range was just 1m...

This is serious business, they sold tempest-computers to the german army among others!

If you made a small box you could hide it next to a computer and recieve classified information