“Power-Line Exploit” Logs Your Keystrokes Using Outlets, Lasers
Thinking about plugging your laptop into one of those coveted aeroplane terminal power outlets while you wait for your flight to arrive? Be careful, because a hacker could be using those energy-giving wires against you.
The technique is a form of keylogging, which is nothing new, but in an interesting twist hackers have figured out a non-traditional way to replicate the process using nothing but the electric signals created with each keystroke. Oh, and even if you aren’t plugged into a socket, they they can still log keystrokes remotely using a laser.
Called the “power-line exploit,” the two-part technique is outlined in a Network World article ominously headlined “How to use electrical outlets and cheap lasers to steal data,” and will be but one of several nefarious data-stealing methods on display at Black Hat USA 2009 in Las Vegas later this month.
Network World explains:
In the power-line exploit, the attacker grabs the keyboard signals that are generated by hitting keys. Because the data wire within the keyboard cable is unshielded, the signals leak into the ground wire in the cable, and from there into the ground wire of the electrical system feeding the computer. Bit streams generated by the keyboards that indicate what keys have been struck create voltage fluctuations in the grounds.
[If the laptop is unplugged], attackers point a cheap laser, slightly better than what is used in laser pointers, at a shiny part of a laptop or even an object on the table with the laptop. A receiver is aligned to capture the reflected light beam and the modulations that are caused by the vibrations resulting from striking the keys.
Which is precisely why I blog and work in a Faraday cage. In my underwear with stains on my shirt, naturally, as Best Buy revealed earlier. [Network World via CrunchGear]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@rt100 Penn State: correct, and this would be taking place in a public library or airport or any other public place where "hackers" could utilize these methods?
@pettiblay: Lol, way back when my friends and I played an online game, and I would always put trial keyloggers on my computer and have them log in, hoping I could take some expensive items from their account. The same thing happened to me every time - a little message would pop up from the keylogger and I would be caught. Serves me right I guess.
Wewtaco
@adinnieken: No... when that happens, we may finally be able to understand what a woman actually means
OMG! Phonies!
@dingus: You guys are retarded! Sony doesn't make keyboard cords!
@flame500:
My thoughts as well. If it works at all it's probably under very controlled conditions that virtually never exist in real life. A specific laptop, with a specific plug, with the laser aimed at a specific angle, from a specific distance...
Proof of concept at best (if it works)...viable hack...hardly...
Or so I presume...
OddManOut
@dingus: yep, it just wouldn't work with a USB keyboard and a lot of new motherboards just doesn't bother to put old PS2 connectors, cuz nobody is using them anyway.
My Thinkpad: A) Doesn't have a ground wire in the power cable and B) doesn't have very large shiny surfaces and would be difficult to point a laser at. Even then, I use Dvorak so good luck.
amdinator
You know that's impossible, right? There is no "keyboard cable" in a laptop, and I don't think many people bring their office computers to the airport to plug them in. The keyboard is a scanned matrix consisting of many very low-level, low speed signals. The EMI from the many high speed signals would swamp any ability to read the keyboard matrix.
And as for the laser reader, sure the laser might be simple, but the receiver would need to be large and placed in a strategic spot that would have to move every time the keyboard moved. Wouldn't it just be easier to use a pair of binoculars? But that doesn't have the paranoid technology aspect to it.
dinsey
Some day, someone will figure out how to read brainwaves without using electrodes from an unreasonably far distance.
When that happens, we're all screwed.
adinnieken
I have a much better hack.
I call it POYS.
Peaking
Over
Your
Shoulder
I would tell you how it is done but I am in negotiations with the Department of Defense about selling them this new technology.
glamajamma
Electrical signals leaking into the ground plane and thusly into the wall socket, you say?
That's odd, my laptop DC converter doesn't have a ground prong.
@Δεν βÏÎθηκαν λÎξεις: Yup! & Good for this exploit, but be careful w/ others which capture the screen and cursor location etc.
Hmm how about iPhone software keyboards?
lol this is what i do. every single day. cha chingg!!
adamc007
All you need to do is enter your passwords and important info with a soft keyboard, like you do when you go to INGdirect.com.
I think that I'll just give up in life because I'm sure that once I do good in life and make it rich, some low life hacker is just going to take it all away from me.
Seriously though, if they have this now, what kind of stuff will they have like this when I'm 40 or 50.. Assuming I'm 20.
@Americun MORAN©: ah ha! yes Average people might not have to worry (at all), but if there is very sensitive data, IE corporate/ gov't secure data, they'd probably use a standardized laptop (easier calibration because there is a standard FBI-issue laptop, hack all of em with one kit).
This all sounds very sensationalist. I imagine the ground wire hack only works on a small subset of poorly constructed unshielded keyboards and, the laser hack requires careful calibration of the vibrations along with line of sight access. Also the lack of details in the article is telling.
@EncNone:Every keystroke has a different sound. Think of the distance between a shiny spot on the back of your screen and the keys. Each key is a different distance, and each key has certain acoustic qualities. It sill would require mapping, and recoding the signals, and then running complex algrythms to separate out noise from usable data. Then that data still has to be mapped to letters, so again another set of algorithms using known common letters (common in frequency) to start to decode what signal equates which letter.
Possible, but not probable or easy.
Also, an IR laser would work better.
Isn't this just Van Eck phreaking again? That can get you whether or not you're plugged in, so what's the worry?
dssstrkl
we all know sensitive data are now protected by retina, palm and butt scans.
mocax
Tinfoil hat, don't forget your tinfoil hat
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
@wurzt: Besides that, anything or anyone else plugged in to the same grid would also contribute to fluctuations in the ground.
@dingus: Doing fine with my Vostro A90, hackintoshed of course. Gotta love that matte black.
atm153
It's quite surprising if this would work. There are all sorts of signals that would also leak to ground in a computer besides keyboard strokes. It seems like what you would get would be pretty noisy.
With the laser method, wouldn't the laser have to be calibrated to the particular laptop? Since not all keyboards are the same
zjgz
This kind of attack has been known/around for ages. It boils down to the fact the electronics give off unique electromagnetic signals while operating. With the right equipment, you can read and interpret these signals in a variety of ways. In many cases, it is not necessary to have direct line of sight, or even be in the same room as the target device to steal its data.
The US government has done a lot of research and study in this area, under the codename TEMPEST.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST
http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/tempestintro.html#What%20is
object
Faraday cages have got nothing on lasers last time I checked.
blash
@dingus: Laptops keyboards still conform to PS/2 or USB standard, they just use a ribbon cable inside.
wait..how does the vibration through the light beam tell them what keys were struck?
EncNone
@Americun MORAN©: Thanks, still getting used to the new formatting/autoformatting. SciAm Article
@TonyRockyHorror: I'm wondering the same thing. I didn't think the signal would be strong enough for something like this.
Brenton Poke
@zeroprime: The html tag at the end of the address is messing up the link.
@dingus: I remember reading about a similar device in the late 90's or early 2K. I wonder if this is just the same device reborn.
Would streaming music do anything to interfere with the lasers ability to pick up keystrokes? Also, for the average person, wouldn't their chances of winning the lottery be better than stumbling across someone intent on keylogging them with electricity or lasers?
All my childhood, I tried to install free keyloggers on my family's computer to finally know my sister's passsword; I would always use trial versions and so she would always know something's up when the little window saying: HEY! I'M STILL LOGGING YOUR KEYSTROKES YOU KNOW! would pop up. And NOW you tell me about this? I feel like I completely wasted 15 years of my life.
pettiblay
The frequency ranges they mention sound closer to PS/2, not USB. And laptop keyboards skip the whole cable thing. So a matte black laptop seems to be your best bet. I'm going to etrade to gran some Lenovo now.
dingus
I wonder if it works when you have a privacy screen protector on the laptop.
GusRandall
does each key really generate a significantly different electrical signal?and spies have been using lasers to eavesdrop for years. only it's the soundwaves from voices making windowpanes and thin walls vibrate.
TonyRockyHorror
Oh shi-
TonyTriple
It's amazing the ways people can spy on each other using technology. Like Tempest picking up monitor EM radiation. But SciAm had a really interesting article on some decidedly low-tech methods of spying on computer use that I thought was really interesting Spying with Reflections
That's pretty ridiculous,
NO ONE IS SAFE.
EVERYONE FEAR FOR YOURSELVES! forget your children, cover your keyboard!
Sounds like a 21st century version of the ol' laser microphone - except that is picks up modulated electrical signals instead of sound vibrations.
Alex Nixon
@dingus: I don't think they're referring to an external keyboard cable. I think they mean the ribbon cable that connects the laptop keyboard to the MB. Either way, this is scary, scary stuff. (/adjusts foil cap>
EdgesRazor