Laser Sniffing Captures Typed Keystrokes From 50-100 Feet 146
Death Metal writes "Chief Security Engineer Andrea Barisani and hardware hacker Daniele Bianco used handmade laser microphone device and a photo diode to measure the vibrations, software for analyzing the spectrograms of frequencies from different keystrokes, as well as technology to apply the data to a dictionary to try to guess the words. They used a technique called dynamic time warping that's typically used for speech recognition applications, to measure the similarity of signals. Line-of-sight on the laptop is needed, but it works through a glass window, they said. Using an infrared laser would prevent a victim from knowing they were being spied on." (This is the same team that was able to pick up the electromagnetic signals emitted by PS/2 keyboards.)
Not First Post (Score:5, Funny)
I would have had first post, but I had to close my blinds to avoid anyone spying on my leet Slashdot posting skills.
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You misspelled 133t, 14m3r!
Re:Not First Post (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not First Post (Score:5, Funny)
n00b. 17'5 5p3113d \/\/17# 4 "7." 17'5 5p3113d "1337." 101
Oh. My. God... I could read that.
I'm going to go get laid ASAP, burning sun be damned!
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n00b. 17'5 5p3113d \/\/17# 4 "7." 17'5 5p3113d "1337." 101
Oh. My. God... I could read that.
I'm going to go get laid ASAP, burning sun be damned!
Eerily, not only could I read it, but so could my wife and our teenage kids!
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Pics or it didn't happen.
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101. 7#47'5 pR06461y 4 g00d 1d34 ;-) 631/3v3 /\/\3, u 5#0u1d 63 g14D 5145#d07 d035/\/'7 4110\/\/ un/c0d3 c#4R5 0r 7#15 c0u1d g37 pr377y kR4zY, Y0u k/\/0\/\/?
Who uses a "6" for a "B"? I always used an "8". ;-)
;-) 83|_13v3 /\/\3, u 5#0u1d 83 g|_4D 5|_45#d07 d035/\/'7 4|_|_0\/\/ un/c0d3 c#4R5 0r 7#15 c0u|_d g37 pr377y kR4zY, Y0u k/\/0\/\/
Plus, you're interchangeably using "1" for both "i" and "L", which is confusing. (I know, tricky when both letters are in the same word). That's why I prefer "|_" for "L">
That should read:
101. 7#47'5 pR0848|_y 4 g00d 1d34
God. I can't believe I can read this stuff either. Scary.
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1'11 74|3 7#47 1/\/70 (0/\/51|)3r4710/\/ ;-)
"I"ll take that into consideration" - LMAO !!! ;-)
Ooops, I mean, |_|\/|40 !
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I'm going to go get laid ASAP, burning sun be damned!
You'll need this. [slashdot.org]
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Incidentally, I wonder how much fun we could have with this sentence. Just start showing it to random people.
----
Me: "It's the supposed formula for cold fusion."
Physics Student: "I mean, as a chemistry formula it makes sense, but in some ways it doesn't... # isn't even a chemistry symbol! Unless..." -proceed with four hours of rambling-
----
Me: "It's a diagram of a portion of the circuitry that's in the new iPhone. I think it's like, some Chinese system of mapping out electrical stuff.:
Electrical Eng
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Damn, you're right! Damn them damn typoos! Why did they have to put the T so close to the 7???
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If the song you play can be identified and reproduced to a good degree of the distortion created by your room and the bass levels, then removing that from the data stream is not particularly difficult. You would actually have to play two different songs at some non-standard or perhaps continuously variable playback-rate in order to create something hard to find and duplicate so that it couldn't be simply removed from the recording. It's like those Bose noise-canceling headphones, by sampling the sound as it
Let's... (Score:5, Funny)
dynamic time warp again!
tinfoil time (Score:2)
looks like it's time to stock up on tinfoil and old reflective (mainly old aol) cds.
imagine what the govt can do if regular scientists can do this with regular lasers (not including with sharks)
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looks like it's time to stock up on tinfoil and old reflective (mainly old aol) cds.
imagine what the govt can do if regular scientists can do this with regular lasers (not including with sharks)
Consider that around 1980, they (the US Gov't) admitted to having spy satellites that could photograph a vehicle's license plate from orbit. That's what they were willing to admit to back then; you can bet that their most advanced technologies were kept secret. Then the stealth bomber was kept a secret for about thirty years. Anyone who saw one back when it was secret would have probably called it a UFO since, well, it's a flying object that couldn't be identified without proper security clearances. At
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admitted to having spy satellites that could photograph a vehicle's license plate from orbit.
I still have yet to see a picture of a license plate (horizontal OR vertical) from space. If they can take a picture of a flat object mounted 90 degrees at any distance from the source, I would certainly be impressed.
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If you think about it, what if you would point something like a modern hubble at the earth instead of the stars? I bet you would see *much* more than just license plates.
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What is it with these guys? (Score:2)
It's time to switch to a DVORAK keyboard [wikipedia.org]. Let them sniff that.
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It's time to switch to a DVORAK keyboard [wikipedia.org]. Let them sniff that.
Actually, Dvorak users tend to be the most sniffable, in the literal olfactory sense of the term.
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Clearly the solution is to type all your work in Esperanto, on a chorded keyboard. Let them sniff that.
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I type with a one time pad- a monitor displays random numbers and I XOR them with the keycode I want in realtime.
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Actually, it's not even that complicated.
The whole system uses statistical information to determine which key is being pressed, the same way cryptographers break basic ciphers by counting the number of occurrences of each letter. They likely will never realize the typist is using dvorak, and it won't matter.
The attacker effectively solves the dvorak/qwerty substitution cipher by listening to which keys are being pressed, not their physical location.
I don't know if they are using timing (some key combinatio
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I wonder if it were possible to have the laptop generate random sounds of key presses on key down. Since the speakers on a laptop are built in, any subtle noise should be able to mess with the detection.
clickity clack (Score:2)
Bummer.
My favorite keyboards are always the loudest ones.
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Bummer.
My favorite keyboards are always the loudest ones.
And your recorded keyboard sounds of innocuous typing will become your new favorite background music.
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Not so interesting if you consider people make JPGs, BMPs, DOCs and PDFs as well.
clickita grack (Score:2)
The fact that people make files of particular formats is not relevant. That they might be told to take a screen capture, for example, with the words "make a JPG of your screen" would instead be a relevant scenario. See the difference? Let's try this:
"here's a tissue for your nose"
"here's a Kleenex for your nose"
I don't think we're really at the point of taking this particular "brand" (MP3) as a generic term, so I'm guessing GGP really did mean for people to make MP3s. I'm guessing this (excessive level
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Well, it's the same thing as "taping a show"... recording the show to a tape. (Was it Memorex that wanted to "synonimize" their name to recording?) Xeroxing that document.
I guess that's more my point. The format/brand soon becomes commonly accepted as a synonym for the action given plenty of time...and MP3 has been given plenty of time, IMHO. Just as your Kleenex/tissue argument. You also have hot dogs, frankfurters, red hots (which I think were un-trademarked "brand names" at the time if I remember rig
How prevent spying? (Score:2)
Just type with l33t text or other slang what words ain't on the dictionary and they just cant find out what you are typing.
Even school kids knows this and thats why they write short messages with their cell phones and for tests so the kid on the next bench can not copy what they write....
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Just type with l33t text or other slang what words ain't on the dictionary and they just cant find out what you are typing.
I'll just pull my tinfoil hat down over my eyes and face - that'll stop 'em.
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Just type with l33t text or other slang what words ain't on the dictionary and they just cant find out what you are typing.
The invisible lasers are listening. Write in codes and speak in tongues!
Gods, we sound like madmen.
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While historically, you're right, a pretty good case could be made for spelling it whatever way you damn well please.
That's kind of the nature, and the beauty of 13375P33k
Wait what? (Score:1)
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Basements with windows seems slightly ridiculous.
Of course, anything with Windows seems slightly ridiculous I guess.
[tongue in cheek, posted from Win XP..)
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Um. You mean shutters, not blinds. Blinds wouldn't help. Sound still hits the window, and the window still vibrates.
I'd rather you get blinds for your bathroom windows. Nobody needs to see that. Back at The Company, we call you "Naked Shower Dance Guy"
Besides, there's nobody watching you.
Apple has sloved this issue (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary
Because my work is so valuable (Score:2)
Everything I type on my keyboard is of great value, so of course spies will adopt sophisticated technologies to try to monitor me. They want to be wealthy and famous just as I have .. oh wait.
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50-100 feet away (Score:1)
Fine, I'll just make sure I'm less that 50 feet away.
Line of sight needed? (Score:5, Funny)
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Contrary to infrared lasers that have problems getting through glass...
Well, to be fair, maybe enough gets through to make it usable.
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Getting through the glass isn't a requirement. The light just has to bounce off.
HA! (Score:2)
Just try sniffing my keystrokes! I use the on screen keyboard.
Yeah, but I bet they can't guess what number I'm (Score:2)
...thinking of. (Not very much, though.)
Just Great... (Score:2)
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Now I need a bigger piece of tinfoil!
Shiny side out! Take THAT, laser.
Though a tinfoil covered laptop might get lousy wifi reception...
The thing that impresses me the most is... (Score:1)
If they did this in a movie a couple of years ago, I would have called bullshit on them.
Simple. Encrypted keyboard. (Score:3, Funny)
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You said that as a joke, but this would actually be the only practical use I can think of for the Optimus Maximus.
Obviously, it wouldn't be practical for normal use, but when you need to type passwords?
There are PIN pads and electric door locks that randomize the layout of the keypad to prevent people from watching the movement of your fingers or just looking at which buttons have fingerprints or don't have any dust on them.
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Buttons with different colored lights, or in the case of the Optimus Maximus, little LCD screens in every keyboard. The idea is that the display can be changed quickly.
Aren't windows fairly IR opaque? (Score:1)
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You don't need to shoot the laser through the window, you need to bounce it off.
Scare them! (Score:1)
Well I guess we'll all have to start typing "I KNOW YOU'RE SPYING" every few minutes or so, shift held down of course (no copy-pasting!),
That'll show them!
See http://xkcd.com/525/ [xkcd.com] for funnies
Get Smart! (Score:4, Funny)
And the keystroke that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the cone... of silence.
That's 20-30 meters in real units. (Score:2)
...
Cooler than van-Eck phreaking (Score:2)
For high-tech methods of electronic surveillance, I thought Stephenson's van-Eck phreaking in Cryptonomicon held the record. But laser microphones clearly win as far as range is concerned. :)
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They're also way easier to build. I was playing with them last weekend.
http://www.diylife.com/2007/08/22/diy-laser-long-distance-listening-device/ [diylife.com]
Tough to do undetected through a window, I'd guess (Score:2)
Line-of-sight on the laptop is needed, but it works through a glass window, they said. Using an infrared laser would prevent a victim from knowing they were being spied on.
The reason greenhouses work so well is that glass does a decent job of blocking infrared light (hmmm... maybe someone can think up a catchy name for the effect).
I'm not an optics wonk but I'd expect the infrared laser through a window trick would be tough to pull off. Especially so if the glass is low-e.
so much for the model m (Score:2)
I thouth I was paranoid (Score:2)
This proves it, everyone out there is watching me (or my keyboard strokes)!
on the contrary: !Easy to dectect (Score:4, Informative)
If you go blind while you are typing, you are probably being sniffed.
Or you are having severe problems with your retinas.
In either case, you should feel your way to an opthamologist quickly.
Actually, Infrared lasers only hurt eyes if you look directly into them. Using a low-powered infrared laser pointed at a keyboard wouldn't be any different than using a red laser pointed at a keyboard except that the victim would see the dot. Unless they're using a mirrored keyboard the light would be diffused and not refracted so it would be similar to looking at a resultant red dot from a laser instead of directly into a laser.
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Also, the point is to point the laser at the window and have it reflect. By measuring changes in the angle of reflection you can reconstruct sound hitting the inside of the window. Double-pane glass with a vacuum between the panes removes this attack vector.
Is it common for double-pane glass to contain anything that could be called a vacuum? I'll admit I don't know but I always thought they just had regular atmospheric-pressure air between the panes, as an extra layer of insulation. Would you need a proper vacuum to dampen the sound vibrations enough to defeat this attack?
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Is it common for double-pane glass to contain anything that could be called a vacuum? I'll admit I don't know but I always thought they just had regular atmospheric-pressure air between the panes, as an extra layer of insulation.
A vacuum would be great for stopping heat loss, but isn't present in any normal double pane window. Atmospheric pressure (14 lbs/sq in) * the number of sq inches in a window pane is a big number. Any pane that didn't break would be noticeably bowed.
Some higher end double pane windows are filled with argon, since it insulates better than standard air.
They're filled with N2, Ar or plain air. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent post is correct. I work for a window manufacturer and our IG units are only ever filled with normal air, nitrogen, or argon.
("IG units" are insulated glass units, AKA double pane windows, and consist of two lites of glass with a spacer between them. They are sealed shut with PIB and silicone.)
It's possible that they're confused by part of the manufacturing process where the IG units go through a vacuum chamber which removes all the air, before filling the units with nitrogen or argon and sealing them. But I'm quite sure we don't make any vacuum filled units. And even if we did, I have to think that at least some sound would be transmitted through the spacer that holds the two lites of glass apart.
As if the bow wouldn't be bad enough, the vacuum would cause the windows to explode even more violently than they already do if they were broken. As someone who has seen tempered lites of glass around 6' x 9' explode, I can tell you that your living room would already be a mess of broken glass if a picture window like that broke. You really don't want a vacuum in there to make things worse. Especially given that a window that size would likely be made out of 6 mm glass...
Well, I guess if someone was crazy enough to make a window like that, they'd use laminated glass. At least, I hope they would. Our customers are always trying to push the limits of how big you can allow a lite to get before it has to be thicker ...
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As if the bow wouldn't be bad enough, the vacuum would cause the windows to explode even more violently than they already do if they were broken./quote
All the air would be rushing in, so why would it be exploding outwards? I guess it'd make it shatter more but I'd think the pressure differentail would make it spread less, not more.
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> All the air would be rushing in, so why would it be exploding outwards? I guess it'd make it shatter more but I'd think the pressure differential would make it spread less, not more.
I guess that's just an assumption of mine, but I'm guessing that the pieces would end up with more kinetic energy due to the vacuum.
All I know is that I was once sternly warned about the proper way to break a CRT tube (put it inside a trash bag and carefully crack the thin end on the back with a hammer until you could hear
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They use argon or xenon (on the expensive ones) to insulate double (or triple) pane windows. I know this because I was a door-to-door almost-salesman for a summer. Worst. Job. Evar.
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If you go blind while you are typing, you are probably being sniffed. Or you are having severe problems with your retinas.
Or you stopped listening to your mother and started looking at those websites she told you to keep away from...
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> Actually, Infrared lasers only hurt eyes if you look directly into them.
Someone could mistake what you are saying, so let me state the following: there is no eye-safe wave length.
The wave-length of the laser only decides which kind of injury it might inflict to your eye, when the energy density is high enough. Granted, for UV wavelengths a lower energy density is dangerous, but the difference between visible light and infra-red can be neglected. Which is comes similar to what you are saying next.
> U
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s/eye reflex/blink reflex/g
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But, looking inadvertantly in the red laser triggers the eye reflex, something what infra-red light would not, as you don't perceive it.
This is similar to the reason you need UV protection on sunglasses; your pupils widen, and accept more radiation that they would otherwise on a bright day.
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You should go see Doctor Odin [slashdot.org] or another retina specialist. And yes, I know the irony of his name.
Dr. Odin shined a high powered laser into my left eye several times. The laser is used to weld a torn retina back together, the linked journal is about the vitrectomy he performed after the retina detached.
I would not wish a vitrectomy on my worst enemy. Becoming a cyborg [slashdot.org] is a piece of cake by comparison.
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Dammit I was hoping nobody would notice :)
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I'd like to know what sharks are doing with keyboards in the first place.
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Bathyscaphe hacking?
Infrared (Score:2)
Since typical window glass blocks a large portion of the infrared spectrum that lasers are tuned to, their idea of being stealthy seems less likely.
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You aren't trying to shoot the laser through the window, you're bouncing it off and reading the reflection.
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I understand that that is how normal laser mics work, but in the first sentence of TFA: "researchers from Inverse Path were able to point a laser on the reflective surface of a laptop"
That would imply that if you wanted to listen in, you would have to pass your laser through the window, bounce it off of the laptop, and back through the window before doing your interferometric measurements.
Their measurements worked because they were measuring soundwaves propagated through a solid material (the laptop) direc
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I confess I didn't read the article closely and I assumed that they were using the laser mic like a regular laser mic.
However, the algorithms to pull keystrokes from an audio recording have been public since 2005 [physorg.com], and have probably been used by government and bad guys for a lot longer than that.
According to that article, this can be done with a simple PC mic. For what it's worth, my basic experiments with DIY laser mics get almost as good of sound quality in the right conditions. It's not hard to imagine
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I'm not sure it really even requires that secretive of projects.
Laser mics are cheap and easy to build. I can definitely see them being the future of surveillance tech.
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It doesn't have to go through the window, it has to bounce off. The whole thing works by recording vibrations in the reflection.
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That is the way a normal IR listening device works, but that is not what they were proposing.
Modders, please get a clue. (Score:2)
Clue: These posts have something called a "timestamp". Some of those other comments were almost 12 hours AFTER mine!
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It's still pretty good at reflecting it, and the reflections are what you record the windows' vibrations with.