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Name: XpUser
I was reading this article about researchers hacking M$ wireless keyboard and how it could open the door to keystroke logging.
Is this possible given the fact that in order for the receiver and the keyboard to work, they must be within certain range in proxmity to each other? Can someone nearby walk into your desktop with the right tools?
Just wondering in a world where anhything is possible nowaday.
i_Xp/VistaUser
Interesting & more intriguing. At the moment I'm using my laptop connected wirelessly to my router via 128-bit WEP encrypted key. For the wireless laptop to login it must know the encrypted key or else there will be no internet. There is nothing of this sort for wireless keyboards!
i_Xp/VistaUser
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As I understand the issue it has to do with latency. Any lag in registering keystrokes is unacceptable. Just another reason not to use a wireless KBoard.
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I had the experience at a customers site of a wireless keyboard problem. Someone in the next office would type and it would show up on the other office's computer.
Who needs a keyboard logger! :-) Just match the frequency and you can get everything you want!
Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search
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Agreed. I think this subject is null & void. Even if I am sitting outside in a car near your computer inside your house, there is no way I can see where the cursor is pointing to and there is no way for me to execute the commands.
i_Xp/VistaUser
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XPUser
I think you misinterpreted wanderer's post, or I did. I think he is saying it is easy to get data.
You aren't thinking of other ways this could be exploited. How about the user inside the house manipulating YOUR screen when you are in close proximity. You could see everything they type. Probably other ways to use this to gain access to data.
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what I was saying is keyboard on pc1 was typing on pc2 in the office next door. Fortunately I don't think there are any drive by hackers using wireless keyboards.
Imagine the power if you knew how to internet search
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But they could do that, now that we've covered the topic.
Should have been typing on both PCs.My sons both had wireless mice one Logitech one MSoft and they were located probably 30 feet apart and one mouse would move the cursor on the other display. Evidently a common occurance as they had a way to change the frequency of the mice.
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I have also heard that computer screens give off a radio frequency, so hackers can see what nearby computer users are doing on their computers.
Could they also find the frequency of wireless mice and control a computer across the street?
OtheHill said that his sons could control each others pointer on the other screen. If you can see the screen, control the mouse, could somebody use my computer from next door?
Kinda creepy to think about it.
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I've just examined the KB that my wife use (she's annoyed by my disrupting her work) - it's M$ standard wireless multimedia KB 27Mhz. Nowhere is there a switch to change the frequency. Maybe it's because the KB is considered a "standard" KB according to the product description.
i_Xp/VistaUser
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I have a customer that was using a M$ wireless mouse and keyboard on a computer I built for him. He was taking some classes on CS3 at a college campus and lost control of the mouse and keyboard completely due to the proximity of 2 other wireless mice and keyboards...In his case because they were in classroom situation the other mice was overriding his commands and actually opening windows and typing in boxes.
There was no need to actually see the screen as the proportions of screen ratios are equal to almost all computer monitors that the other person was using start commands and run commands and they are all located in the same areas of all computers. He called me immediately while in class so as to find a way to stop it as the whole class was interrupted as his proffessor was one of the other matching frequency and was also losing his control. They managed to change frequency and resolved it. The thing was that in that particular instance I saw the danger to someone's computer. I do not reccommend wireless mice or keyboards to any of my customers since then.
I contacted M$ and their responce was that it was 1 in million that there would be 2 on the same frequency in the same location so they were not going to concern themselves with it. My research yeilded much lesser chances as it seems that it is quite common for it to happen...In The Matters Of Style,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
Stand Like A Rock
"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the
freedom of thought which they avoid."
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Sorry folks - I've been working out in the field (what a big "Save me please" day for me). Anyway....
They managed to change frequency and resolved it.
I wonder how it's done - if not from the mouse/kb control panel, where then and how?
i_Xp/VistaUser
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Seems to me the MS KBoard had like 3 frequencies you could select from. Must have been some software that was part of the driver package. Our instance was about 5 years ago so I can't recall how the boys resolved it exactly.
the RAM
Why do you think laser wireless mice wouldn't have that problem. The laser portion is the sensor that determines the postion of the mouse. The communication between mouse and receiver is still RF on most units. And because the Mouse and KBoard use the same receiver I would suspect the frequency used is in the same spectrum, 27MHz.
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Sorry about the laser thing, I was thinking about something else. Wired mice are probably the best when it comes to security, but wireless mice feel better and are easier to use.
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