Tempest Keyboard Eavesdropping carried out by a Security and Cryptography Lab in Switzerland

We always knew those electromagnetic emanations would amount to no good, and now here they go ruining any shred of privacy we once thought to possess. Some folks from the Security and Cryptography Lab at Switzerland's EPFL have managed to eavesdrop on the electromagnetic radiation shot off by shoddy wired keyboards with every keystroke. They've found four different ways to listen in, including one previously-published general vulnerability, on eleven keyboard models ranging from 2001 to 2008, with PS/2, USB and laptop keyboards all falling to at least one of the four attacks. The attack works through walls, as far as 65 feet away, and analyzes a wide swath of electromagnetic spectrum to get its results. With wireless keyboards already feeling the sting of hackers, it's probably fair to say that no one is safe, and that cave bunkers far, far away from civilization are pretty much our only hope now. Videos of the attacks are after the break.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Eavesdropping
• Tempest
• API
• www.advprograms.com
• keyboard
• security
• vulnerability

[APICorporate]

@Anton338 Sorry to say chum, but it is VERY practical; and of course you have to be fairly close. We have already tested the vulnerabilities, and have demonstarted that we can lift information from screens and keyboards by both radiated and conduscted emissions. Of course the further the distance the more difficult it becomes.



[jacksawild]

watch?v=HYYm9Lin8X4

The capability has been known about since the inception of computers, which is why secure terminals sit behind TEMPEST protection. Encryption means squat if they're reading the EM from your screen or keyboard. I imagine software could be written to give an accurate display of everything which happens in any given computer from quite a distance away; use a pencil.