[Macworld]

Post your comments for Researchers discover keyboard keylogger attack via iPhone here

[kevis]

"...can be done through a compromised iPhone."

Is this as in jailbroken? If so, then tough luck for the owner of the compromised iPhone!

[wingsy]

Wait just a minute. A "weakness" in an iPhone accelerometer that makes it possible to capture key presses in a nearby keyboard? If there is any weakness here, wouldn't it be in the keyboard that's spilling its guts to the phone? Seems like they're saying the accelerometer is too good; so sensitive it can be used to detect a key press in ANOTHER system's keyboard. Man, that's a stretch.

[MarcBravocht1]

This smells like bs. How can an accelerometer tell the difference in the vibration on a desk between a keyboard press of "w" & a press of "g" or any other key?

[d00d]

There's no iPhone security issue here.

This is saying that IF your iPhone were compromised through some as yet undiscovered vulnerability, someone COULD THEN install software that could use accelerometer data to infer keys being pressed on a nearby keyboard IF the phone were placed near the keyboard.

[jpmhughes]

kevis, on 19 October 2011 - 09:19 AM, said:

"...can be done through a compromised iPhone."

Is this as in jailbroken? If so, then tough luck for the owner of the compromised iPhone!

Exactly what I and I am sure many other people, focussed right on.

[johndrake]

MarcBravocht1, on 19 October 2011 - 09:30 AM, said:

This smells like bs. How can an accelerometer tell the difference in the vibration on a desk between a keyboard press of "w" & a press of "g" or any other key?

Exactly my thoughts, unless keyboard keys are generating a tone, such as a keypad on a phone, then it seems rather unlikely this would work, unless the accelerometer is so sensitive it can tell which key you've struck by the relative distance to the phone from the keyboard, that would be mind boggling if the accelerometer could tell the difference between an a and an s or a q and a 1.

[AppleZilla]

Breaking News: In an extremely particular situation, such as handing your iPhone over to a guy in a Hamburglar costume, your data can be accessed by said Hamburglar.

Stop the presses.

[johndrake]

jpmhughes, on 19 October 2011 - 09:39 AM, said:

kevis, on 19 October 2011 - 09:19 AM, said:

"...can be done through a compromised iPhone."

Is this as in jailbroken? If so, then tough luck for the owner of the compromised iPhone!

Exactly what I and I am sure many other people, focussed right on.

The article does say the phone does not need to be jailbroken, just compromised as in you let someone, or you did in a moment of stupidity, install a bit of code, or the code is included in a game you downloaded from "Bongo's Free Software, Games and Off shore Banking Site", the link to which came in an unsolicited email, touting the benefits of drinking heavy water!

[SHRIKEE]

Congrats to macworld for a useless article that is not even relevant to 99.99999% of the smartphone users.

[d00d]

johndrake, on 19 October 2011 - 09:45 AM, said:

MarcBravocht1, on 19 October 2011 - 09:30 AM, said:

This smells like bs. How can an accelerometer tell the difference in the vibration on a desk between a keyboard press of "w" & a press of "g" or any other key?

Exactly my thoughts, unless keyboard keys are generating a tone, such as a keypad on a phone, then it seems rather unlikely this would work, unless the accelerometer is so sensitive it can tell which key you've struck by the relative distance to the phone from the keyboard, that would be mind boggling if the accelerometer could tell the difference between an a and an s or a q and a 1.

You must have missed the 80% accuracy stat. One out of five recorded keystrokes will be wrong. There are statistical means for determining keys based on relative vibration.

[wardoggie]

Quote

There’s enough memory in smartphones today to capture a lot of keyboard keylogger accelerometer data, which can then be sent off to the Georgia Tech researchers for analysis in programs they’ve written, he points out.

So a bad guy would have to analyze all of the data that comes from the accelerometer to translate them to keystrokes. Even if you assume that they can do this with 99% accuracy, wouldn't a bad guy's time be better spent trying to get a keylogger onto the computer and get 100% accuracy?

I think the real news here is that iPhones use really kick-ass accelerometers!

[bastion]

Wired's story is much more detailed. This is actually quite interesting.

http://www.wired.com...ylogger-spying/

[d00d]

wardoggie, on 19 October 2011 - 10:04 AM, said:

So a bad guy would have to analyze all of the data that comes from the accelerometer to translate them to keystrokes. Even if you assume that they can do this with 99% accuracy, wouldn't a bad guy's time be better spent trying to get a keylogger onto the computer and get 100% accuracy?

Depends on the target of the attack.