This USB Phone Charger Can Sniff Out Keystrokes From Wireless Keyboards

When we think of keyloggers, we probably think of software that is able to record the keystrokes of a keyboard on a computer. This can be prevented by regularly scanning your computer for malware and viruses and also making sure that you don’t download content from suspicious looking websites.

However it seems that keyloggers come in more than one form. Samy Kamkar has recently released schematics to what appears to be a USB charger for mobile devices, but at the same time is able to double up as a keylogger for wireless keyboards. The device appears to be a regular USB charger which you can use to charge mobile devices.

However under the hood, the device will feature Arduino gear that has the ability to sniff out the keystrokes from wireless keyboards, logs them, and sends them back to the hacker. Thankfully it seems that this device is only able to sniff out keystrokes from Microsoft wireless keyboards, so if you’re using a different make and model, you should be safe, hopefully.

According to Kamkar, “Using a few-dollar Arduino and a US$1 Nordic RF chip we can decrypt these packets and see any keystroke of any keyboard in the vicinity that’s using the Microsoft wireless keyboard protocol and it doesn’t matter what OS is used.” Pretty scary stuff, huh? If you’re interested in learning more, you can head on over to the KeySweeper’s page or watch the video above to see it in action.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Hacking