Password sniffing with an oscilloscope

[davidnix71]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8147534.stm

Get rid of your ps2 keyboard or make a shielded cable for it. But don't use wireless, either.

[Calum]

hmm, interesting. i see no reason why hand held devices can't be made, at home, to successfully log these keystrokes for nefarious purposes. Doesn't the A/C adaptor obfuscate these voltage changes to some degree though? Does this apply to laptops with internal keyboards? i assume they all use a PS/2 type interface even if they don't use an actual PS/2 cable? What about USB keyboards? I assume not the same problem because it's a digital signal? or does it just mean decoding the keystrokes differently?

[Aloone_Jonez]

Good to see this forum gets still posts every now and then.

You can buy small low speed oscilloscopes about the size of a multimeter which could be used for this sort of thing.

What about wireless keyboards? Most aren't encrypted so I'd think they would be more vulnerable.

I would think that USB keyboards are more immune to sniffing because USB is higher speed and have better shielding.

[Lead Head]

I remember reading an article a while back, I think on here actually, about a similar trick being used to see what a laser printer is printing.