ICS News Archive

This keyboard attack steals passwords by reading heat from your fingers

A new attack has been presented by researchers which is able to record thermal residue from keyboards in order to steal credentials.

According to scientists Tyler Kaczmarek, Ercan Ozturk, and Gene Tsudik from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), the "Thermanator" approach could be used to exploit keyboards based on the heat signatures left by users."It's a new attack that allows someone with a mid-range thermal camera to capture keys pressed on a normal keyboard, up to one minute after the victim enters them," said Tsudik. "If you type your password and walk or step away, someone can learn a lot about it after-the-fact."

Read the full article at ZDNet.