While most networking pros worry about firewalls and anti-malware software, a new keyboard hack promises to completely ignore all such protections. At the Black Hat and Defcon computer security conferences in Las Vegas, a hacker has demonstrated a hacked Apple keyboard that can log keystrokes and autonomously complete nefarious commands.
Apple keyboards have 8K of Flash memory along with 256 bytes of RAM. K.Chen managed to fit his code into this miniscule space and activates the software with a few taps of the return key. Since the software runs inside the keyboard, no batteries are required and the malware is undetectable from the operating system.
Chen included code in the PDF of his talk and the link is included at the end of the article. So what can you do with this hacked keyboard? Chen said you can disable keys, intentionally brick the keyboard and of course record the keystrokes to both flash (more than a 1000 keystrokes) and RAM (approximately a couple dozen keystrokes).
Chen showed off his hacked keyboard in the press room and Charlie Demerjian of Semi Accurate and George Ou of Digital Society managed to record a demonstration.
- PDF Link
- George Ou – Digital Society
- Charlie Demerjian – Semi Accurate