Keyboard Sound Aids Password Cracking

stinerman writes "Three students at UC-Berkley used a 10 minute recording of a keyboard to recover 96% of the characters typed during the session. The article details that their methods did not require a 'training text' in order to calibrate the conversion algorithm as has been used previously. The research paper [PDF] notes that '90% of 5-character random passwords using only letters can be generated in fewer than 20 attempts by an adversary; 80% of 10-character passwords can be generated in fewer than 75 attempts.'"

Comments

My Luggage

[Valiss]

'90% of 5-character random passwords using only letters can be generated in fewer than 20 attempts by an adversary; 80% of 10-character passwords can be generated in fewer than 75 attempts.'

Looks like you're screwed because my luggage password is 5 digits long, but all digits are numbers in a sequential order starting with one. Ha ha!

Re:My Luggage

[loimprevisto]

What? 1,2,3,4,5? Only an moron would use that combination for their luggage!

Re:My Luggage

[Rick.C]

What? 1,2,3,4,5? Only an moron would use that combination for their luggage!

Shhhh! That's not the combination he set - that's the TSA's "back-door" combo.

Another old fashioned way to get passwords w audio

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Another old fashioned way to get passwords w audio: Just tap the "help desk" phone line.

It's a good thing...

[Nuclear Elephant]

... that my voice is my passport.

WARNING

[JamesD_UK]

Security experts recommend you don't speak the name of the key you're hunting for as you type your password with a single finger.

Great...

[crc32]

Now I'll need tinfoil wallpaper too, time to go to Cosco...

Re:Great...

[rtaylor]

Now I'll need tinfoil wallpaper too, time to go to Cosco...

Tinfoil was eliminated by the government and replaced with aluminum foil. Your wallpaper and hats only make you believe you're safe.

Re:Great...

[OzPeter]

If you knew your world history you would know that it was an early 20th century right wing plot to get the US to use aluminum instead of the aluminium that the rest of the world uses.

You see while aluminum looks and feels a lot like aluminium, it is actually a differant material, so much so that it cannot be used as a tinfoil hat replacement.

Thus by duping the US citizens into believing that aluminum was just as good as aluminium (and more patriotic for the country), the government easily gained the capability of reading all of your thoughts, even when you thought they couldn't [*]

As of now, the rest of English speaking world sits smuggly by wearing our aluminium foil hats, safe in the knowledge that our thoughts are secure.

[*] Unfortunatley there was a side effect to being able to read the thoughts of everyone in the US. The summaries of such thoughts are used to brief the president in order to help him direct policy. But starting with the Shiny Shiny movements of the mid 80's suceeding presidents have slowly become paralysed by the thoughts of the mass population. This has come to a head with GWB being briefed hourly about how the population feels about JLo and Bennifer, while other, more important items are ignored.

The only possible solution to this is to disband the remote thought readings, but when confronted with leftist radical ideas like this, the CIA/Industro-Military Complex reacts violently and labels such ideas as being the work of terrorists. (It should be noted that these people are known to have holdings of aluminium manufacturers in other countries, thus securing their *private* supply of aluminium foil hats).

Agent x86

[Molina the Bofh]

Be careful, chief. Lets type in the cone of silence.

Re:Redbox for keyboards now?

[o7400]

That's it. From now on, whenever I'm typing a password I'm going to scream at the top of my lungs. How about that stopid password stealers!?

Re:Redbox for keyboards now?

[TripMaster Monkey]

Spyware attempting to hash out your keystrokes by listening to the keypresses instead of grabbing the strokes directly is a bit like a person trying to enjoy music by watching the equalizer lights flicker instead of using the speakers.

Re:Redbox for keyboards now?

[TheViciousOverWind]

You have no idea how good it feels when you finally 'hear' the music just by watching the lights...

Why don't you volunteer for a charity? It sounds like you have enough time on your hands to save the world singlehandedly.

Re:Redbox for keyboards now?

[avronius]

Some potential titles for the afore mentioned 80's movie:
"Remix Of The Killer Tomatoes"
"Return Of The Password Snatchers"
"They Listened from Within"
"Buffy The Keystroke Logger" (not quite on-topic)
"I Know What You Typed Last Summer"
"Eavesdropper"
"The Computers Have Ears"

The unrelated horror film we're most likely to see?
"The Blog" - with Steve McQueen re-animated to reprise his role as "Steve Andrews"
Genre: Horror / Sci-Fi / Comedy
Tagline: Indescribable... Indestructible! Nothing Can Stop It!
Plot Outline: An inane personal web log consumes all bandwidth in its path as it grows and grows.

Re:Redbox for keyboards now?

[Daniel_Staal]

Why don't you volunteer for a charity? It sounds like you have enough time on your hands to save the world singlehandedly.

I am now out of college.

Re:Keyboard specific?

[aardvarkjoe]

I will defeat this by entering my password in Morse code.

Oh, crap.

Re:Keyboard specific?

[Opie812]

on