Beware the Haunted Cordless keyboard

dr. greenthumb writes "The norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reports about an incident where a computer suddenly seemed to develop a life of its own. A game which the user could not remember using that day suddenly appeared on the screen. When he went over to shut it off the screen displayed a message asking him if he "really wanted to delete this file?" His computer was receiving keystrokes from another computer (with the same type of wireless keyboard) 150 metres away! Check out the full story and a follow-up, where experts warns against using wireless keyboards." /me plans to destroy Hemos' sanity...

SecurityFocus Discussed This

[Xenographic]

Wireless keyboards have other security issues. Read up on the discussion that took place about this on SecurityFocus: http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/82/173944

Re:FCC wont let me be

[Student_Tech]

Part 15 says they have to take flak from other licensed services and that if 2 part 15 devices are interfering with one another, tough luck they have to take it. Now if a part 15 is interfering with a licensed non part15 device then you have a problem that must be fixed...

Re:see why...

[PunchMonkey]

I like having a cord on my mouse and keyboard because 1) i know it's connected and 2) i know another isn't. Wireless keyboards etc. have no less a security risk...

Don't place too much confidence in the security of your keyboard, someone might slip one of these [thinkgeek.com] on.

Re:FCC wont let me be

[lostchicken]

To be more complete, a Part 15 device is a secondary (or tertiary, if there is already a secondary) user of the entire radio frequency spectrum. That means that they can use the RF spectrum, as long as they don't cause harmful interference to a user with higher priority.

That means that if your device is hurting my ham radio operations on 146.880 MHz, then I sic the FCC on you, but if I interfere with you, I have primary user rights, so you're outta luck.

The primary, secondary, etc. system is just a pecking order for RF users. You can interfere with those with higer priority all you want, but Part 15 is always at the bottom.

Bluetooth is much better

[g4dget]

Bluetooth security may not be perfect, but it's a whole lot better than this. Bluetooth devices are paired and can encrypt their communications. Furthermore, setting up Bluetooth security is much simpler than setting up 802.11b security, and many devices will simply not work unless the end user does. If all wireless keyboards switched to a proper Bluetooth implementation, security would be a whole lot better than with these random RF hacks.

Re:This is just funny...

[OttoM]

Most wireless keyboards, like garage door openers, have their own unique codes and frequencies built in to them so one cannot interface with another in the same way.

You are a bit to confident:

• Available channels for these type of devices are very limited, so they have to share.
• Cheap mice and keyboard don't do unique numbers, because it makes the devices more expensive: you have to pair devices during manufacturing and packaging, for example.
• Garage doors openers have a notouriously bad track record on security. Ross Anderson's "Security Engineering" [slashdot.org] contains lots of real life examples.

So the story might have been true very well.

Re:One Question

[(insert nick here)]

What's a meter?

A meter is a tool for measuring something.

A metre is the length travelled by light in vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second. This is approximately the side length of a cube containing one ton (1000 kg) of water. Also, a litre is defined as 0.1^3 metres (same as one kg of water).

The metre,kg and litre are part of the metric system, which is the standard in all civilized and most uncivilized countries.

I've heard tales of a big country across the Atlantic, where they still measure stuff in units like feet, stones, pounds, gallons and grandfathers-length-when-he-died, but I have a hope that we someday will manage to teach them the metric standard, how to read and how to elect sane presidents.

beware also...

[nirvanis]

... this gadget [thinkgeek.com].

Logitech Encryption Driver Releases

[handsomepete]

This release includes an encryption feature for the Cordless Freedom(TM) Optical and Cordless Freedom(TM) iTouch(TM) keyboards only.

You can snag 'em here [logitech.com]. No Linux, and there appears to be only an encryption free [logitech.com] version for OSX. Looks like the above are the only types of keyboards that support it.

Now, will someone please explain to me how updating drivers for a 3 year old wireless keyboard will encrypt the path from the keyboard to the receiver? I'm honestly asking, because I don't get it. Or does it only work for recent revisions of these keyboards? I don't think this wasn't a part of the drivers when I bought it a couple years ago. I tried to ask LISA [logitech.com], their magical online support, but all I got was:
"LISA I found no items pertaining to 'encryption'."

Re:This is only the beginning

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember what happened in the article. The keyboard had a range of 20 ft., but yet the signal managed to penetrate both concrete and wooden walls to a much greater distance.