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Penetration testing wireless keyboards: Are your devices vulnerable?
KTH, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Penetrationstest av trådlösa tangentbord : Är dina enheter sårbara? (Swedish)
Abstract [en]

With an ever-increasing amount of cyberespionage and cybercrime, any potential attack vector into a computer system is worthy of investigation. One such vector could be through the wireless keyboard the user themselves use and trust. If an attacker was able to intercept the traffic between the keyboard and the computer they could spy on every keystroke that is being sent to the computer. Additionally, they could potentially inject keystrokes as if they were sitting at the computer themselves. This thesis evaluated 10 different keyboards that were purchased in common consumer electronic stores and 8 of them were found to have new substantial flaws that made it possible to reliably listen to every keystroke sent by the keyboards, as well as allow an attacker to send keystrokes to the connected computer, indirectly giving the attacker full control of the computer. It was concluded that wireless keyboards should not be used in situations where sensitive information is handled regardless of what the keyboard manufacturer claims, as it creates a potential attack vector that is otherwise nonexistent.

Abstract [sv]

Med en ständigt ökande mängd cyberspionage och cyberbrottslighet så är alla potentiella vägar in i ett datorsystem värda att undersöka. Ett sätt att ta sig in i ett system skulle kunna vara genom det trådlösa tangentbord som användaren själv använder och litar på. Om en angripare hade möjligheten att fånga upp trafiken mellan tangentbordet och datorn skulle den kunna lyssna på varenda knapptryck som skickades till datorn. Utöver det så skulle en angripare möjligen kunna skicka egna knapptryck till datorn som om den själv satt vid den. Den här uppsatsen har studerat och utvärderat 10 olika tangentbord som köptes i vanliga elektronikaffärer och i 8 av dem hittades nya allvarliga brister som gjorde det möjligt att både avlyssna vad som skrevs samt att kunna skicka knapptryck till datorn som tangentbordet var kopplat till. Detta ledde indirekt till full kontroll över datorn. Slutsatsen som kunde dras var att trådlösa tangentbord inte bör användas i någon situation där känsligt innehåll hanteras, oavsett vad tillverkaren av tangentbordet hävdar. Detta då det öppnar upp en ny attackyta som inte finns om trådlösa tangentbord inte används.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: KTH Royal Institute of Technology , 2022. , p. xxi,143
Series
TRITA-EECS-EX ; 2022:644
Keywords [en]
Wireless keyboards, penetration testing, radio frequency analysis, Crazyradio, MouseJack, Enhanced ShockBurst
Keywords [sv]
Trådlösa tangentbord, penetrationstest, radiofrekvensanalys, Crazyradio, MouseJack, Enhanced ShockBurst
National Category
Computer Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-319693OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-319693DiVA, id: diva2:1701492
External cooperation
Cparta Cyber Defense
Subject / course
Computer Science
Educational program
Master of Science - Computer Science
Presentation
2022-08-05, via Zoom https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69896857187, Isafjordsgatan 22 (Kistagången 16), Stockholm, 13:00 (English)
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2022-10-07 Created: 2022-10-06 Last updated: 2022-10-24Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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