Re: Wireless mouse basestation transmitting wired keystrokes ?

[krymson () gmail com]

Chad, I was thinking the same thing. But after a while, I wonder...

BASE ------> wireless mouse
STATION ---> wireless keyboard (not present)
-----------> wired keyboard

I guess the question is whether the base station is smart enough to turn off the wireless transmit if no wireless 
keyboard is present. Or whether wired keyboard inputs (key press -> system) is repeated on the wireless port (not sure 
why it would need to be). But, while it doesn't make sense to me, I *could* envision that a simple, dumb base station 
could do exactly as described. Few consumer products are vetted as well as we'd like to think!

Sergio: If the person you talked to is still available, definitely ask him for his source for that info.

Sounds like an excellent research opportunity.


<- snip ->
On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 04:24:26PM -0500, Sergio Castro wrote:
> All sorts of electromagnetic emissions can be intercepted straight from
> devices.
> Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST

While true, that doesn't really answer the question. The question was
whether the base unit for a wireless mouse/keyboard combination would
transmit keystrokes from a "wired" keyboard.

The answer might be "it depends", but unless there's something actually
wrong with the way the base unit's controlling software was designed,
this probably doesn't actually happen. No reason for a wireless keyboard
base unit to broadcast keystroke data occurs to me at all, other than
design flaws. To be certain, however, I guess you'd have to use an RF
receiver (assuming it's an RF wireless base unit) to capture any
emissions and examine them for the presence of keystroke data.

I tend to think it would be more likely that using a wireless keyboard
might involve broadcast of (unencrypted) keystroke data, since wireless
peripheral device manufacturers probably don't put nearly enough effort
into making sure your system is secure. It is for this reason that,
while I may use a wireless mouse with a system where I'll be entering
passwords, I will *not* use a wireless keyboard with such a system at
this time.

>

OP is below:

> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: listbounce (at) securityfocus (dot) com [email concealed] [mailto:listbounce (at) securityfocus (dot) com [email 
> concealed]] En
> nombre de cleo_str8 (at) hotmail (dot) com [email concealed]
> Enviado el: Lunes, 26 de Mayo de 2008 03:25 p.m.
> Para: security-basics (at) securityfocus (dot) com [email concealed]
> Asunto: Wireless mouse basestation transmitting wired keystrokes ?
>
> I taked to a guy who were claiming that if you have a wireless mouse, with a
> basestation that also is able to use a wireless keyboard. Then if a wired
> keyboard is used instead, there is a risk for the basestation to transmit
> the keystroke onto the wireless, as some kind of acknowledge to the
> non-existing keyboard.
>
> I'm not sure this is the right list to ask this, but am very interested in a
> answer to this claim. Does anybody know if this is true or false ?
>
> Thanks, Peter