Communications of the ACM
Keystroke Recognition ses Wi-Fi Signals to Snoop
A group of academic researchers have figured out how to use off-the-shelf computer equipment and a standard Wi-Fi connection to sniff out keystrokes coming from someone typing on a keyboard nearby.
Credit: Threatpost
Researchers from Michigan State University and China's Nanjing University have learned how to use off-the-shelf computer gear and a standard Wi-Fi connection to read keystrokes from a person in close proximity, which under controlled conditions yields a recognition accuracy rate of 97.5%.
The researchers used the 802.11n/ac Wi-Fi protocol, a TP-Link WR1043ND Wi-Fi router, and a Lenovo X200 laptop to harness the Wi-Fi signal's Channel State Information values to detect movements within a given environment. The researchers say their "WiKey" technology can identify subtle micro-movements of the finger, hand, and keyboard keys, with potential use in the human-computer interaction space.
"Examples include zoom-in, zoom-out, scrolling, sliding, and rotating gestures for operating personal computers, gesture recognition for gaming consoles, in-home gesture recognition for operating various household devices, and applications such as writing and drawing in the air," the team notes.
The researchers glean micro-movement data using the router's multiple-in, multiple-out channels, and they filter out radio noise and non-typing-related environmental movements. Associating values based on the culling of data enabled the team to assign number values to each keystroke based on individual typists.
The researchers found under real-world conditions, WiKey's average keystroke recognition accuracy slips from 97.5% to 77.5%.
From Threatpost
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