Mechanical keyboards are distinguished from other derivatives as they have a separate mechanism for each key they have. Instead of silicone and plastic, the keys have metal parts and real springs inside. These keyboards are very popular lately, especially in the gaming world.
Most of the mechanical keyboards, which are very popular with their slower response times, sensing speed and feel, have a disadvantage in terms of sound. These keyboards can make a lot of noise due to the mechanisms they have inside. Hackers are focused on exactly this issue.
They can learn your password by listening to your mechanical keyboard!
Keytap3, developed by Georgi Gerganov, can detect which keys you press by listening to your keyboard with the help of a microphone. In the video he shared on his YouTube channel, Gerganov revealed this application with the help of his phone’s microphone.
Gerganov had previously produced similar software. But previous apps needed a set of predetermined words and phrases before they could start working. At the same time, the location of the microphone should not have been changed.
The new application, on the other hand, does not need “training”. Also, the microphone only needs to be close for the software. Gerganov states that his new software clusters the detected keystrokes according to their sound similarity, then works by using statistical information about the frequency of use of letters in the default language of the text.
You can try the app yourself!
Although it’s hard to say that Keytap3 is currently working with full efficiency, it can understand many words and sentences correctly. In this case, we can say that our e-mail and bank passwords are not secure. Fortunately, this system only works on fairly noisy mechanical systems.
You can try it yourself on the Keytap3 website by following the instructions Gerganov provides to better optimize its software:
- A quiet room
- Open this page on your phone and click place it next to the keyboard
- Alternatively, open the page on your computer and put the microphone next to the keyboard
- Note that the keyboard does not even need to be attached during this test.
- Press the Start (Init) button below and allow microphone access to the web page
- Type English text on the keyboard using only lowercase letters and spaces
- Do not type faster than 250 characters per minute
You can share with us how well the application works in the comments section or on the SDN Forum.
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