Technologies Area

Security researcher Samy Kamkar, well known for his prolific and creative work in exposing vulnerabilities on the Web and in various electronic products, has released details of a keylogger that can sniff keystrokes transmitted from several models of Microsoft wireless keyboards. The device is so tiny that it can be hidden inside common products. Kamkar has shown off a working device hidden inside a USB charger and, thus completely disguising it. As noted by Ars Technica, the device, called KeySweeper, sounds like something right out of a spy movie. It works because Microsoft uses weak security to encrypt the proprietary connection between the wireless keyboards and their receivers. Making matters worse, each keyboard's wireless MAC address, which can easily be skipped, is used as the encryption key. The hardware required is a tiny Arduino or Teensy board with a Nordic Semiconductor nRF24L01+ radio frequency transceiver. The design is customisable enough to allow for a ba

Chromebook users who have been itching to install another operating system on their machines can now do so. Users have been given the ability to boot from USB so that they can install an OS image from a USB drive. The Chrome OS team explains however, the feature is only for advanced users. The new feature is part of the 'Debugging Features' available when a Chromebook is booted in the Developer Mode. To install an OS image via USB, users will be required to enable 'Debugging Features' by switching to the Dev Channel, powerwash their device, and click follow these instructions. The other new Debugging Features include the ability to modify the OS files by removing rootfs verification, enable SSH access to the device using the standard test keys so that tools like cros flash can be used, and set both the dev and the system root login password to a custom value so users can manually SSH into the device. "Since Debugging features lower system security, you