[Gslug-general] Wireless & Ubunt

[Andrew Becherer]

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 5:16 PM, Michael_Faraday <steven_coles at yahoo.com> wrote:

> One of the strangest things I've seen was Ubuntu's response to a wireless
> numeric keypad I bought at a thrift store.  The keypad had no software and
> no manual.  I plugged it in.  Ubuntu saw it and selected a driver that
> worked properly.

You did not specify the physical connector but it was either a USB
Human Interface Device (USB HID) or a PS/2 keyboard device. In either
case no extra drivers would have been required (in the general case).

> Then something, I forget what, struck me odd about the keypad.  On a hunch I
> tuned my Grundig YB400 receiver near 27 MHz.  When I punched a key, the
> Grundig buzzed.
>
> As the keypad used a frequency far below Bluetooth's UHF, it could not be
> Bluetooth.  In fact RF wise it could not be anything standard.  Just the
> same Ubuntu (7 something I think) selected a driver that worked with it.
> I've no explanation.

Wireless keyboards and mice operate on near 27 MHz unlike their more
expensive Bluetooth standard brethren. Max Moser and Phillipp Schrödel
have done some entertaining work eavesdropping on wireless keyboards
using a radio like yours and a standard sound card.

http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-dc-08/Moser/Whitepaper/bh-dc-08-moser-WP.pdf

Not as spooky as the recent work on wireless eavesdropping on wired keyboards:

http://lasecwww.epfl.ch/keyboard/

--
Andrew Becherer