Thermal Imaging Attacks on Keypad Security Systems

Wodo, Wojciech; Hanzlik, Lucjan

doi:10.5220/0005998404580464

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In thermal attacks, thermal cameras capture heat traces left on interfaces after authentication [1,23,31]. When the user touches a surface, heat is transferred from the users' hand to the touched surfaces.…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While prior work used expensive thermal cameras (e.g., $5,900-$18,000 [1,23]), or automated approaches [1,18,21,23,31], we study thermal attacks where non-expert attackers visually inspect thermal images taken by an affordable (<$450) off-the-shelf thermal camera. This means that we consider a threat model that is more realistic, more likely to happen, and potentially more ubiquitous.…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Are Thermal Attacks Ubiquitous?

Abdrabou

Abdelrahman

Ahmed

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces

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Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are Thermal Attacks Ubiquitous?

Abdrabou

Abdelrahman

Ahmed

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces

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“…Previous work demonstrated the effectiveness of thermal attacks on PINs on different devices such as safes [20], smartphones [7,8], keyboards [8,12], cash machines [16], digital door locks, and payment terminals [19]. High-end thermal cameras as well as low-cost commercial cameras have been used in different research showing the real threat to users' privacy [7,8,16].…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent research has revealed that thermal cameras can be used to infer different types of passwords, such as text passwords [12] and PINs/Patterns [7,8]. This presents a threat to authentication on safes [20], smartphones [7,8], keyboards [8,12], cash machines [16], digital door locks, and payment terminals [19]. Attacks that use thermal cameras are often referred to as "thermal attacks" [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passphrases Beat Thermal Attacks: Evaluating Text Input Characteristics Against Thermal Attacks on Laptops and Smartphones

Abdrabou

Hatem

Abdelrahman

et al. 2021

Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021

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We investigate the effectiveness of thermal attacks against input of text with different characteristics; we study text entry on a smartphone touchscreen and a laptop keyboard. First, we ran a study (N=25) to collect a dataset of thermal images of short words, websites, complex strings (special characters, numbers, letters), passphrases and words with duplicate characters. Afterwards, 20 different participants visually inspected the thermal images to attempt to identify the text input. We found that long and complex strings are less vulnerable to thermal attacks, that visual inspection of thermal images reveals different parts of the entered text (36% on average and up to 82%) even if the attack is not fully successful, and that entering text on laptops is more vulnerable to thermal attacks than on smartphones. We conclude with three learned lessons and recommendations to resist thermal attacks.

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“…Finally, [24] discusses viability of thermal imaging attacks on various PIN-entry devices. Analysis showed that the attack is a credible threat.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermanator: Thermal Residue-Based Post Factum Attacks On Keyboard Password Entry

Kaczmarek¹,

Öztürk²,

Tsudik³

2018

Preprint

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As a warm-blooded mammalian species, we humans routinely leave thermal residues on various objects with which we come in contact. This includes common input devices, such as keyboards, that are used for entering (among other things) secret information, such as passwords and PINs. Although thermal residue dissipates over time, there is always a certain time window during which thermal energy readings can be harvested from input devices to recover recently entered, and potentially sensitive, information.To-date, there has been no systematic investigation of thermal profiles of keyboards, and thus no efforts have been made to secure them. This serves as our main motivation for constructing a means for password harvesting from keyboard thermal emanations. Specifically, we introduce Thermanator, a new post factum insider attack based on heat transfer caused by a user typing a password on a typical external keyboard. We conduct and describe a user study that collected thermal residues from 30 users entering 10 unique passwords (both weak and strong) on 4 popular commodity keyboards. Results show that entire sets of key-presses can be recovered by non-expert users as late as 30 seconds after initial password entry, while partial sets can be recovered as late as 1 minute after entry. Furthermore, we find that Hunt-and-Peck typists are particularly vulnerable. We also discuss some Thermanator mitigation strategies.The main take-away of this work is three-fold: (1) using external keyboards to enter (already much-maligned) passwords is even less secure than previously recognized, (2) post factum (planned or impromptu) thermal imaging attacks are realistic, and finally (3) perhaps it is time to either stop using keyboards for password entry, or abandon passwords altogether.

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Thermal Imaging Attacks on Keypad Security Systems

Cited by 12 publications

References 5 publications

Are Thermal Attacks Ubiquitous?

Are Thermal Attacks Ubiquitous?

Passphrases Beat Thermal Attacks: Evaluating Text Input Characteristics Against Thermal Attacks on Laptops and Smartphones

Thermanator: Thermal Residue-Based Post Factum Attacks On Keyboard Password Entry

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