How Do Keyloggers Work? & What are Some Ways to Safeguard Against Keyloggers?
Updated: Aug 13, 2021
Table of Contents
Keylogger Definition
Keyloggers are digital surveillance tools which can reveal every touch, click, or download action performed by a user. In simple terms, keyloggers act as a monitoring software which silently runs in the background and is developed to record the keystrokes of any user.
Keyloggers types - hardware keyloggers and software keyloggers.
Hardware keyloggers
Hardware keyloggers are USB devices which are used to intercept and record keystrokes. A device is supposed to be connected to the target computer and therefore requires physical access to the system. It is one of the challenges of hardware keyloggers. However, a few of the key benefits of such keyloggers are that they are completely undetectable by security scanners or anti-virus software and require no additional installation software or drivers.
Software keyloggers
Like hardware keyloggers, software keyloggers are used to remotely intercept or access locally stored data. These are the most common type of keyloggers; however, they require installation of specific software on the target system. Software keyloggers are also commonly installed when users fall prey to phishing attacks or unknowingly download a malicious file or an application.
How to detect keyloggers?
Keyloggers hamper the smooth functioning of computers in the same way as other malware. Some signs which can help detect keyloggers are:
Slower system performance
Slower web browsing
Delay or lag in response to regular keystrokes of mouse or keyboard
Best practices for removing keyloggers
Some of the operating protocols to help avoid or remove keyloggers are as follow:
Refrain from opening unknown attachments
Use a comprehensive security solution or anti-virus software that can detect keyloggers
Use a strong password policy
Use two-step verification when storing passwords online
Look for any unfamiliar tasks running in the task manager list
Consider using virtual onscreen keyboards
Consider clearing temp files
Uses of keyloggers
Keyloggers are often interpreted as malware, however, that is not true in all situations. For instance, organizations or corporations use keyloggers to troubleshoot technical issues and choose keyloggers to monitor their employees for ensuring productivity. Similarly, parents can use keyloggers to monitor their children’s internet usage patterns and activities.
Suspicious people are inclined towards using keyloggers to spy on their partners. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies use keyloggers for monitoring and surveillance purposes.
Is the usage of keyloggers legal?
As per federal laws, unauthorized access to another person’s personal or financial information is illegal. Any flavor of keylogger when used to retrieve credit card, and PAN card details, or passwords is a punishable offense.
How do keyloggers work?
Mentioned below are the screenshots of a case study conducted on a user’s computer for knowledge gathering purpose. For this case study an open-source software known as Spyrix was used.
The figure depicts steps for installing, executing, and using a keylogger software. Before downloading and using any keylogger, it is essential to disable the anti-virus and/or Windows firewall. An active anti-virus will block & blacklist the IP address from where the user is downloading the software and will register it as a malicious IP. Furthermore, users should use a valid email address while registering the software. This email-id will not just act as a login credential, but the link of any report(s) will also be sent to the registered id.
The figure mentions the different type of settings available in a typical software keylogger. These settings can be used to configure which logging tasks the software will perform and manipulate certain aspects of how the software will perform those tasks. In this case two settings are used, however, there are numerous other tasks that the software can perform such as recording sound, capturing snapshots through the webcam, downloading video recording, and storing browser history to name a few.
The figure above includes a pie chart representation of the users activity log. As highlighted in the figure, “user statistic” includes all the details about activities performed and the time spent on each activity. For instance, as mentioned in the figure, user “ruda4” spent 2 minutes on a system component and 1 minute on the paint application.
The figure above is an image from the final report. This is a downloadable file and the link for it is sent to the registered email-id. As shown in the figure, the report includes the victim’s time and date details, screenshot of activity logs, and the location of images stored in the local machine.
Recent cases of keyloggers attack
In February 2021, countries such as Latvia, Turkey, and Italy witnessed the re-emergence of the infamous MassLogger malware in the form of a new variant. This variant is designed to extract credentials from sources such as instant messengers, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Outlook. The attackers were primarily targeting Windows systems. Users received e-mails with authentic looking subject lines but included malicious RAR files with unclear JavaScript code. These files were further used to start the infectious chain.
In August 2020, a malicious spam email campaign was observed which distributed MassLogger malware. It had the ability to retrieve clipboard and keystrokes data and was able to capture screenshots of user credentials from Outlook, Firefox, Telegram, Thunderbird, Chrome, and FileZilla among others. Additionally, this malware could be spread using USBs and would further create copies of code in files.
In Conclusion
Keyloggers are commonly referred to as malware, however, they can be used ethically as well. In fact, government agencies, parents, and corporate organization do use keyloggers because of some of their benefits. However, keyloggers do have a dark side to them. Hackers use them for demanding ransoms or for retrieving personal and financial information, and regular people may use them to spy on each other. Nevertheless, effective usage of anti-virus, updating software applications, avoiding installation of unverified free software, and being aware about phishing attacks are some of the measures which can significantly reduce the risk of falling prey to such cyber-attacks.
