Make Shift Keylogger?

[MrReaver]

So out of curiosity, I have coded my own keylogger before with some help with some friends just for a little fun project, just after watching a random video on youtube, something sparked my mind. I was wondering if it was possible to somehow use a USB hub with a USB and the keyboard attached to somehow act as how a keylogger that you plug between the keyboard and IO panel would. 

So for example, if I were to plug the hub into the pc and have the USB with whatever software and the keyboard plugged into the hub, could I somehow intercept the keystroke while the keyboard still works fully functional. Also, I was thinking maybe could there be a way to have a WIFI dongle plugged in as well and therefore be able to send the data over the web to let's say a mail server or even an FTP server? 

These are all just random thoughts, haven't done any research or anything, just curious if any of this is possible and what you guys think.

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

sounds illegal and not like "random thoughts". With that being said.. There are tons of keyloggers out there for about any need. Google is your friend.

[KuJoe]

It's possible, but getting the device to be the size of a USB hub would require some custom building and then getting it to connect to a WiFi network would require cracking the password (assuming it's password protected with no other authentication or whitelisting).

 

Here's an interesting read from a few years ago: https://www.netragard.com/netragards-hacker-interface-device-hid

[MrReaver]

5 minutes ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

sounds illegal and not like "random thoughts". With that being said.. There are tons of keyloggers out there for about any need. Google is your friend.

No, not meant to be illegal at all. It honestly is just something i thought would be a cool project to do in freetime

4 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

It's possible, but getting the device to be the size of a USB hub would require some custom building and then getting it to connect to a WiFi network would require cracking the password (assuming it's password protected with no other authentication or whitelisting).

 

Here's an interesting read from a few years ago: https://www.netragard.com/netragards-hacker-interface-device-hid

I dont necessarily mean to get it the size of a usb hub. I mean to plug each device into the hub. and as for the wifi, it wouldnt need cracking cause id just be testing it out on my home network, i dont mean to be malicious at all with it. 

[KuJoe]

Then it's definitely doable, check out this link for some small computers (some with WiFi): https://ameridroid.com/collections/single-board-computer

[mariushm]

You can get any microcontroller with USB built in (they start from around 1$ and up) and program it to show up as a keyboard to your operating system

here's official documentation , how to make usb keyboard with a MSP430 controller (~1.2$ each) : http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slaa514/slaa514.pdf

 

Now all you have to do is read the keys from a keyboard, store them in some memory (eeprom, flash etc) and pass through the keys to the computer.... other than just showing up as a different keyboard in device manager, nobody would know anything.

 

Difficulty would be in making the microcontroller show up as a usb host to the keyboard... so either have a second microcontroller works as usb host and pass the keys to the other micro through i2c or spi or whatever, or maybe have the first microcontroller bitbang a ps/2 port and use a usb to ps/2 adapter with the keyboard.

 

Microchip has documentation about connecting a usb keyboard to a microcontroller that has usb host functionality built in : http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/01212a.pdf

 

So basically, it's doable with around 5$ worth of parts. Programming part however... priceless. (joking, someone with a bit of C knowledge can code this in an afternoon)

// no wifi in such a basic thing... but you could for example configure it to dump all the keys logged when you type a password for example ... so you could open notepad, type the password and the device dumps in notepad all the keys it logged and then you can save the text file and mail it or save it to usb stick or whatever.

or you can remove the device and connect it at your computer to a memory reader or something and dump contents within a couple of seconds.

or you could add functionality in the microcontroller... keep a button pressed while plugging in and instead of usb keyboard, the device shows up as mass storage device (usb stick) with a single text file on it containing the keys logged.

 

[Nicnac]

Best way is to directly plug in a raspi zero to the pc in question. You can do basically everything with it. There's a couple very helpful videos on youtube about it. A raspi zero can also be easily hidden or put in a case to make it look like a usb hub.

[AlTech]

5 hours ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

sounds illegal and not like "random thoughts". With that being said.. There are tons of keyloggers out there for about any need. Google is your friend.

Since when are keyloggers illegal?

[ItsTheDuckAgain]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Since when are keyloggers illegal?

since Cpt. Obvious said so!

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, ItsTheDuckAgain said:

since Cpt. Obvious said so!

I'm being serious tho .

[iLostMyXbox21]

11 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Since when are keyloggers illegal?

keyloggers are not illegal as long as you have permission / it is on your kids pc

 

OP i hope you have permission