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And that's a feature, not a bug. I have a YubiKey and it does a similar thing, but for good not evil. It would be tricky for an OS to not register keyboards (af

by jonknee 11y ago

And that's a feature, not a bug. I have a YubiKey and it does a similar thing, but for good not evil. It would be tricky for an OS to not register keyboards (after all, how would you vouch for an input device without using an input device?). tl;dr don't plug unknown things into your computer.

masklinn 11y ago
> after all, how would you vouch for an input device without using an input device? Separate built-in device, or specific signal sequence inputtable on the IME the device registered itself as e.g. if you plug in something which advertises itself as a keyboard, the system sandboxes it and asks that you input a specific password which it displays; for a pointing device it might ask you to move the pointer to specific places and click on them.
- zyxley 11y ago
  I like this. It feels pretty similar to the "enter this random set of numbers" method for some Bluetooth keyboard pairings.
ColinDabritz 11y ago
Tough problem for sure, especially getting users to understand. For keyboards you could use the Bluetooth pairing trust trick. Display a short random number code on the screen, and only accept the keyboard if the numbers are typed, which could be interpreted as the user vouching for the keyboard. The need for this in Bluetooth land is more obvious due to the wireless nature of it, but USB is also an untrusted network.
fluidcruft 11y ago
BFD in 5 years everything will have a touch screen and camera, anyway. We'll use animated QR code videos playing on our digital watch faces and some law-enforcement/TLA/convnet goon will be required to approve every UAC request remotely.
claudius 11y ago
> (after all, how would you vouch for an input device without using an input device?). Allowing the first keyboard after boot by default seems not unreasonable. It would still make it possible for evil maids to plug in something and wait for you to boot up again, but they are difficult to protect against anyhow. This would also avoid the hassle of vouching for your keyboard every time you reboot.
PeterisP 11y ago
Have a set of whitelisted USB sockets on the computer in a different color that are meant to be used for your primary input devices. Then for any USB input device that's plugged in another physical socket (e.g. where you'd plug things that you believe are just mass storage) the OS can require acknowledgement from the user before it is connected and allowed to send input data.

by jonknee 11y ago

masklinn 11y ago

> after all, how would you vouch for an input device without using an input device? Separate built-in device, or specific signal sequence inputtable on the IME the device registered itself as e.g. if you plug in something which advertises itself as a keyboard, the system sandboxes it and asks that you input a specific password which it displays; for a pointing device it might ask you to move the pointer to specific places and click on them.

zyxley 11y ago
I like this. It feels pretty similar to the "enter this random set of numbers" method for some Bluetooth keyboard pairings.

ColinDabritz 11y ago

Tough problem for sure, especially getting users to understand. For keyboards you could use the Bluetooth pairing trust trick. Display a short random number code on the screen, and only accept the keyboard if the numbers are typed, which could be interpreted as the user vouching for the keyboard. The need for this in Bluetooth land is more obvious due to the wireless nature of it, but USB is also an untrusted network.

fluidcruft 11y ago

BFD in 5 years everything will have a touch screen and camera, anyway. We'll use animated QR code videos playing on our digital watch faces and some law-enforcement/TLA/convnet goon will be required to approve every UAC request remotely.

claudius 11y ago

> (after all, how would you vouch for an input device without using an input device?). Allowing the first keyboard after boot by default seems not unreasonable. It would still make it possible for evil maids to plug in something and wait for you to boot up again, but they are difficult to protect against anyhow. This would also avoid the hassle of vouching for your keyboard every time you reboot.

PeterisP 11y ago

Have a set of whitelisted USB sockets on the computer in a different color that are meant to be used for your primary input devices. Then for any USB input device that's plugged in another physical socket (e.g. where you'd plug things that you believe are just mass storage) the OS can require acknowledgement from the user before it is connected and allowed to send input data.