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One of my favorite low key social engineering hacks is that I used to have a keylogger installed on every machine I own. Whenever a friend needs to hop on my ma

One of my favorite low key social engineering hacks is that I used to have a keylogger installed on every machine I own. Whenever a friend needs to hop on my machine to show me something, they'd log into an account they own and I would have their password. Then I'd do the same Luigi-like low key messing with them for a while. My favorite was when a friend had a VNC server running on their machine with control capabilities. I would sit next to them and subtly jerk the mouse pointer right before they were about to click on something and it drove them mad for a good 20 minutes before I couldn't hold onto the giggles anymore. edit: To add a bit of context, this was in the Windows 98 era, before the age of social media where we started putting all of our secrets onto our machines. And it was among a group of friends where everyone was trying to hack everyone else and pretty much anything was considered fair game. All of us were high school kids so there wasn't some super serious reputation we had to protect.

anotheryou 9y ago
You could easily see something you shouldn't want to see. Not cool.
- phkahler 9y ago
  You can never un-see or un-know something. If you wonder just what kind of spot that can put you in, just keep hacking your own friends... I suspect any one of us would eventually see something we'd rather not have.
ada1981 9y ago
So you steal passwords from people who trust you and consider you a friend? If you were befriending someone with the sole intention of getting their passwords, that might be considered social engineering. If you are just exploiting the existing trust of friends and family for fun, that's sociopathy.
mylons 9y ago
what part of this is social engineering and not you just being a piece of shit?
ctide 9y ago
Where's the social engineering part? Trying to convince people you aren't a scumbag so they become your friend long enough for you to swipe their password?
- danisth 9y ago
  I mean, I'm pretty sure that is social engineering, doesn't make them any less of an asshole though.
iraklism 9y ago
I mean, apart from the moral issues here, what you are doing is illegal. And that's fine, if it wasn't for the fact that your HN profile advertises your business. Do you also do this to your clients?
- mk89 9y ago
  Ahahahah What a great world we live in!
abduhl 9y ago
so you would act like a bro and then stab your friends in the back by exploiting your fake friendship with them to get their most personal information and then leverage that to mess with them (after you have explored their accounts a bit looking for anything that was funny or that you could use to exploit, of course), but later you would giggle about it. so it was just a prank?
CM30 9y ago
> One of my favorite low key social engineering hacks is that I used to have a keylogger installed on every machine I own. Whenever a friend needs to hop on my machine to show me something, they'd log into an account they own and I would have their password. Is that legal? Seems like a good way to get sued/arrested if you annoy the wrong person, or your 'friends' ever report you for it. But seriously, that's pretty messed up either way really. You're exploiting people that think you're friends with them to get information from their computers without their knowledge. It's at best not ethical and worst not legal.
- stale2002 9y ago
  He was talking about high school shenanigans. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Kids play pranks on each other. Thats not going to be the end of the world, and nobody is going to be sent to jail. He also explicitly said that everyone was doing it to everyone else, so obviously this isn't some cyber bullying scenario where someone is getting seriously hurt. I remember people doing lots of dumb pranks like this in high school, and nobody ever got emotionally scared because someone "hacked" their facebook page (because it was left open as someone went to the bathroom) and changed their "interested in" profile section to "men".
- muninn_ 9y ago
  Jeez let's call the FBI because of these high school friends playing pranks on each other. Maybe we can get one a criminal record or a large fine. That'll really solve this "problem" and teach those kids "lessons". I can't believe that on hacker news of all places people are talking about the legality of kids in high school playing pranks on each other with computers. You guys sound just like the government.
  - goodbye- 9y ago
    HN has been a site for the masses for quite some time now. In other words, the quality is severely degraded.
Sleeep 9y ago
Just wow... >One of my favorite low key social engineering hacks is that I used to have a keylogger installed on every machine I own. Whenever a friend needs to hop on my machine to show me something, they'd log into an account they own and I would have their password. This isn't a "low key social engineering hack", it's betraying someone's trust. >I would sit next to them and subtly jerk the mouse pointer right before they were about to click on something and it drove them mad for a good 20 minutes before I couldn't hold onto the giggles anymore. This isn't actually funny, it's just being obnoxious and mean. If you're next to them why not just jerk their arm when they are trying to click? It achieves the same "goal" of "entertaining" yourself and pissing the other person off. Jerk their laptop when you walk by. Throw stuff at them. Smack them in the head. Trip them when they get up to pee. "Hilarious." >among a group of friends where everyone was trying to hack everyone else and pretty much anything was considered fair game. This sounds like the bully saying "we were all having fun together." You don't know the difference between having fun with someone and having fun at their expense - and that's just disturbing. As someone who lived during the Windows 98 era, I wouldn't want others reading my IMs and emails (I had some very sexual and personal communication over those channels) or viewing my browsing habits.
- Terr_ 9y ago
  > This isn't a "low key social engineering hack", it's betraying someone's trust. I've known some kids who went through a phase where you would ask them something like "Did you clean your room?", they'd say "Yes!" and then later, upon confronting them with their messy room, they'd get this self-satisfied sneaky look, and cackle: "Hah! I tricked you!" While I sympathize with the David-and-Goliath allure of reversing the power-relationship between them and the adults in the household, I tried to explain that such direct lies weren't quite the kind of devious tricksterhood that gets a celebration.
- stale2002 9y ago
  Cmon, man. You've never heard of someone "hacking" a facebook account and changing the profile picture to a poop emoji or something? It is juvenile prank, sure, but high schoolers are literally juveniles. Obviously, you shouldn't do stuff like this to someone who will freak out and get upset about it. Persistent bullying and harassment is, of course, not ok. But most "cyber crimes" that high schoolers commit against each other are NOT that. They are dumb pranks like changing a person's sexual orientation on facebook. For most situations, the vast majority of kids would just be embarrassed for like 10 seconds, laugh, and maybe try to prank the person back.
throw_away12343 9y ago
I also did this as a stupid teenager. Regretted ever doing it, friends got super mad at me when I came clean. There are some things that you just shouldn't know about, reading private conversations where your friends talk about you and say what they really think of you can be really depressing.
w8rbt 9y ago
I wrote a keystroke logger for Windows, but I've never used it outside of demonstrations. Doing so may be illegal, so talk to a lawyer in your state to get the facts. Here's the source code: https://github.com/w8rbt/keycap https://github.com/w8rbt/keycap
make3 9y ago
I'm happy not to be your friend.
wadeboggs 9y ago
I'm apparently the only person who thinks this is indeed funny. Wouldn't be cool with it as an adult, would find it totally hilarious as a teenager.
whipoodle 9y ago
That's just being an asshole, don't use fancy words about it.

anotheryou 9y ago

You could easily see something you shouldn't want to see. Not cool.

phkahler 9y ago
You can never un-see or un-know something. If you wonder just what kind of spot that can put you in, just keep hacking your own friends... I suspect any one of us would eventually see something we'd rather not have.

ada1981 9y ago

So you steal passwords from people who trust you and consider you a friend? If you were befriending someone with the sole intention of getting their passwords, that might be considered social engineering. If you are just exploiting the existing trust of friends and family for fun, that's sociopathy.

mylons 9y ago

what part of this is social engineering and not you just being a piece of shit?

ctide 9y ago

Where's the social engineering part? Trying to convince people you aren't a scumbag so they become your friend long enough for you to swipe their password?

danisth 9y ago
I mean, I'm pretty sure that is social engineering, doesn't make them any less of an asshole though.

iraklism 9y ago

I mean, apart from the moral issues here, what you are doing is illegal. And that's fine, if it wasn't for the fact that your HN profile advertises your business. Do you also do this to your clients?

mk89 9y ago
Ahahahah What a great world we live in!

abduhl 9y ago

so you would act like a bro and then stab your friends in the back by exploiting your fake friendship with them to get their most personal information and then leverage that to mess with them (after you have explored their accounts a bit looking for anything that was funny or that you could use to exploit, of course), but later you would giggle about it. so it was just a prank?

CM30 9y ago

> One of my favorite low key social engineering hacks is that I used to have a keylogger installed on every machine I own. Whenever a friend needs to hop on my machine to show me something, they'd log into an account they own and I would have their password. Is that legal? Seems like a good way to get sued/arrested if you annoy the wrong person, or your 'friends' ever report you for it. But seriously, that's pretty messed up either way really. You're exploiting people that think you're friends with them to get information from their computers without their knowledge. It's at best not ethical and worst not legal.

stale2002 9y ago
He was talking about high school shenanigans. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Kids play pranks on each other. Thats not going to be the end of the world, and nobody is going to be sent to jail. He also explicitly said that everyone was doing it to everyone else, so obviously this isn't some cyber bullying scenario where someone is getting seriously hurt. I remember people doing lots of dumb pranks like this in high school, and nobody ever got emotionally scared because someone "hacked" their facebook page (because it was left open as someone went to the bathroom) and changed their "interested in" profile section to "men".
muninn_ 9y ago
Jeez let's call the FBI because of these high school friends playing pranks on each other. Maybe we can get one a criminal record or a large fine. That'll really solve this "problem" and teach those kids "lessons". I can't believe that on hacker news of all places people are talking about the legality of kids in high school playing pranks on each other with computers. You guys sound just like the government.
- goodbye- 9y ago
  HN has been a site for the masses for quite some time now. In other words, the quality is severely degraded.

Sleeep 9y ago

Just wow... >One of my favorite low key social engineering hacks is that I used to have a keylogger installed on every machine I own. Whenever a friend needs to hop on my machine to show me something, they'd log into an account they own and I would have their password. This isn't a "low key social engineering hack", it's betraying someone's trust. >I would sit next to them and subtly jerk the mouse pointer right before they were about to click on something and it drove them mad for a good 20 minutes before I couldn't hold onto the giggles anymore. This isn't actually funny, it's just being obnoxious and mean. If you're next to them why not just jerk their arm when they are trying to click? It achieves the same "goal" of "entertaining" yourself and pissing the other person off. Jerk their laptop when you walk by. Throw stuff at them. Smack them in the head. Trip them when they get up to pee. "Hilarious." >among a group of friends where everyone was trying to hack everyone else and pretty much anything was considered fair game. This sounds like the bully saying "we were all having fun together." You don't know the difference between having fun with someone and having fun at their expense - and that's just disturbing. As someone who lived during the Windows 98 era, I wouldn't want others reading my IMs and emails (I had some very sexual and personal communication over those channels) or viewing my browsing habits.

Terr_ 9y ago
> This isn't a "low key social engineering hack", it's betraying someone's trust. I've known some kids who went through a phase where you would ask them something like "Did you clean your room?", they'd say "Yes!" and then later, upon confronting them with their messy room, they'd get this self-satisfied sneaky look, and cackle: "Hah! I tricked you!" While I sympathize with the David-and-Goliath allure of reversing the power-relationship between them and the adults in the household, I tried to explain that such direct lies weren't quite the kind of devious tricksterhood that gets a celebration.
stale2002 9y ago
Cmon, man. You've never heard of someone "hacking" a facebook account and changing the profile picture to a poop emoji or something? It is juvenile prank, sure, but high schoolers are literally juveniles. Obviously, you shouldn't do stuff like this to someone who will freak out and get upset about it. Persistent bullying and harassment is, of course, not ok. But most "cyber crimes" that high schoolers commit against each other are NOT that. They are dumb pranks like changing a person's sexual orientation on facebook. For most situations, the vast majority of kids would just be embarrassed for like 10 seconds, laugh, and maybe try to prank the person back.

throw_away12343 9y ago

I also did this as a stupid teenager. Regretted ever doing it, friends got super mad at me when I came clean. There are some things that you just shouldn't know about, reading private conversations where your friends talk about you and say what they really think of you can be really depressing.

w8rbt 9y ago

I wrote a keystroke logger for Windows, but I've never used it outside of demonstrations. Doing so may be illegal, so talk to a lawyer in your state to get the facts. Here's the source code: https://github.com/w8rbt/keycap https://github.com/w8rbt/keycap

make3 9y ago

I'm happy not to be your friend.

wadeboggs 9y ago

I'm apparently the only person who thinks this is indeed funny. Wouldn't be cool with it as an adult, would find it totally hilarious as a teenager.

whipoodle 9y ago

That's just being an asshole, don't use fancy words about it.