5 ms·

It very much has been exploited since the beginning of computing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(codename) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(codenam

• carapace 4y ago
  Yeah. If you've ever wondered why, when you type in a password, it shows up as asterisks or dots, now you know. TEMPEST is why.
  • toast0 4y ago
    Does showing asterisks or dots help mask the signals from the keyboard vs not showing anything (ala most unixy auth)? I'm pretty sure passwords are not shown to reduce shoulder surfing, especially from across the room.
    • jonathankoren 4y ago
      The dots are just there for shoulder surfing and to give a visual feedback to the user. If you want to steal a password, all the cool kids use a microphone or your phone's accelerometers. https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.09359 https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.09359 https://www.cise.ufl.edu/~traynor/papers/marq-ccs11.pdf https://www.cise.ufl.edu/~traynor/papers/marq-ccs11.pdf https://phys.org/news/2017-04-criminals-pin-tracking-motion.html https://phys.org/news/2017-04-criminals-pin-tracking-motion....
      • carapace 4y ago
        Those are much more recent attacks. We're talking about a time when CRT screens were the norm, they are noisy enough to read from quite a distance. > A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode-ray_tube That causes a bit more signal than a keyboard, mic, or MEMS accelerometer, eh? :)