Apple keyboard vulnerable to hack attack

We might spend a lot of time thinking about OS vulnerabilities, but sometimes the oddest things allow hackers to get a foothold into your digital kingdom. Take this example - Apple's own keyboard!

I got a chance to interview the security researcher at DEFCON 2009 (another security conference immediately following BlackHat) who discovered this flaw.  The researcher explained that he goes by the name “K. Chen” because he feared harassment from staunch Apple fans who actually believe those Mac versus PC security commercials.  In the video below, I had Mr. Chen demonstrate his possessed keyboard on my computer which had no special software installed.  The keyboard would actually spit out in reverse order what had been typed into it whenever the ENTER key was pressed.  This showed that the keyboard was indeed modified with special firmware which can record what was typed and inject it back into the host computer.  This key logging capability can even work during the boot phase which would unlock additional hardware encryption features.

turning a keyboard into a keylogger, what an interesting concept! It's a pretty sneaky attack too, since a wipe and reload won't rid you of the backdoor.

The downside of a closed ecosystem where consumers don't even get a choice of keyboard.

Scary stuff!