Thermanator: Thermal Residue-Based Post Factum Attacks On Keyboard Password Entry

Thermanator is a post factum thermal imaging attack that allows an adversary recover full password key sets up to 30 seconds and partial password key sets up to 1 minute after password entry. The attack uses a mid-range thermal imaging camera.

Full paper available on arxiv.

Recent News

Thermanator was presented at the Black Hat Europe 2018. Abstract and presentation available.

Recent articles covering Black Hat Europe 2018 and our work:

Thermal Timelapse

Password "passw0rd" thermal residue 0, 15,
30, 45 and 60 seconds after entry, left to right.

Example attack scenario

Authors

Tyler Kaczmarek
Ercan Ozturk
Gene Tsudik

Media Coverage on AcuTherm: A Hybrid Attack on Password Entry Based on Both Acoustic and Thermal Side-Channels

Media Coverage on Thermanator: Thermal Residue-Based Post Factum Attacks On Keyboard Password Entry