DSL Embedded :: keyloggers
Most I have seen that are software work off of the keyboard buffer. My kids are still wondering how I know there passwords. Just trying to keep them out of the bad web sites.
we have a keylogger system at our school most of them log the tie and application you were using so in windows if i logged onto my gmail it would sayy
{time} {Firefox} {00bryantr} livinghell {http://gmail.com} username
{time} {Firefox} {00bryantr} Password (in clear Text!) {http://gmail.com} password
when i used qemu to do the same it did this
{time} {Qemu} {00bryantr}QEMU{QEMU}QEMU
then a block of text here of what i typed but it didnt tell the admin what site i was on or anything just a large block of text with no spaces
useing the on screen keyboard stoped the logging altogether RESULT
but you might not have the same luck as me :-p
The short answer is "yes." Without a doubt, if the host OS is infected, anything running above (higher level) that OS can be monitored / injected, manipulated, reprogrammed, etc.
However, a particular keylogger might be fooled by virtual OSes. Maybe most, I don't know. But it is certainly possible that a keylogger can log everything above it in the "OS layer."
As stated previously, if you have a hardware keylogger, it doesn't matter what application you are running, or even if your computer is turned on.
Try it yourself. I've used perfect keylogger, which is a commercial application with a freeware version. Not trial or anything, just less functional, but functional enough, especially for testing. There are probably free keyloggers out there too. Most of the ones I've tried had dependability and usability problems. Perfect Keylogger works good.
As for the on screen keyboard, it is possible for an infection to record those keystrokes too. It is much less likely, though, that they are programmed to do so.
original here.