Keyloggers and voice loggers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jast
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Jast

I know that key loggers exist, but what about voice loggers? Is there
software out there that records conversations that are made using skype
or msn? I would think that it wouldn't be too difficult to write
software that records both the mic input and speaker output and thus it
wouldn't matter what software was used as you would only be ripping the
input and output source? If the software exists, how can it be detected
so that it could be easily removed?
 
Jast said:
I know that key loggers exist, but what about voice loggers? Is there
software out there that records conversations that are made using skype
or msn? I would think that it wouldn't be too difficult to write
software that records both the mic input and speaker output and thus it
wouldn't matter what software was used as you would only be ripping the
input and output source? If the software exists, how can it be detected
so that it could be easily removed?
Click to expand...

I've never heard of voice loggers (aside from the ones that people use
for legitimate reasons) with that said, there is no reason to think that
they DONT exist. So how can it be detected? Thats sort of easy- Think
about how a keylogger works. It records keystrokes usually to a hidden
text file. Depending on the keylogger, this information usually sits
there hidden untill it is picked up by whoever planted the keylogger or
is sent out to a third party.

For a voice logger to work it would probably rely on the same principle.
Record the conversations to a hidden file and/or send them to a 3rd
party. This alone makes it easy to detect because if you are recording
entire conversations, the output files would be huge. So all you have to
do is look for HUGE files on your PC or check outgoing bandwidth. Of
course simply finding large files on your PC does not mean that one is
installed because the author of the software could always encrypt the
output files.

HTH
 
Jast said:
I know that key loggers exist, but what about voice loggers? Is there
software out there that records conversations that are made using skype
or msn? I would think that it wouldn't be too difficult to write
software that records both the mic input and speaker output and thus it
wouldn't matter what software was used as you would only be ripping the
input and output source? If the software exists, how can it be detected
so that it could be easily removed?
Click to expand...

check disc space before and after a conversation. Speech is rough but
intelligible at 8k bit rate. Maybe a more sophisticated bug would plant
a large junk file on installation, and overwrite sections of it with
data in use.

Autoruns is another way, though of course the exe would have an
ninocent name.


NT
 
It is interesting that no one has heard of any software that does this.
The main reason for my question is a friend was telling me that all of
the conversations that she had with a friend (over MSN) were recorded
(both sides of the conversation) and then given anonymously to her
friend on a CD. She was asking how this could have been done.
 
I've never heard of voice loggers (aside from the ones that people
use for legitimate reasons) with that said, there is no reason to
think that they DONT exist. So how can it be detected? Thats sort
of easy- Think about how a keylogger works. It records keystrokes
usually to a hidden text file. Depending on the keylogger, this
information usually sits there hidden untill it is picked up by
whoever planted the keylogger or is sent out to a third party.

For a voice logger to work it would probably rely on the same
principle.
Record the conversations to a hidden file and/or send them to a
3rd
party. This alone makes it easy to detect because if you are
recording entire conversations, the output files would be huge. So
all you have to do is look for HUGE files on your PC or check
outgoing bandwidth. Of course simply finding large files on your PC
does not mean that one is installed because the author of the
software could always encrypt the output files.
Click to expand...

Would the file be so huge. If it logged only when speach was present
and it compressed to something like OGG or MP3 then it might not be
so conspicuous.
 
It is interesting that no one has heard of any software that does this.
The main reason for my question is a friend was telling me that all of
the conversations that she had with a friend (over MSN) were recorded
(both sides of the conversation) and then given anonymously to her
friend on a CD. She was asking how this could have been done.
Click to expand...

It was done at the server, at her computer or at the computer she was
talking to. (Unless her ISP is doing something they shouldn't be
doing.)
 
It is interesting that no one has heard of any software that does
this. The main reason for my question is a friend was telling me
that all of the conversations that she had with a friend (over MSN)
were recorded (both sides of the conversation) and then given
anonymously to her friend on a CD. She was asking how this could
have been done.
Click to expand...

Unless I am missing something (and I may well be) then it seems as if
most audio recording software will record both sides of a conversation
for you.

But as for doing it anonymously I don't know of anything.

It seems more probable to my mind that your friend's friend just
recorded the conversations rather than somehow anonymously receiving a
CD recordings of her conversations on MSN chat.
 
check disc space before and after a conversation. Speech is rough
but intelligible at 8k bit rate. Maybe a more sophisticated bug
would plant a large junk file on installation, and overwrite
sections of it with data in use.
Click to expand...


30 minutes of low-quality speech (Skype, telephone, radio) takes
approx 3.5MB in an MP3 which is not a huge file.

My dictation machine reckons to record 1 hour in a lit over 1MB using
WMA at a low quality setting (8 KHz sampling, frequency to 3kHz,
mono).
 
Unless I am missing something (and I may well be) then it seems as if
most audio recording software will record both sides of a conversation
for you.
Click to expand...

If the sound card is simplex or the program mixes incoming and
outgoing speech. Otherwise there's no reason to assume that a single
point in the computer has bidirectional speech going through it.
(Unless you turn your mic control on in playback.)
 
Franklin said:
Unless I am missing something (and I may well be) then it seems as if
most audio recording software will record both sides of a conversation
for you.

But as for doing it anonymously I don't know of anything.

It seems more probable to my mind that your friend's friend just
recorded the conversations rather than somehow anonymously receiving a
CD recordings of her conversations on MSN chat.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing that some software was installed on the computer that was
ripping all mic input and all speaker output but I don't really know as
I don't have access to the computer. I was just curious if anyone knew
of any software that did this. I think that a decent programmer could do
this fairly easy as as you mention you could use recording software to
do at least mic input or speaker output but I don't know about both at once.
 
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