Editing Keystroke logging (section)

=== Deceptive typing ===
Alternating between typing the login credentials and typing characters somewhere else in the focus window<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2006/posters/herley-poster_abstract.pdf|title=How To Login From an Internet Cafe Without Worrying About Keyloggers|publisher=[[Microsoft Research]]|author=Cormac Herley and Dinei Florencio|date=2006-02-06|access-date=2008-09-23}}</ref> can cause a keylogger to record more information than it needs to, but this could be easily filtered out by an attacker. Similarly, a user can move their cursor using the mouse while typing, causing the logged keystrokes to be in the wrong order e.g., by typing a password beginning with the last letter and then using the mouse to move the cursor for each subsequent letter. Lastly, someone can also use [[context menu]]s to remove, [[cut, copy, and paste]] parts of the typed text without using the keyboard. An attacker who can capture only parts of a password will have a larger [[key space (cryptography)|key space]] to attack if they choose to execute a [[brute-force attack]].

Another very similar technique uses the fact that any selected text portion is replaced by the next key typed. e.g., if the password is "secret", one could type "s", then some dummy keys "asdf". These dummy characters could then be selected with the mouse, and the next character from the password "e" typed, which replaces the dummy characters "asdf".

These techniques assume incorrectly that keystroke logging software cannot directly monitor the clipboard, the selected text in a form, or take a screenshot every time a keystroke or mouse click occurs. They may, however, be effective against some hardware keyloggers.