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Lists of freeware antikeyloggers

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Contents

[edit] Anti-Keyloggers

Screenshots
Selection of Anti-Keyloggers snapshots:
(Click to enlarge)
I Hate Keyloggers
KeyScrambler Personal
Mouse-Only Keyboard
MyPlanetSoft Anti-Keylogger
Neo's SafeKey
PSM AntiKeyLogger
SnoopFree Privacy Shield


In this page we list specific anti-keyloggers. While there are specialised anti-keyloggers that detect keyloggers using signatures, none are freeware. All the software listed on this page detect keyloggers using generic methods.

Note, that some freeware Anti-virus,Anti-spyware, Anti-trojan will detect keyloggers by signatures. Anti-rootkits that detect rootkits using generic methods can only often reveal keyloggers because they can defeat the methods used by keyloggers to hide.

Hardware keyloggers cannot be detected by software methods.

There are two types of software keyloggers hooking keyloggers and kernel/driver keyloggers.

Kernel keyloggers are hardest to detect and when they are installed they can be almost invisible- many are pretty much kernel rootkits. The best defense against kernel keyloggers is to stop them from being installed in the first place by blocking drivers installations using HIPS or limited user accounts. Detection of installed kernel keylogger is difficult, an expert user using advanced antirootkit might possibly detect it.

Hookbased keyloggers can be more easily detected, and most of the entries on this page are designed to work against them. Many HIPS also have the ability to block global hooks which will stop hook based keyloggers as well.

There are other application specific keyloggers , mostly commonly those that target browsers via browser plugins like (BHOs, extensions) or even proxies for man in the middle attacks. These can't be handled by the antikeyloggers on this page, because they do not use global hook mechanisms.

[edit] Great Runescape Anti-KEYLOGGER...

Runescape is a massive online adventuring game created by JAGEX.

[edit] Anti-keylogger on demand only

  1. KL-Detector v1.3 - http://dewasoft.com/privacy/kldetector.htm
  2. Spyhunter - http://spyhunter. cjb.net/ Outdated
  3. See also List of freeware anti-rootkits, that can detect keyloggers via generic methods.
  4. See also Lists of freeware antivirus , Lists of freeware antispywareand Lists of freeware antitrojan that can detect keyloggers via signature.


KL-Detector works by trying to detect log files being created by the keylogger. It is probably not very effective except against the most basic keyloggers.

[edit] Other passive methods to protect from keylogging (but will not detect)

These will not detect any keyloggers if they exist, but will make it difficult for them to log valuable data.

  1. I Hate Keyloggers (nagware)- http://dewasoft.com/privacy/i-hate-keyloggers.htm
  2. Image:Vista.png KeyScrambler Personal - http://www.qfxsoftware.com/ align=centerImage:Recommended.png
  3. MyPlanetSoft Anti-Keylogger - http://www.myplanetsoft.com/free/antikeylog.php align=center


I Hate Keyloggers and MyPlanetSoft Anti-Keylogger tries to thwart antikeyloggers by deactivating any system wide hook. This will prevent any existing hook based keylogger from working. Note, a few rare keylogger's like Martin's Undetectable keylogger will not be blocked by either of them

KeyScrambler Personal has an interesting approach of encrypting keystrokes using a kernel driver before sending them to the browser (firefox or Internet explorer only). Any keylogger will only be able to log the encrypted input.

[edit] Virtual keyboards

  1. Neo's SafeKey - http://www.aplin.com.au/?s=safekey align=center Image:Recommended.png
  2. Mouse-Only Keyboard (MOK) - http://www.myplanetsoft.com/free/antikeylog.php#down Image:Recommended.png
  3. Transaction Guard's secret keyboard - http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/free_security_tools/transaction_guard.php
  4. MiloSoft virtual keyboard - http://www.march-of-faces.org/resources/vkt.html
  5. Click N type - http://www.lakefolks.org/cnt/
  6. Virtual keyboard - http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Mouse_and_Keyboard_Utilities/Virtual_Keyboard.html


First off, the free on-screen keyboard offered by Windows XP Accessability tools is useless against keyloggers because it stimulates an actual keyboard press (even in hover mode), so some keyloggers will be able to log it as usual.

Mouse-Only Keyboard (MOK) - provides a virtual keyboard, with some clipboard protection and protects against hook based keylogger using the same method as MyPlanetSoft Anti-Keylogger.

Neo's SafeKey, provides a virtual keyboard which changes "width and height each time, as well as its placement on the screen (to fool mouse-loggers, buttons will always be in different positions each time you use the program)". You then drag and drop the password into the form field, so it doesn't rely on the clipboard at all.

[edit] Other non-technological methods

"How To Login From an Internet Cafe Without Worrying About Keyloggers" - observes that "you can fool most keyloggers by alternating between typing the login credentials and typing characters somewhere else in the focus window. For example, type one letter of your password, then click somewhere else within the same focus window (it must be the same window) and type some random characters, then click back in the password area and type the next character, and so on." http://antivirus.about.com/b/a/257757.htm

Other similar methods includes typing a series of random characters in the form field, highlight them, and type the correct information. This will cause the highlighted random characters to be replaced with the valid characters. The idea here is to avoid using the delete key. Or you could assemble your password by cutting and pasting different strings.

Another trick sugguested by Ian Richards is to "enter a character by holding down the Alt key and using the numeric keypad. For example the letter "a' can be entered by ALT 123".

He also recommends a combination of all these methods to assemble some of the password plus the use of a virtual keyboard like NeoSafeKeys for the rest of the password affords even more protection, depending on how frequent screenshots are taken.


Copy and pasting password from a password manager to bypass the keyboard. But unless there is some protection of the clipboard , password stealers can obtain the password there too.

Keeform - http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19403 , using autoit.


"Keyloggers" that do a combination of clipboard monitoring, mouse click logging, screencaptures (most computationally expensive) as well as good old keyboard logging will defeat almost everything except if your password is time sensitive , one use password , so capturing it once is pointless.

[edit] Resources to learn about keylogging and antikeylogging

  1. Introduction to Spyware Keyloggers - http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1829
  2. How To Login From an Internet Cafe Without Worrying About Keyloggers - http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2006/posters/herley-poster_abstract.pdf
  3. Keyloggers how they work and how to detect them - http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204791931
  4. Sandboxie and keyloggers - http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DetectingKeyLoggers

This article is part of the Lists of Freeware Security Software: Malware Control series.

Freeware Anti-Viruses | Freeware Anti-Spyware | Freeware Anti-Trojans | Freeware Anti-Keyloggers | Freeware Anti-Rootkits | Freeware Firewalls | Freeware Behavior blockers | Freeware Sandboxes | Freeware Virtualization | Freeware Security analysis tools | Freeware Hardening tools | Freeware Blocklists | Freeware security services (excluding virus scanners) | Freeware Anti-Phishing | List of portable tools | List of unclassified tools

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