HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) laptops could reportedly have a hidden keylogger.
The potential vulnerability was discovered by researcher Michael Myng, who found a deactivated keylogger in part of a piece of software that could serve as a serious privacy concern for owners of the laptop. The keylogger was found in over 460 HP laptop models, including the ones listed here.
Most owners of HP laptops will likely not be hacked when they use their computer as the keylogger is deactivated by default, but attackers may be able to hack into one of these computers if they have physical access to the computer.
“Some time ago someone asked me if I can figure out how to control HP’s laptop keyboard backlight,” wrote Myng in a post. “I asked for the keyboard driver SynTP.sys, opened it in IDA, and after some browsing noticed a few interesting strings.”
The strings are reportedly connected to a hidden keylogger, which is a program that sends typed characters to an attacker through a Synaptics device driver that could be decoded.
One person accused Myng of being a thief trying to rob someone when he brought it up in a few communities, but HP eventually responded, confirming the presence of the keylogger, which serves as a debug trace. The company then released an update that removes the trace.
HPQ stock is up 0.7% Monday.
