Bitcoin Forum

Since today I'm going to be more careful at threats that could steal my passwords such as keyloggers and other viruses, so I was just wondering.. Can a keylogger store the password you're inputting from an on-screen keyboard (the Windows one)? If yes, which softwares are you using to make sure there's no possibility for your wallet password to be stolen?

A few keyloggers have a system to take screenshots when you are using on-screen keyboard(or those sites where they give you a little numpad and you have to click the numbers)
just be careful, keep your system clean and if possible use linux (vm can help with that)

Thank you for the reply. I've got Malwarebytes, BitDefender, Trojan Killer, AntiLogger and a few more apps I'm scanning my system daily with but you never know when you can get a new keylogger/virus that will steal all your funds... :D

I think it might thwart the operation of the more simple keyloggers. However more sophisticated malware will do screenshots or monitor your mouse movements as well. After all, graphical password entry is part of quite a few significant online banking front-ends, so malware developers will be aware of the possibility.


Adding multiple virus scanners will not significantly increase your security, but primarily slow down your system. There is no 100% security, but the most important contribution is user behavior when doing things online. Not visiting questionable sites and not downloading files or opening attachments from unverified sources is a huge contribution to security.

But if you have a larger amount of Bitcoin that you do not need for daily purchases I would strongly recommend using paper wallets for long term storage.

ya.ya.yo!

I think yes keyloggers are proggram for record our typing on keyboard and some people use Linux as system operating because there are not keyloggers for Linux. But Linux is not userfriendly and not familiar for mostly people.

Paper wallets are inferior (https://bitcoinnewsmagazine.com/bitcoin-paper-wallets-are-not-safer-than-hardware-wallets/) to hardware wallets.

Having multiple virus scanners won't slow down my system, or at least it's not noticeable for mine. I know there's no 100% security, this is why I said you never know when you can get infected. I'm usually sending the suspicious files/websites to a few antivirus/malware research labs, waiting for their reply after a detailed look before accessing them.

it is not only about speed multiple virus scanners can even interfere with each other's work. and i don't really think it is going to make any difference to have multiple of them installed as long as you are online.

and to answer your main question i have to say yes they can because they also take screenshots on each click.


are you sure about that? :D

I'm not surprised at all to read that from someone who promotes hardware wallets... :D

However the article you linked does not contain valid arguments for the claim that paper wallets are less secure than hardware wallets. The fact that users might loose funds if they fail to consider that Bitcoin Core generates new change addresses when spending fractional amounts from an address has nothing to do with the security of paper wallets as a store of value.

What the article fails to mention is that hardware wallets have (besides their cost) the significant disadvantage of creating an additional dependency for the user: If the hardware device fails, the user will need a replacement from the manufacturer. The same applies for any web services offered in connection to the device. What if the product / service is ceased? The recovery process will be very complicated.
Also the use of hardware wallets becomes a bit absurd, if you have to write down a recovery seed on an additional paper note...

In addition, the user has to trust the manufacturer / service provider that there are no hidden backdoors.

ya.ya.yo!

Just replace Microsoft Windows with GNU/Linux to mitigate this risk by several orders of magnitude.

geezzz if you install many antivirus, then they can work properly. some antivirus would detect the other antivirus as virus because the engine of antivirus is different than others.

better you have install one, then you can use antispyware. i think its enough.

This is the absolute worst thing I've seen so far.

1. C O N F L I C T S - The antivirus would see the other antivirus as a virus, and vice versa.
2. System load - more than one antivirus is just... No. It will also be worsened by #1
3. Blatantly unnecessary - An antivirus usually detects 99% of malware. Also see #1 and #2.
4. Infinite-loop quarantine - When an antivirus quarantines a file, the other antivirus grabs the quarantined file. The first one detects this and takes the file from the second antivirus. The cycle repeats. Results in #2

Just... Don't for the love of god.

Most anti-virus companies share the same virus definition databases. The different scanners are 99% identical. There is little benefit to running many different ones on the same machine. I recommend you use an anti-virus that has some kind of real-time scanning and doesn't put significant loads on your computer or compromise your privacy by sending significant amounts of data back to the publisher. The Windows defender built into Windows 10 is probably the best really as its extremely lightweight and has real-time scanning. In any case anti-virus protection is reactive rather than proactive, keeping your software up-to-date and not clicking on suspicious links or downloading suspicious files is much more important than an anti-virus.

About your question of on-screen keyboard. That may work against some fairly basic keyloggers, but absolutely will not against more advanced ones. The main thing is to try avoid getting infected with a keylogger in the first place by practicing good security practices. Once your machine is infected then you are kind of screwed as the malware could potentially do anything you can think of and may be almost impossible to detect or remove.

As has been already posted some keyloggers will take systematic photos every now and then but it will still struggle to capture any input from your on screen keyboard that way.  the anti keyloggers can be handy but also make sure you dont save any passwords in firefox or any other browsers, Its a rookie mistake that any hacker will look for first. id recommend throwing in noscript as well just for good measure, it can save you from a world of pain.

If your unsure if your infected then i find antimalware bytes and then a check with hijack this usually finds most things lurking. Your safest option would be to ditch windows altogether though, It just depends how paranoid you are, i doubt you could ever get hacked using a persistant version of tails but maybe thats a bit extreme for using everyday.

this is not as easy as you may think for someone who has no experience working with linux.

as a linux newbie i have been trying to migrate from windows to linux for a while now and i have to say, it is a hard transaction because things are different and i need to learn a lot and i encountered a lot of problems in the process.

As mentioned, most can't because a software key is just a click on the screen and what letter was pressed at that spot on the screen is not available.
But I would like to mention that there is another way to log keys even if the computer in not on a network. Each time a key on the keyboard is pressed it "bleeds" a little electromagnetic energy. The signature of that energy is different for each key and with a sensitive antenna one can read the keystrokes at a distance. Combine this with a directional antenna, like a Yagi, and you can read everything at a surprising distance.

I think better to use top 10 user friendly anti virus which is kaspersky i use this anti virus since 2010 and i think they are already upgrade that they can also protect your crypto currency wallet.. almost all virus he can scan it.. and remove it.. just install kaspersky in newly install os and clean before you can start installing your wallet and all needed with you computer..
Malwarebytes bitdefender and trojan killer and antilogger can be use only if you computer is already infected if your computer is already clear using those tools better to install right now total security also install the plugins in your browser with kaspersky that can protect your login details while you are login like paypal..

I just use a separate computer with a clean bootable OS to access my wallets and not the computer I use on a daily basis. They will target the computer you use daily, because it's online most of the

time, giving them time to bypass conventional attempts at stopping their attacks and injecting their malicious code. Another thing to do, is to put honey traps up for them... once those are triggered,

you would know if someone is watching and recording your travels on the internet. Do not waste a lot of money on AV software, because none of them are 100% bullet proof.  ::)

I'm not running all of them at the same time. BitDefender is the one running 24/7. Trojan Killer can only run in Safe Mode, where I disable all the other apps. AntiLogger has just the keys encryption turned on, and I got the free version of MalwareBytes which doesn't offer real time protection. The free version requires you to start the scan, it doesn't start automatically. I've never had problems with them running together like laggs, freezes or anything else. And before I heard of TrojanKiller I used Kaspersky, then I moved to AVG, and then to BitDefender. None of them found a virus on my PC, TrojanKiller did. I know about antivirus conflicts. When you install one of the ones I got and you have a conflicting software, they will ask for your permission to uninstall it.

Yes. There are keyloggers that will detect OSK (on screen keyboard) entries, as well as keyloggers that copy and cache the contents of your clipboard, should you try to cut and paste from a document. Always use a secure terminal or device for any sensitive bitcoinery.

My dear brother a Keylogger can not steal your password if you are using on screen keyboard but it can still happen if the keylogger is a powerful one it will capture the screen shot if you are typing the password and send it to the programmer or the user, so to keep your account very safe  scan your system with malwarebyte antivirus or any other strong antivirus and don't safe you password on your pc, enable your firewall and be conscious when downloading any file from the internet or even from your email   

It can be still log even you use on screen keyboard but you can prevent those to virus and remove it to you os.. if you know hirens which is i use it in many years to clean and repair computers and i think you can also use it but the trial version or the free bersion that can help almost all viruses using bootable hirens .. this is just my tips but it really helps to clean your all over the drive.. if its infected or system infected he can also clean it if you choose clean..  or delete if you know that it can not conflict for system or other files.

It depends on the virus/malaware being used.  Some can capture it out there but again we can't make a blanket statement of "Yes all can" or "No all can't".  I mean we are not even starting with is it a physical keylogger or software?   A physical one attacked to keyboard... no it would not be seeing on screen keyboard, and would not be detected.

When you go into software it is hard to say.  There are some out there that do have the capability on taking screenshot's or grabbing on screen key grab's.   I would agree most keyloggers don't do this but they could.   And if you have a keylogger there is nothing to say you don't have all kind's of malware doing other bad things.  I think it is likely you will be infected with more then just 1 keylogger.  There will be a bigger issue I think in mot cases.

And if you are running into keylogger's or malware you really should not be doing anything on that computer.   A lot of it goes back to simple good practices such as not clicking random links, don't download stolen things, could go on and on.  But a computer you use for anything important you really should take precautions not to get these bad files, and also have good antivirus/anti-malware installed just in case.

for those of you who are overloading your operating system with a lot of antiviruses and anti-blah-blah to protect yourself i have to say you are not really increasing your security by that much and you are only slowing down your system.

i only have one antivirus with firewall called Eset Smart Security and i have it for more than 8 years and i have never been infected with a single malicious program. i'm not advertising for eset, just saying you should learn not to get infected and then rely on your AV to protect you against those that fall through the cracks.

It doesn't really have to be a special keylogger. These days, almost all keyloggers have a built-in screen capture feature. (Yes, I know ;))


I've used Avast for a very long time (from childhood) but I switched to AVG once Avast started to conflict with Windows 10 and also started displaying ads. I know some people that use Eset, and I can say it's also pretty good since I've tried it for a short period of time.

yes they can, but also is no need to have their wallet password in order to empty your wallet, it happent to me once to my mine & insta sell hot wallets (lost about 0.3 btc value of new alts) a new coin wallet had a virus that send all the .dat to someone and wallets appeared empty afterward. so dont really bother for your password wallet, but for your site logins/passwords

Hackers nowadays are really smart enough.
Even if we take out the possibility of taking screenshots, some advanced keyloggers have the ability to record the location of your every click so there's a possibility that they can know what you're typing even if you used an on-screen keyboard.

I think keyloger can not steal your passwords if you use the Keyboard screen. Because some keyloger also take screenshots, but small possibility of screenshots will be on all the pictures when you hit the button

I read an article from 2009 and at that time this was possible but what about now? The keyloggers are more sophisticated and they capture mostly everything even if you write from your on-board screen because you are writing on the password field which is the favorite part for hackers.

This is a way that is often used by hackers to steal your information so i think just one way to never install any program to your computer.

Yes,some key logger take screen shots and can possibly store passwords in any confidential account you have.so, be careful it might be hacked if you don't pay attention to it.

There is basically no limit to keyloggers. After you install it you gave FULL control of your system to someone else.
Don't assume they have not sofisticated enough keylogger, assume u can loose everything and reinstall OS immiedietly.

yeah screen shot is just common to key loogers but stealing with the key strokes with on-screen keyboard will be very interesting topic to discuss in ! as they are mostly programmed only to record keyboard strokes and OSK works with mouse pointer and clicks!

Theres no need for that many anti viruses, just be careful how you use your computer and what websites are you visiting. I use malwarebytes and SUPERantiSpyware and I'm perfectly satisfied with those two.

There could be a need if a new virus appears. Virus scanner is a detection system  :)

That is a good general common practice but there is no guarantee that it will prevent a virus based on websites you visit.   You could have a old router firmware and some "bad guy" finds it decides to explore it and possibly accesses devices connected to network. Also anyone out there with default router password should change it.  A good antivirus and malware program should stop it but with something new it is not a guarantee.   All depends on how persistent/skilled the "bad guy" is.

New exploits sadly come out from time to time.  And there is lag between when found and released to when patched.  I strongly recommend for offline storage of BTC, and hot wallet's only keeping spending money in.

Dont do any transanction with your bitcoin if you are not secured. Dont do it with public computers cause these are posibly intalled with key logger whick can steal your private keys, do it privately with your private devices.

i think yes, do not install unknown software. usually hacker send me email with attachment with subject "hey you got free money"