Mice As Accidental Microphones

Updated: 2025.10.14 8D ago 2 sources
High‑sensitivity gaming mice (≥20,000 DPI) capture tiny surface vibrations that can be processed to reconstruct intelligible speech. Malicious or even benign software that reads high‑frequency mouse data could exfiltrate these packets for off‑site reconstruction without installing classic 'mic' malware. — It reframes everyday peripherals as eavesdropping risks, pressing OS vendors, regulators, and enterprises to govern sensor access and polling rates like microphones.

Sources

Android 'Pixnapping' Attack Can Capture App Data Like 2FA Codes
BeauHD 2025.10.14 68% relevant
Both pieces reveal non‑obvious side channels that bypass permission models: the mouse‑vibration eavesdropping turns a benign peripheral into a sensor; 'Pixnapping' turns rendering‑time measurements into a cross‑app data leak, extracting sensitive content like 2FA digits without declared permissions.
Mouse Sensors Can Pick Up Speech From Surface Vibrations, Researchers Show
EditorDavid 2025.10.05 100% relevant
UC Irvine’s 'Invisible Ears at Your Fingertips' shows speech recoverable from raw mouse packet data collected via web or local software and reconstructed with signal processing/ML.
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