Audio driver on several HP laptops contains 'keylogger'

Some of HP’s latest laptops may contain software that is recording every keystroke, says Swiss infosec firm ModZero. The drivers were released in 2015 and recently received an update that gave the software the ability to act similarly to a keylogger, reporting every button the user presses and storing it locally. Users will be made even more vulnerable because of this software; hackers could easily acquire someone's passwords, addresses and private messages if they got their hands on the logged data. These reports have yet to be confirmed by HP.

So far the affected devices appear to be limited to HP’s Elitebook, ProBook and ZBook models. It’s unknown if other devices or manufacturers are facing a similar problem. The issue stems from pre-installed audio drivers in the Windows system folder with software that monitors “all keystrokes made by the user to capture and react to functions such as microphone mute/unmute keys/hotkey.”

This application records every keystroke into an unencrypted log file in the user’s home directory and is overwritten every time the user logs in. One fix that could help is deleting the “MicTray64.exe” file or alternatively, one could add a registry key to prevent the software from being able to run on the computer in the first place.

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