Today, with the existence of a program called a Keylogger, gaining unauthorized access to a computer users passwords, accounts and confidential information has become as easy as falling off a log. You dont necessarily need to have physical access to the users computer before you are able to monitor it, sometimes all it takes is a single click on a link to your program by the user.
Anyone with basic knowledge about computer can use a Keylogger. By the time you are done with this chapter, hopefully you will be able to make your own Keylogger through simple, well explained and illustrated steps I have made for you.
A Keylogger, sometimes called a keystroke logger or system monitor is a computer program that monitors and records every keystroke made by a computer user to gain unauthorized access to passwords and other confidential information.
Why its better to write your own Keylogger as opposed to just downloading it from the internet is the reason of Anti-virus detection. If you write your own custom codes for a keylogger and keep the source code to yourself, companies that specialize in creating Anti-virus will have nothing about your Keylogger and thus, the chances of cracking it will be considerably low.
Furthermore, downloading a Keylogger from the Internet is tremendously dangerous, as you have no idea what might have been imbedded in the program. In other words, you might have your own system monitored.
Requirements For Making Your own Keylogger
In other to make your own Keylogger, you will need to have some certain packages ready to use. Some of these packages include:
1. A Virtual Machine
When codes are written and needed to be tested, it is not always advisable to run them directly on your computer. This is because the code might have a destructive nature and running them could leave your system damaged. It is in cases of testing written programs that the utilization of a Virtual Machine comes handy.
A virtual machine is a program that has an environment similar to the one your computer system has, where programs that might be destructive can be tested without causing the slightest harm to it, should it be destructive.
You will be right if you say - whatever happens within a virtual machine stays within a virtual machine. A virtual machine can be downloaded easily.
2. Windows Operating System
The Keylogger we will be making will be one that can only infect a windows PC. We choose to make such a Keylogger because majority of the desktop users utilize a windows platform. However, besides that, making a Keylogger that can infect a windows system is far easier compared to making one that will function on a Mac PC. For this reason, we begin with the easy works and later we can advance to the more complex ones in my next books.
3. IDE Integrated Development Environment
An IDE is a software suite that consolidates the basic tools that developers need to write and test software.
Typically, an IDE contains a code editor, a debugger and a compiler that the developer accesses through a single graphical interface (GUI). We will utilize an IDE called eclipse for this project.
4. Compiler
A compiler is a special program that processes statements written in a particular computer language and converts them to machine language or code that a computer processor can understand.
Before we start writing our Keylogger, we will need to set up our environment and also learn some basic things about C++. C++ because most of the codes for windows are written in it and our Keylogger is targeted for windows.
You definitely want your Keylogger to have the capability of running universally across all systems that utilize the windows operating system.
Just so you know before hand, C++ is not the next easiest programming language to learn because of the nature of its syntax. Notwithstanding, dont give up already, we will begin with the simple things and move on gradually to the more advanced ones, taking a comprehensive step-by-step approach.
I also advise that you use external materials on C++ to expand your knowledge on the areas we will touch during the cause of this project as this will enhance your productivity.
Hopefully, by the end of this chapter you will be able to make your own Keylogger and also modify it to suit your purposes.
Setting Up The Environment
Just like we need to set our computer systems up before we get working with them, in the same light we also need to setup an environment which will enable us code in C++ and in the final account of things, make a Keylogger.
The first thing we will need is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and as stated earlier, we will be using Eclipse. The IDE of our choice (Eclipse) is java based and so we need to visit the Java website ( www.eclipse.org ) to download it.
When we get on the Java site, we will discover that there are numerous options of eclipse programs that are available for download. However, since we intend to use the C++ programing language we download Eclipse for C/C++ developers" still having at the back of our minds that we are working on a windows platform. Hence, while there are Eclipse versions for Linux, Solaris, Mac systems and others we will download Eclipse for the Windows platform.
We also need to choose between the 32 or 64-bit operating system option, depending on the one your computer runs on. You can easily check which your system runs on by right clicking on PC or My computer and then on properties. This steps lead to the display of your system specifications. After the determination of the bits your system runs on, go ahead and download the Eclipse file that is compatible with it.
When the download is complete, the downloaded file will be in your download folder by default unless you made changes locate it. We will be required to unzip the file, as it will be zipped.
After the unzipping and installation of the Eclipse file, an attempt to run it will result in the display of an error message stating that Eclipse cannot work without a Java Run time Environment (JRE) or a Java Development Kit (JDK). This is no problem at all, as all we need do is return to the Internet and download a JDK. The latest versions of the JDK usually come with the JRE.