Tell me about keyloggers

Factual Questions
1

So I’m troubleshooting a non-reproducible, apparently random error in an application that we’ve purchased. (Why am I troubleshooting this? Because the vendor can’t/won’t; they insist it’s not in their code so there’s nothing they can do. Surprise, surprise. As far as our customers are concerned, that makes it our problem.)

We’ve checked everything that anyone can think of without finding a link. Workstations, server, network, database; hardware, software; profile and tracer files; etc. etc. etc.

I’m starting to wonder if it’s not something that the users are doing that’s causing a problem in the app software on their workstations.

Would running a keylogger on the workstation allow me to see everything the user is doing, including mouse clicks & such?

If they noted the time of the crash, would I be able to pinpoint what they were doing at the time of the error?

Any comments, ideas, suggestions, etc., would be welcome. I’m ready to try just about anything!

Thanks!

2

Some keyloggers will keep track of what programs are being launched and what’s being typed where (as in www.google.com typed into firefox address bar or User Name:"JohnSmith ") as well as timestamps, and some will literally do nothing but log keys so you end up with just a big file of keystrokes all mashed together.

You’re going to have to read the program descriptions/reviews to see what the different programs offer. Also, if your workstations have anti-virus/malware programs on them, you’ll have to create an exception since keyloggers will set them off.

3

I suspected as much. Any suggestions on where to look for such software?

Thanks for the A/V note, I wouldn’t have thought of that. If we do this, I’ll be sure to have 'em push an exception first.

4

Some of the tools used to provide remote technical support / troubleshooting might be helpful. I’ve had tech support people remotely access my PC, and they can see my desktop (and interact with it). A quick google for “remote pc support software” turns up a number of hits. A list of tools is here: Comparison of remote desktop software - Wikipedia

I don’t know if any of them offer logging such as you might need.

5

Ah, that’s an idea. We have a couple of different remote setups, I’ll check and see if those have anything. Thanks!

6

You probably also want to check with your company’s legal team to make sure that you’re allowed to install a keylogger. It’s probably in the contract your users signed, but if it’s not, that could lead to big headaches.

7

+1 on this. It seems like a very touchy thing to do. You will have access to everything done on the computer. Unless this is a place where the computer is only used for work, you’ll probably end up reading emails sent between spouses and things like that. Imagine the horror of seeing an email from a secretary to her friend about her latest gynocologist visit or something. I don’t know what would be worse, being subject to a keylogger or being in charge of it.