this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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I mean like, after I type a password on a computer, I'd rub my fingers across the entire keyboard to make sure any fingerprints/oil-residues gets evenly distributed so its harder to know the password. Same with phone unlock codes, I just use my fingers to rub against the part of the screen where the virtual keyboard was displayed.

Am I being weird? I've had this habit since the first time I got my first digital electronics.

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[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I’ve never heard of that being used to steal a password—for one thing, it wouldn’t reveal the order in which you pressed the keys, so it would still leave n! possibilities (24 possibilities for a 4-digit pin, or 40,320 for an 8-letter password). And in any case, if someone were to examine the keys afterward, it’s more likely they could see which keys you wiped if you just wiped the ones you used (and if you wiped all of them, it would make it easier to steal the password of the next user).

The bigger thing to worry about is a hidden camera recording your key presses—and to counter that, I position my fingers over all the keys I’ll use and then move all my fingers with each press, so it’s harder to see which key was key was actually pressed.

[–] langweiligeflunder@feddit.org 2 points 3 days ago

The only case I would imagine someone trying to guess/brute force the PIN using fingerprints is some sort of state level actor trying to gain access, e.g. during a search warrant

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