Overview: Rubber Ducky Attack

Quick Definition

A Rubber Ducky Attack is a cyberattack in which a custom USB device emulates a USB keyboard to attack a workstation. When plugged in, the device immediately begins to imitate a user "typing" a particular set of keystrokes—usually commands or keystrokes designed to perform illicit activity on the target system.

There are few effective defenses against such attacks once the device has been inserted during a login session, particularly since a system can be compromised this way in a matter of seconds, but Plurilock's DEFEND continuous authentication product is among them.

Plurilock DEFEND stops rubber ducky attacks by recognizing almost immediately that the user now "typing" is not the intended account user, since the USB device shares no behavioral characteristics with the intended account user. While the USB device may then continue to try to send keystrokes to the computer, they will be ignored and will do no damage.