Pynput Keylogger Only Returning Shift, Command, Space and Capslock Keys

Question

I hope this hasn't been discussed on a previous thread. My search results returned nothing pertinent but please feel free to enlighten me!

I'm in the process of writing a very basic Python keylogger (for part of a larger project). I'm using pynput to listen for keystrokes and the logging module to write these to a txt file (see below). It seems to be working so far with the only problem being that it will only log the shift, command, space and caps locks keys. All other keystrokes i.e. letters, numbers etc. are not logged.

I'm running OSX 10.12 (Sierra), Python 3.5.2.

Any suggestions/ideas as to why this might be (and possible solutions) would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks.

    from pynput.keyboard import Key, Listener
    import logging

    log_dir = ""

    logging.basicConfig(filename=(log_dir + 'key_log.txt'), level=logging.DEBUG, format='%(asctime)s: %(message)s')

    def on_press(key):
        logging.info(str(key))

    with Listener(on_press=on_press) as listener:
        listener.join()

A little more research found something that could be an issue. The pynput 1.2 overview document (https://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/pynput/latest/pynput.pdf) highlights OSX's security protocols as potentially limiting the ability of programs to monitor the keyboard and it suggests compiling the code and whitelisting the .exe file to make it work. I gave it a shot using pyinstaller -w -F but it didn't seem to help. Anyone have any experience/input here? — Sam Edmonds, Mar 07 '17 at 01:27
Hi, were u able to find a solution? I have been looking for it since 2 days.. — Prakash Palnati, Apr 20 '17 at 00:29
Hi @Prakash047, I ended up just whitelisting IDLE in OSX. That seemed to do the trick for executing the code within IDLE (including writing to an external log file) but it doesn't seem to work when I try and whitelist my complied exe. Let me know if you find a solution to that! — Sam Edmonds, Apr 21 '17 at 08:22
Hi Sam,exactly same here again!! and By the way how did u make a compiled exe or app of your python code? by pyinstaller?? — Prakash Palnati, Apr 24 '17 at 07:26

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 03 '17 at 14:01

1

Single char keys and other keys are treated differently. Try this for your on_press function:

def on_press(key):
    try: logging.info(key.char) # letters, numbers etc
    except: logging.info(key.name) # other keys

answered Apr 03 '17 at 14:01

Xiangrui Li

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Thanks! @Xiangrui Li – Sam Edmonds Apr 21 '17 at 08:24
found a solution – Patrick Jul 25 '17 at 21:53

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Quick solution: run it as root

The Manual has something useful.

Mac OSX Recent versions of Mac OSX restrict monitoring of the keyboard for security reasons. For that reason, one of the following must be true:

The process must run as root.
Your application must be white listed under Enable access for assistive devices. Note that this might require that you package your application, since otherwise the entire Python installation must be white listed.

Please note that this does not apply to monitoring of the mouse or trackpad.

Pynput Keylogger Only Returning Shift, Command, Space and Capslock Keys

2 Answers2

Quick solution: run it as root

The process must run as root.

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