Any apps to keep a history of the things I type, like a keylogger?

[Oneechan69]

This might sound bad for privacy but the app could be password / touch ID protected. Ideally I want an app that works like Form History Control, that keeps track of all the things I type in various text boxes on macOS in case I lose it later, without having to copy the text with CMD C as required for a clipboard manager.

 

[bogdanw]

There is little interest in such apps, so most open-source projects are abandoned
SkrewEverything - macOS Swift-Keylogger https://github.com/SkrewEverything/Swift-Keylogger
GiacomoLaw - Keylogger https://github.com/GiacomoLaw/Keylogger
kunigami - keylogger https://github.com/kunigami/keylogger
caseyscarborough - keylogger https://github.com/caseyscarborough/keylogger

An app that can potentially detect malicious keyloggers installed on macOS – ReiKey https://objective-see.org/products/reikey.html

 

[ignatius345]

Interesting idea! I'd never considered the possibility of running a benign keylogger to provide a "universal transcript" like this. It would be kind of interesting to have it all in one place to make searching and archiving easier. If this existed (with proper security, obviously), I'd consider using it. I'd imagine there would be protected fields like passwords you would want to exempt from logging.

Not exactly what you're looking for, but I wonder if a clipboard manager could be wrangled into doing something like this. You'd just have to remember to do a select all / copy after each email, document, whatever you type.

 

[bogdanw]

KeyCastr is a very nice app, that could easily do that, but the developer refused, fearing it would be misused.
“KeyCastr, an open source keystroke visualizer” https://github.com/keycastr/keycastr
"Adding feature of logging" https://github.com/keycastr/keycastr/issues/271

Another interesting app: Axe “The Unkeylogger Axe lets you enable macOS' Secure Input modes right from your menu bar! Secure Input keeps other apps from reading your keystrokes.”
https://github.com/LinusSkucas/Axe

 

[ipaqrat]

Keylogging is predominately associated with malware spread by persistent, determined adversaries. The technique is still useful, with users so slow to adopt tokens and passkeys. A variation on the theme is common for pwning ATMs and gas pumps. The technique is simply presumed malicious, and generally, the civilian world leaves it alone, as it should.

Perhaps you can find some open source "IT Security" or "monitoring" apps, if your search terms don't sound fishy to international law enforcement. But there's broader context as well:

A number of particularly crafty state-sanctioned vendors sell all manner of hackery-pokery as "Enterprise Insider Threat Monitoring", perfectly legal and above board. Here's one: fit These software bundles employ fiendish spying techniques, allowing enterprise security admins to sit on users' laps all day. These apps monitor detailed usage of email, web sites, file management, messaging, videos, screen-captures, document open/print/save, peripherals (connect, disconnect, power up, sleep, stream, etc., etc.) and... KEYLOGGING.

For example: Record the desktop video of all screens to a buffer. Meanwhile, other sensors watch activity in applications and peripherals. The keylogger buffers and searches for trigger-words and patterns. When it gets a hit, the app will collect desktop video and keep recording. Then it uploads the evidence package to a central vault, where, for example: The SOC (security operations center) might investigate the new user in accounting who asked in chat about "warehouse" "alarm" "codes", while browsing street maps (yes, this happened).

This entire cycle is tough for remote hackers to pull off these days. In the ethically grey areas, this is the kind of software deployed by state agencies, to monitor foreign nationals, tourists and citizens alike. But don't sweat it; this would never happen to us here.

 

[Oneechan69]

There is little interest in such apps, so most open-source projects are abandoned
SkrewEverything - macOS Swift-Keylogger https://github.com/SkrewEverything/Swift-Keylogger
GiacomoLaw - Keylogger https://github.com/GiacomoLaw/Keylogger
kunigami - keylogger https://github.com/kunigami/keylogger
caseyscarborough - keylogger https://github.com/caseyscarborough/keylogger

An app that can potentially detect malicious keyloggers installed on macOS – ReiKey https://objective-see.org/products/reikey.html

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm looking for a GUI app, like Form History Control. I should've added a link to it: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/form-history-control/.

 

[foliovision]

Ideally I want an app that works like Form History Control, that keeps track of all the things I type in various text boxes on macOS in case I lose it later, without having to copy the text with CMD C as required for a clipboard manager.

This is a good idea if you mostly type into browser windows. I used such a solution for more than a decade, migrating from the discontinued Backtrack to a very well known macOS utility which unfortunately I am not allowed to identify. I figured out there was a keylogger in there and the developer was kind enough when I explained my purpose to show me how to use it to save text. Text was saved out of order so putting it back together was a bit of a nuisance. A custom routine in TextSoap worked wonders, removing the illegal characters and deletions.

Unfortunately this open source solution appears to be abandoned. The commercial apps out there seem sort of dodgy. But keep looking, logging your own typing is very useful if the sites you use or your computer are at all unstable.

What I do now to protect myself from losing much text is:

1. multi clipboard (the indomitable, simple and free Clipy, M1 compatible fork). When I've written a fair amount I just press command-C, perhaps several times for a single post. Since there's multi clipboard, only a full crash of the computer would lose my text.
2. write externally in Markdown (Typora – single pane, with better tables, inexpensive at $15; iAWriter dual pane, more features, more expensive at €50) and paste into the text box. Both apps allowing pasting in as rich text with links and formatting, in more or less decent condition (one might have to get rid of extra line breaks for instance).

With browsers more stable these days, and employing the two tactics above, I very rarely lose much text the last few years. Sometimes I do if I'm writing into a browser text box and get distracted and don't bother to at least copy the text to multi-clipboard. But unusually anything longer.

If you do find a lightweight macOS keyboard logger which is M1 native and works on at least Monterey, please let us know. Good luck in your quest!