malware/virus in peripheral

overkill84 · February 8

what is the odd of virus or malware getting into keyboard/mouse/webcam/vr headset/controller? I know the odd of it being inside motherboard bios are pertty low bit what about other? if I'm being paranoid should I just buy all new ones when I format c drive or get a fresh clean drive and lock all drives away for few years when scanners are good enough to find all today malware/virus?

DoctorNick · February 8

5 hours ago, overkill84 said:

what is the odd of virus or malware getting into keyboard/mouse/webcam/vr headset/controller? I know the odd of it being inside motherboard bios are pertty low bit what about other? if I'm being paranoid should I just buy all new ones when I format c drive or get a fresh clean drive and lock all drives away for few years when scanners are good enough to find all today malware/virus?

In theory, everything with some form of memory can be injected with malicious code. In theory.

Just use Microsoft security for everyday use and malwarebytes free scanner for a second option. There's also a offline scanner in windows security.

Needfuldoer · February 8

9 hours ago, overkill84 said:

what is the odd of virus or malware getting into keyboard/mouse/webcam/vr headset/controller?

Extremely remote. "You have better odds of winning the lottery jackpot" remote.

Dillpickle23422 · February 8

11 hours ago, overkill84 said:

what is the odd of virus or malware getting into keyboard/mouse/webcam/vr headset/controller? I know the odd of it being inside motherboard bios are pertty low bit what about other? if I'm being paranoid should I just buy all new ones when I format c drive or get a fresh clean drive and lock all drives away for few years when scanners are good enough to find all today malware/virus?

Unless you're working with super critical data (ex. Govt classified stuff, nuclear testing facility, things like that) it's very unlikely. There's not anything worth that effort to figure out how to inject malware into a peripheral on a personal use computer. If they wanted a credit card number, or your SSN, or whatever else, it's easier to just create malware that just sits on your computer, versus on something like a keyboard.

Brian McKee · February 9

12 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Extremely remote. "You have better odds of winning the lottery jackpot" remote.

I feel like I remember recently of some peripheral being taken off Amazon for malware lol. There was also those weird emulation consoles that had built in malware in their filesystems. But of course that's buying sketchy stuff from sketchy sellers/bad actors.