Protecting wireless peripherals from MouseJack

[mtwest]

While the folks at Bastille discovered this set of disturbing vulnerabilities about a year ago, as its holiday shopping season and I didn't see any info about this on the forums, figured this was a reasonable topic for a first post. Basically, if you are using one of a number of proprietary wireless connectors for keyboards and mice, you could be vulnerable to key logging as well as forced pairing. There is a nice website (https://www.mousejack.com/) set up to explain the guts if you are interested.

 

One of the mice that saw special attention was the G900, which also exhibited a hidden key macro vulnerability tied to its programmable interface software. I imagine logitech's other wireless gaming mice have the same issue. Some of these problems can be fixed in firmware updates, but for others, the user is SOL because of poor design decisions by the manufacturer. The list of affected devices: https://www.bastille.net/research/vulnerabilities/mousejack/affected-devices

 

Now the above list doesn't include other popular gaming wireless mice, but that may be due to lack of testing time. Best to check with the manufacturer.

 

 

[njmyers3]

I'm glad that I don't use many wireless peripherals

[mtwest]

I just got a new Windows laptop and while the trackpad is pretty good, I much prefer a mouse for many tasks including gaming.  And a wireless mouse, particularly the Logitech with its tiny form factor receiver, has some appeal.

 

Now, not so much.

 

But as there have been a number of high profile wireless gaming mice on the market these days, people ought to be aware of their vulnerabilities. Might not be a problem when at home in a single family house, but any other place... Yeah. Wired for me!