# Bad USB Mouse

## ysbeer

i own a pretty awesome RSI-USB-mouse, however the mouse have been used during a time my MacBook Pro got pwned by someone i used to knew IRL with SpyWare, and i do not feel the need to list the symptoms of my compromised system.

i sold the MacBook (and cleaned it) but i would like to know: with Malware like BAD-USB or any of those kind, if the Mouse used on that MacBook can safely be used on my new Gentoo Box, or am i just being too paranoid and can i still use the mouse, or do i need to trash the mouse for security reasons?

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## eccerr0r

If you have your Linux box dump out config while enumerating USB devices, you should be able to tell if it's doing something mischievous.  A mouse specifying a HID mouse by itself probably would be very difficult to abuse the machine because it wouldn't know where to click since windows could be anywhere, especially when using different OS.

However if the mouse also includes a USB storage or USB keyboard endpoint, then these could be more "known" locations.  The scary thing is if they have timers so they trick people at first that they don't include malicious hardware, but once again hopefully a different OS that behaves differently from keystrokes would confuse them and thus render them to just annoying.

If you're really worried, dump the hardware.  But if it's a fairly common hardware that's known not to be one of these "change over to a keyboard or storage" devices, there's not really any reason to worry about just a mouse.

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