Re: [Trisquel-users] Basic security questions

[marioxcc . MT]

Almost all keyboards and pointing devices built-in in laptops use an USB  
interface, the only difference (I think) is that they don't use the usual  
connectors, and neither the wires not the connectors are exposed externally.  
You can check whether your keyboard and pointing device are USB with  
“lsusb”. There are also X11-specific commands that I don't remember, but  
you can use a web search to find them. However, USB devices are a possible  
source of stacks since they can claim that they're something they're not (A  
USB flash drive can claim it's a keyboard and enter arbitrary commands, for  
instance. There's a device that does that but I can't find the link, again  
you would have to search for yourself). You can never be sure that a keyboard  
and pointing device won't ignore your input and attempt to execute malicious  
commands unless you designed and supervised the manufacturing of its  
controller integrated circuit, even if the firmware was free software or if  
it used no firmware (With all the logic hardwired in CMOS); the same goes for  
*all* the hardware, with its respective functionality. Hardware by nature is  
impossible in practice to audit.