Security News > 2021 > August > How a gaming mouse can get you Windows superpowers!

Windows finds Razer's official addons in the Windows Update cloud.

Technically, you don't need to take a wired mouse with you - if you have a Razer wireless mouse, plugging in just the dongle ought to be enough, whether the mouse is present or not, because the dongle is what interacts with the USB subsystem on Windows and identifies the device.

We tried tricking Windows 11 into thinking our Pi Zero was a Razer keyboard, a subterfuge that Windows accepted, happily taking fake keystrokes from our bogus device.

We ran out of time to create a configuration with enough verisimilitude to convince Windows that it needed to fetch additional drivers to support the device fully.

For self-admins, the Elevation of Privilege trick described here is just an expensive and roundabout way of using the regular "Run as administrator" Windows option that would give you a PowerShell or an command prompt with superpowers anyway.

Without additional drivers, many new devices will work anyway, albeit without added features such as extra buttons on a gaming mouse, or special zoom-and-pan features on a webcam); others may not work at all if Windows doesn't already have a generic driver that supports the core functionality of the device.

News URL

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2021/08/24/how-a-gaming-mouse-can-get-you-windows-superpowers/