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Purchased a Dell wired keyboard scanned its QR code to check authenticity. The URL was http://dell.vt9999.com/fw.aspx?c=1670918927095916 and it says the product is authentic but link looks suspicious to me. I think I got a fake product.

I want to know is it safe to use this wired keyboard. Can It contain any form of viruses or keyloggers

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  • whois vt9999.com suggests it is China-based, so ...
    – Hagen von Eitzen
    Commented Dec 5, 2021 at 8:50
  • A party willing to sell a knock-off product is willing to add things like viruses and keyloggers. Is your question if this device has virus/keylogger or if it is possible that someone malicious can place virus/keyloggers on wired keyboards?
    – schroeder ♦
    Commented Dec 5, 2021 at 9:07

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I would choose not to use it for the following reasons:

  1. The URL that the QR code directed you to is suspicious because the "dell" part is a subdomain of vt9999(dot)com. Anyone running a website can add whatever subdomains they like. This is a common phishing technique.

  2. It is possible to put malware, or a script to download malware in a keyboard. Assuming the keyboard did have malware on it, even plugging it in for a few seconds could result in a backdoor on your computer. This is because when you plug in a keyboard you can just start typing -- there's typically no prompt asking you if you'd like to allow the device to be used. Even USBs can be modified to appear as keyboards, and perform actions that do something like make a network request to download a backdoor and then run the backdoor program on the target computer. See for instance, the Hak5 Bash Bunny.

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  • Is there any way to mitigate the risk
    – Nilesh Yadav
    Commented Dec 5, 2021 at 8:06
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    Yes, you use a big hammer.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Dec 5, 2021 at 11:30

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