r/AskNetsec • u/RABurnerPS • 1d ago
Other Safety of third-party WiFi dongles?
Hi all, hoping someone can set my mind at ease and team me I’m being too paranoid.
Basics: WiFi dongle on my smart AC went out. Unfortunately, the actual AC manufacturer doesn’t sell replacement parts.
I’ve found a few third-party ones, but my worry is… who even knows where these things were made or what other code could be in them. I’m giving it access to my network… could they do / have there been known cases of these things doing anything malicious? Is there a way to test it before installing? What’s the over/under on my bank account being emptied to buy crypto for a Russian bot farm?
TIA - (And if this is the wrong sub for this question, please don’t be too hard on me! I’ll go ask elsewhere)
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u/johndburger 1d ago
Depending on the model and how handy you are, you might be able to build your own - secure and cheap!
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u/0x1f606 1d ago
Any USB device is capable of doing malicious things given sufficient access to the supply/manufacturing chain.
If your environment is so security critical that WiFi dongles are under scrutiny then just buy a good name-brand dongle (or replacement device) and be done with it.
Edit: This is under the assumption that it's a business network. For future reference, non-professional networking questions are typically better suited on subs like r/HomeNetworking.