Has anyone here seen or heard of any kind of malware that causes the insertion point to move (somewhat) randomly?
On Saturday, on one of my computers, something was going on that caused my insertion point to move, quite often, in an incorrect manner. Often, on typing any letter, the insertion point would move behind the character I just typed (such that the next character typed would appear in front of the previous character). This might have occurred for 20 to 50% of the characters that I typed Less often (maybe 10% of the time that something went wrong (so maybe, overall, 2.5 to 5% of the characters that I typed) maybe less), the IP moved ahead 2 spaces so that a space would be skipped before the next character typed. Aside: The IP did stay in the same line I was typing (unless it was at the end or beginning of a line such that they "soft wrap" of the line would move it to the next or previous wrapped line). I couldn't detect a pattern to this, either just for certain keys or always for certain keys, but it may have happened more often for some keys than others. I did several things (and the problem is now gone so I can do no further testing unless the problem recurs): I did a fair amount of ddg'ing, I couldn't find any reference to malware that causes these kind of symptoms. The two suggested causes that I found were: * Somebody typing on a laptop making accidental contact with the mouse pad -- my problem occurred on a desktop with no mousepad on the keyboard, and, because of an irrelevant problem (explained below) the mouse is far enough from the keyboard that it would be difficult to accidentally contact the mouse while typing. * A failng keyboard What I did: * I use the same keyboard on two computers via a KVM so I switched to the other computer, the problem did not occur on the other computer. Aside: The irrelevant problem I mentioned is that quite some time ago (several years) I did something dumb while replacing a bad mouse (I didn't de-power) the KVM) and damaged the mouse "input" to the KVM such that I no longer can use a single mouse via the KVM, instead I have a separate mouse for each computer, the mouse for the problem computer is furthest away from the keyboard so it is impossible to accidentally make contact with it (and the mouse pad is on a stable surface). Aside: on the computer with the problem I mainly "surf the web" (for one reason or another) and make notes in Kate (so the typing problem was occurring in kate). I did try typing a little bit at the CLI in Konsole but did not notice a problem. I did not think to check some other editor or similar applicaton. (I occasionally read emails on that computer but rarely send from there.) * I switched back to the computer with the problem and the problem was still present. After some thought (and with crossed fingers), I rebooted that computer and the problem has not recurred since then. Aside: I suppose if the problem could have been a failing keyboard it could also be a failing KVM or input to the computer, and if the problem recurs I might try switching KVM channels or the keyboard input to that computer. I'm just somewhat worried that computer might have been hacked or infected with something -- reinstalling would be a pain but I guess I need to think about doing that. -- rhk <long signature elided>
