Occasionally I have seen the pointer start moving by itself when I am not touching the mouse or anything else on my laptop.
Unplugging the USB mouse and plugging it back in stops the pointer movement when this happens.
I have two other devices that move the pointer: a touchpad and a “mini-touchpad” in the middle of the keyboard so I suspect some kind of interference.
But I want to check if this is a potential security concern (e.g. someone or some illicit code is trying to control my mouse)?
have you checked all of your usb port?
if there nothing, check the mouse, it might difficult unless you have a “know good” usb mouse
This has happened to me with several os with a wireless usb mouse.
I don’t really know why but I suspect it is because I also have a touchpad maybe too sensitive.
In any case a simple ESC stops the movement of the cursor.
@qqubes you might find this thread interesting.
Yes, fascinating! Perhaps I should share my relevant experiences in that thread, that happened on a different system.
But hopefully my observed pointer movement falls into the what you described there:
“If however the cursor simply jumps around randomly or moves straight to
one corner or edge and then stays there… another explanation is more
likely.”
Now that you mention it, I recall it happening once (pointer start drifting) when my USB mouse was not plugged in.