Are there "evil" USB ethernet dongles? Of course there are...(just not this one)

https://hak5.org/products/lan-turtle

The article admits this explicitly:

>Malicious hardware has plenty of precedent: it’s been used by intelligence agencies and private pentesters alike. Heck, a bit over a decade ago, I built an evil plasma globe for work. Still, we weren’t here to debate whether a malicious RJ45-to-USB adapter could be made. The important question was whether in this particular instance — as the poster put it — “the Chinese were at it again”.

Not to mention the evil ethernet patch cable:

https://imgur.com/Gpgj7w7