Low-cost clone chips (such as fake FTDI, CH340, or PL2303 serial converters) revert to this fallback identity when their unauthorized drivers block them.

When you see VID FFFF PID 1201 , you are looking at a , a default fallback , or a device in a failed initialization state .

If the device is malicious, the only patch required is the recycling bin.

: Editing /boot/config.txt and adding:

USB-serial adapter shows ffff:1201 after failed EEPROM write: