Webcam/camera light always on, lights up right when Mac powered on

Noticed this weird issue about two weeks ago that initially had me very concerned, but now just confused: the camera light is always on. It turns on the moment the iMac is powered on, and it stays on all the time. The camera itself still works in apps that use it, and there aren't any camera use requests in the Settings > Privacy section, so I'm led to believe this is a hardware issue, not a software one.

To be sure, I did a malware scan with a couple different apps (Malwarebytes & Webroot) and both found nothing, so I'm pretty sure this isn't software. It's running the most recent MacOS it supports with the most recent security updates, so I doubt it's firmware-related.

I opened it up to check the webcam cable and connectors on the module and motherboard; nothing seemed out of the ordinary, just a slight kink in the cable and the ribbon seems to come out of its connector end at a slight angle (seems like a factory issue rather than damage?)

Any advice on how to fix this? I want to know my options before I commit to buying new parts if they don't actually need replacing.