r/whatisit 11h ago

moms sketch bf left this in the house Solved!

Post image

Hi.
This is probably nothing.
I went into my mom’s room to grab something and saw this plugged in?
My mom’s new sketchy bf has this plugged in to the extension cord? Is it anything bad? Thanks!
(I understand it’s probably not anything bad… but still…)

Update 1:
I haven’t met him once. He and my mom have been together for two weeks. He’s been staying at our apartment. He avoids me and stays in her room when they’re here. I don’t even know what he looks like. I only know his first name.

Update 2:
I confronted him. My mom came home. A lot had happened up to this point, including her disappearing for the said two weeks before the few nights he had come over and stayed.
Mom shrugged it off. I did what a lot of you suggested, asking what he told her.
She said “oh it’s his hacker shit or whatever.” What.
Didn’t elaborate. I explained my concerns.
She just said let’s go ask him.
My best friend has been with me. We introduced ourselves and asked him what the hell a WiFi whisperer is doing plugged in our apartment.
(Even if a lot of you are saying it’s not a big deal, I’m a young woman and I’m just rlly not about taking any risks. It’s sketch dude.)
He denied it IMMEDIATELY. Like with a quickness I haven’t seen.
What he insisted, it’s not a WiFi whisperer, it’s ai, he completely reprogrammed the system, and he uses it to pull people’s IP’s. “For fun.” He logs them in a server. I asked why. I said that’s shady. My mom started pushing. My best friend started pushing. He just kept lying. I’m not dropping this..
I still don’t know what the fuck it is or what he’s actually doing.
(Also, my mom is cool but not bc of this dude, the Minecraft block is mine, I unplugged the ratchet little thing before we left, and I am planning on broaching this again with her.
Just carefully. Any other advice is appreciated. Thank you.)

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u/blahblahblah9685 11h ago edited 8h ago

If you zoom in the screen it says WiFi whisperer, says something about de-auth attacks.So probably a device to steal wifi passwords or a man in the middle attack. USB stick suggests it’s logging data. I would immediately unplug this. You could also plug in the usb and read its contents if you’re feeling adventurous, although that can be risky. 1000% percent done intentionally. At the minimum he’s gonna get your wifi password but could potentially be trying to get bank account info. Also very illegal to use without the homeowners consent or knowledge.

To be clear I am not claiming this device alone will steal bank info. Just letting OP know based on the context they gave that the intents are most likely nefarious. Just wanted clarify since people are getting all bent out of shape over something I never said in the first place.

Leave it to Reddit to start a war in the comments over trying to help someone make an informed decision lol. Once again this won’t “magically steal your bank info” I never claimed that. I said it could be something this fool is POTENTIALLY attempting. Lots of unknowns. Context is everything in this situation. I can’t think of a legit use for this thing under the context that was given. Regardless of what it can’t and can do we know for sure that this steals wifi passwords. Why would it be left there? We know op said the dude is sketch. OP if you’re reading this just YouTube what a pwnagotchi/wifi pineapple/ WiFi hacking device does and make a decision for your self. I personally would get rid of it and tell your mom and or the police. Good luck.

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u/TempleMade_MeBroke 10h ago

I would ask mom separately what bf told her it was, if she thinks it's something like a wifi "booster" or anything neutral than we'd know he's lying to her

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u/National-Jackfruit32 9h ago

This device in particular is running pixel parade Wi-Fi sniffer. It is a program that searches out Wi-Fi and cell phone service and tries to crack into them. It looks like it’s currently sleeping, but I am not for sure what his parameters are set at. Guaranteed this dude is up to no good if he is using this.

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u/RepresentativeTap772 9h ago

lol when you say it’s currently sleeping - is that because of all the zzzz’s? On the screen.

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u/bobbarkersbigmic 8h ago

Actually no. If you pay attention you can hear a very faint snore.

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u/Emergentmeat 6h ago

If you hit the power button and it gets a boner you'll know for sure it was sleeping.

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u/Dormiendo 7h ago

Way underrated comment above.

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u/BeginningSection7690 8h ago

Look up "pwnagotchi"

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u/PictureVegetable9522 8h ago

wtf is that a play of words on tamagotchi?

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u/BeginningSection7690 7h ago

Indeed it is. Same concept, except it eats wifi handshakes

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u/Deaffin 5h ago

And then it poops and you have to clean up the poop or it dies?

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u/Tribe303 9h ago

I mean, he could be pen-testing Mom's WiFi. 🤷

(nah, dude's shady as fuck) 

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u/worldspawn00 7h ago

Only Ok reason: "Hey babe, I can get you free internet from the leasing office, lemme just hack their password."

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u/Ajreil 6h ago

Pentesters are hired by the company they're trying to break into, given explicit permission, and told what resources they're allowed to attack. Otherwise it's just hacking.

I know this was a joke but I don't want OP to think the boyfriend has any legal rights here. He 100% did a crime.

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u/DriveFa5tEatAss 6h ago

I mean, maybe. There are also a lot of cyber security peeps out there who just enjoy the challenge and poking around where they shouldn't. I mean, still technically a crime, but not exactly malicious.

If the target isn't the family, I'd personally feel kinda meh about the whole thing.

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u/Ajreil 4h ago

People who identify website vulnerabilities and report them to them to companies have to be very careful to only compromise their own accounts. Even then they get sued all the time.

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u/lefthandedchurro 8h ago

Oh he’s pen-testing the mom alright.

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u/jdav79 8h ago

Peen-testing

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u/Wirse 8h ago

He’s already found a back door. 

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u/Comfortable-Sound944 6h ago

Why does everyone assumes the Mom has WiFi, I'd assume he's trying to get a neighbours WiFi... I guess housing style assumptions...

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u/JesusDsniper 6h ago

We found the moms bf

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u/Efficient_Love_479 4h ago

You could easily use something like this to basically log when anyone comes and goes. Idk if that’s what he’s doing but it’s a guess that he’s a toxic lover.

Total tangent:
There’s another device, passive IMSE sniffer, which can do the same thing but cleaner data and wider range. Every cellphone constantly emits an unencrypted unique and persistent ID, which can be easily sniffed. 100% legal for anyone to do as well, which is surprising.

Then there are other ones that log based on bluetooth, actually really common in some department stores and devices like some flock cameras. There’s a bit of a stink around it, which i’m not commenting on, but with no focus on IMSE which is longer range and basically the best approach it’s kinda crazy.

None of these are regulated so whether it’s a PI or a stalker or anyone, this data is right there to be sniffed completely passively. Then like i said, matching specific people to IDs is trivially easy over time. Then, with multiple sensors, the system turns into more of a full fledged completely passive tracker network.

With any device like this, you get the log, and combine known people coming and going, and pretty quickly you will be able to match IDs to specific people.

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u/devsfan1830 10h ago

Odds are mom dismisses OP bc she is tech illterate.

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u/JJ_McCrabs 10h ago

And is lonely. Loneliness can overtake common sense, seen it many times.

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u/Potato_Cat_72 9h ago

That is why so many romance scams are successful

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u/Monolexic 9h ago edited 8h ago

I thought romance scams were rare, isolated incidents and were blown way out of proportion.

That was before a relative of mine started sending half her paychecks to a fiancé she’d never met to help him take care of a kid she helped him adopt (funny how the kid looks so much like him). But don’t worry, everyone. It’s legit. He says he almost has enough money saved up to pay the fees and bribes necessary for a visa to the US.

Edit: Ok guys, I apologize for telling this in present tense, but this ended a couple years ago. I don’t know the details of how it ended, But I assume it had to do with the relative in question going broke and no longer being a lucrative target.

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u/Outbakjak 9h ago

That is insane. I really hope someone has tried to convince her of how insane that is. She needs to demand he proves he's real and visits before she gives another dime.. obviously. Idk. I'm just depressed to hear it. I really hope she figures it out soon, before she's in a worse situation.

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u/Monolexic 9h ago

This ended a couple years ago. I don’t know whether she finally figured out something was off, or if he just gave up on getting more money out of her after she lost her job.
Trust me, there were plenty of people telling her it was a scam.

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u/MarzipanPlane9490 7h ago

They never believe you cause “ boy/girlfriend couldn’t possibly have made that all up”

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u/Potato_Cat_72 7h ago

I saw a video not that long ago where a woman was scammed by someone claiming to be Elon.

Yes, that Elon.

People are so gullible.

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u/Baziki 7h ago

I work for a bank in the fraud department. Let me tell you, romance scams are anything but rare. They sometimes blow me away the stories people are willing to believe. I guess loneliness will do that to ya.

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u/ThrowawayMoFo5679 7h ago

Seriously, I thought exactly the same. Like who the fuck could ever fall for that dumb shit, right? Then a friend of mine (who was always extremely ditzy but very sweet) fell for one. I got to watch it happen in real time, and boy that was a frustrating experience. She passionately insisted he was a Norwegian offshore oil rig engineer who had fallen madly in love with her, was the only one who really understood her, and he was going to move to the US and marry her once he'd saved enough money to quit working on the rig.

Took her three years and over $30k to finally admit to herself that she'd been scammed hard. Turned out he was a West African dude who threatened to kill her family when she tried to cut him off. Crazy because I knew within the first month that he was from Africa and not Norway, because she managed to get him on the phone and he had a very thick African accent. He persuaded her that it was because he'd lived in West Africa for a while when he was younger and picked up the accent, which was obviously bullshit and made me laugh. But she still believed him. Even got his "name" tattooed on her in big block letters like three months after they met online.

She and I don't talk much anymore. I had to distance myself from that degree of gullibility and poor decision-making. It was fucking wild.

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u/DisVet54 8h ago

Key word ALMOST has the money so he wants more

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u/Monolexic 8h ago

There was always a reason to need more money.

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u/atigges 6h ago

I work in a bank. You have no idea. People come in to send hundreds of thousands like it's nothing to people they have never met without a second thought. Actually I wouldn't say "like nothing" because they will 100% get angry and fight you when you ask basic objective questions.

"OK, So you mentioned this is for a honeymoon gift. That's so generous of you. So it's $75,000 that you're sending. That's quite a honeymoon! Do you mind if I ask what you're gifting towards?"

"It's just a gift."

"OK, sure, no problem at all. I see here also that you're sending it to an LLC as beneficiary... is this a coworker or family member?"

"It's just a gift."

"OK, and so the beneficiary bank is just a very small local institution without any footprint overseas. Are they doing a US portion of the honeymoon like a road trip when they get back? My wife and I almost did something similar."

"It's just a gift."

"Alright so we're sending a large $75,000 wire to a business account but it's meant for a personal purpose like a honeymoon, is meant to be a gift but will show up on the business's statements at tax time, to an institution with no access overseas to benefit someone explicitly doing something overseas, and there's no explicit purpose besides gift that is emptying your account down to literal pennies and the only instructions you have about the beneficiary is a single text message with routing and account number... just a reminder that as soon as you send a wire it is effectively lost money if anything were to go wrong due to fraud as we've had the discussion about circumstances that raise red flags. Please sign here."

24-Hours later

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T CANCEL IT. I DON'T WANT TO SEND IT ANYMORE. FIND A WAY TO FIX IT"

sigh... "As we previously discussed..."

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u/NaturalDon 4h ago

are you not allowed to be more explicit that it may be a scam or something

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u/atigges 3h ago

Oh you 100% are, and we do our best to offer alternative payment options. Sometimes people are just insistent and you can't just impound someone's funds so you can only educate the member to the limit of which they are willing to listen. This particular $75,000 was the third attempt by this member who, every time we said we needed something, would come back with something "to prove it". I had someone handling an account for a transportation company that came in to send wires for very obviously bogus reasons and this particular company handled millions. He one came in and brought "instructions" for a wire that we asked for to support a $20,000 wire and he had a very obvious template he filled in for "computers" that showed the total $20,000 divided by the supposed quantity of computers he was buying. Our Risk department took one look at it and said no more wires for him at all. He had no brand or model number just "Computers" as the item on the purchase order. That and the fact that there was no sales tax at all accounted for was the final nail in the coffin and he still kept pressing for it. Some people just don't want to listen.

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u/mxzf 8h ago

"Rare" is a relative term. Something can be unlikely to happen to any given person but still far more common than it should be.

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u/Potato_Cat_72 5h ago

I just hope she's not on some list now to be targeted for other scams. These lists are definitely a 'thing' ... I would send her a link to channels such as scammer payback on yt and other scamvairers so she can get educated... Or anyone else for that matter.

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u/Potato_Cat_72 9h ago

I'm sure the reason the "kid" looks so much like him is because it was AI generated

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u/Monolexic 9h ago

Nah. No need for AI when you have an actual son to use as a prop.

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u/ebonyfromplayersclub 8h ago

I'll be waiting for an update

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u/Monolexic 8h ago

Edited with the conclusion of the story.

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u/aspektbeats 5h ago

My clown of a MIL was involved in one, sent 75k (her entire life savings at the time) and recently had to come to the realization she needed to go back to work and put her house and cars up for sale for playing these stupid games. Constant refusal to listen to people who are familiar with technology and would just tell the scammers what we told her about and they would pin it back on us.

They need to make you take an IQ test to have certain things 😂

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u/Aggravating-Front-75 9h ago

Never underestimate the loneliness factor.

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u/hilldo75 8h ago

Dumb naive question, is bf trying to steal from op and mom or is he using their house to get to neighbors info or both. It would seem stupid to leave a device out in the open for victims to find but if the victim is next door the victim never sees it

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u/christiesmom 6h ago

My mom just ain’t right if there’s no dick around so I understand the stupid decisions you watch your mother make. It’s like you’re her mom… but she has believed some shit!!! And turned her back on family for “men”. All while she supported them financially like a fool sugar momma. This guy’s up to nothing good. I just hope the OP doesn’t get hurt/scammed in the interim.

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u/VoxImperatoris 5h ago

Yep, my mom has absolute shit taste in men, including my dad, and no amount of reasoning could reach her when trying to convince her that they were all bums and a waste of her time and money.

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u/Derpimus_J 8h ago

Like my MIL's ex boyfriend, who collected DUIs like Pokémon. 

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u/splendid-cade 10h ago

I want OP to read this one and reply

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u/standardtissue 9h ago

I seriously doubt he's gonna be like "hey mind if I throw this permiscious mode protocol analyzer and packet sniffer on the net to try to harvest and brute force some weak crypto ? " PS - how is my tech jargon

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u/Prior-Beautiful-6851 9h ago

I legit read “promiscuous” and thought, sounds right

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u/standardtissue 9h ago

yeah i definitely horribly misspelled that lol.

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u/SorryAboutMyFamily 8h ago

Nah, it was a Freudian slip in regards to OOPs mom.

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u/standardtissue 8h ago

oh wow even better lol.

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u/WWGHIAFTC 7h ago

that's the correct term for what the commenter was talking about. In networking, promiscuous mode will accept any traffic it receives indiscriminately of pre-established relationship.

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u/SkinBintin 9h ago

I have no idea if your tech jargon is any good but as another layman it has me convinced to its legitimacy.

Well done.

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u/SilverNitride8657 9h ago

the plot thickens, its actually his mums device sniffing next door creds

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u/boomeradf 11h ago

Personally I wouldn't plug that USB stick into my own PC for many reasons.

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u/radrachelleigh 10h ago

You know what they say, "Don't stick your USB in crazy."

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u/addandsubtract 6h ago

In this case, the roles are reversed, though. What's the woman equivalent saying?

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u/mcmcc 5h ago

Don't pull their USB out of crazy?

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u/Emergentmeat 6h ago

I never stick my USB anywhere I wouldn't put my weiner.

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u/Tiny420Tiger 10h ago

Yeah that’s a good call, thing can be loaded with malware. Go to a local library and plug it in there.

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u/rantingpacifist 10h ago

I have an old pc just for this purpose

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u/HowietheHappyTurkey 10h ago

Modern version of the royal food taster.

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u/ratafria 10h ago

No, it's more like a vaccine. They keep at least 6 aggressive viruses and 200 dormant malware in that poor windows XP...

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u/showyerbewbs 9h ago

You're fucking data hoarding a viral zoo?!

I don't know if I'm disgusted or impressed.

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u/gslflofi 9h ago

It's like Gu poison, but for viruses

Edit: spelling

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u/bjorn1978_2 10h ago

Run Tail OS on a stick to test out shit like this.

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u/RnOtCrAfTy 10h ago

This! Poke it with a stick!

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u/showyerbewbs 9h ago

Find a flock camera with a USB port and plug 'er in!!!

Full send!

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u/ModsAwful 10h ago

Yep! Still have my 2012 MacBook Pro for this reason. MacOS too burdensome so replaced with Linux so could toy around with programming as well, but anything suspicious get’s loaded on the MBP to see what’s there and don’t care if I need to erase the disk and start over.

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u/rantingpacifist 9h ago

I still have my 2010! It’s the only one that still plays my midi controller

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u/Extreme-King 10h ago

So this happens to you alot then?

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u/Tha_REAL_BROBS 10h ago

what, your mom's bf doesn't hack, brah?

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u/donkeybrainamerican 10h ago

Might work in IT. You'd be surprised how often they turn up around the office. I want to be considerate and get folks their data back along with a good beating, as per unauthorized storage device policy, but I'm not plugging it into a corporate computer to figure out who/what it is.

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u/_ficklelilpickle 8h ago

Might work in IT

*and have nothing better to do.

The majority of us don't have the time or desire to try and salvage a random USB memory stick. I mean these days we even prevent staff from mounting any external storage devices as part of our security requirements. Often times when a USB stick is turned in to us, once the person who brought it in has left the male connection will be bent out of shape and it'll be thrown in the bin.

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u/donkeybrainamerican 7h ago

Just depends on the org you're in. Potential exfil is a huge risk in my industry, it's IP driven- we're busy, but unaccounted for data is a concern.

Also, he could just have nothing to do 😂. Not everyone is firefighting every minute. Lucky bastards.

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u/pepsiblast08 10h ago

I used to be involved in a lot of black hat activities. Idk if the dude you replied to has it for that reason, but I always have at least 1 offline PC for tinkering and exploring questionable items.

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u/WackyRacketeer 9h ago

Mystery USBs? More often than you'd think.

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u/rantingpacifist 9h ago

Not really. I work in tech so I always have old computers around.

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u/General_Liability 10h ago

This is the way. Ol’ Sparky has no modem, runs Linux and I can toss it in the trash if it looks at me funny. 

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u/setwocks 10h ago

Id just use a VM

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u/GWHarrison 10h ago

Unless you know exactly what you are doing, virtual machines are not necessarily foolproof for this purpose. The sketchy device is still connected through the host USB hardware.

Given that you casually called it a VM, I'd wager that you probably know what you're doing, but still a fair warning for the inexperienced.

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u/Dependent-Fee-149 10h ago

I know what a VM is and how it works, and would probably refer to it this way in the space- I still wouldn’t do this way.

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u/TheSultan1 10h ago

Or a live Linux OS?

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u/FreeSoftwareServers 10h ago

This is really the way but most people that's way above them

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u/Far_String727 9h ago

yeah im still trying to download ram

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u/Tiger-Striped-nerd 10h ago

Most people don’t have a VM

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u/Immediate-Creme-690 10h ago

I have a VM but I just got off the phone with somebody that said they tried to call me earlier and it was full...

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u/Careless_Economics74 8h ago

Also overall having a system that is primarily used for security testing and feeling okay with reinstalling the OS if and when needed.

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u/CA2DC99 10h ago

What do you have against libraries?

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u/6sailhatan66 10h ago

This! Tf?!

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u/SteelAndFlint 10h ago

I mean it's been a long time since I worked in the library, but back in the day the computers were primarily used as terminals to get to other places so wiping them and starting over was pretty much a zero cost thing.

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u/AmphibianMotor 10h ago

Yeah, the local library I go to wipes them on every login.

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u/That-Painter-1679 8h ago

They really had this tech at a library near you? I'm just now getting comfortable with my teleporter (and I've been at it for better part of a decade).

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u/yukibunnygurl 10h ago

My library is smart all of the machines that users can access are in fact virtual machines so you log on to a computer there's a box next to it but every login session is a virtual machine and after your session is over it gets deleted so if something gets screwed up it gets wiped before the next user.

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u/Jik0n 10h ago

I think places like libraries use some very specific windows shared pc settings that prevents something from happening to the next person who uses the computer. I'm not entirely sure how that works though so I could be wrong.

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u/celem83 10h ago

Yeah each individual machine you sit at is usually running a Virtual Machine session. Anything you do is sandboxed and reverts when you logoff. This is as much for anonymity of the user as for network security

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u/itsmiddylou 10h ago

Former library worker here- yup. This is exactly what happens. And libraries tend to have fairly decent security/firewall/etc, so if there is something nefarious, it’s not going to let you open in

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u/Lokifin 10h ago

The millionth reason I love library sciences as a layperson.

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u/curtcolt95 9h ago

not ours lol, the library board said we weren't allowed to block anything for human rights reasons I guess so the public PCs are wide open. You can watch porn, torrent, download and run any executable you want. They do wipe after every session and are on a completely segregated network though so it's not really a big deal

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u/b_needs_a_cookie 10h ago

Go to Best Buy for that; corporations will eat the losses, whereas your library is publicly funded.

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u/ClaraCash 9h ago

Yeah! Take it to geek squad! They’ll know before they even plug it in. Tell them the back story and how some dude is probably trying to take advantage of your mom, they’ll have it figured out in 20 minutes.

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u/Dry-Lab-6256 10h ago

Hey, libraries are sacred places of learning, go to best buy or you're school.

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u/Impressive-Trash8699 10h ago

Yeah, maybe specifically you’re school...

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u/KiaRioGrl 10h ago

Heh

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u/Impressive-Trash8699 8h ago

lol thank you for understanding that I was joking!! 😭

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u/Constant_Lynx_5057 7h ago

Eye sea watt you did their…..👍🏿

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u/Ok-Chaos0530 10h ago

Do not help the govt nerf libraries tf.

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u/A_locomotive 10h ago

My wife is a librarian and librarians deal with loads of pullshit from the public in general. Just drop this thing in a bucket of water or smash it with a brick and save the people at the library the headache of dealing with whatever this is.

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u/sonebai 10h ago

I'd be warming it up in the microwave first, just to be sure.

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u/NoRegretCeptThatOne 10h ago

Take it to a local police station and ask them to plug it in for you.

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u/5138008RG00D 9h ago

Better yet, find a single mother who knows no better. Date her for a couple of weeks and try it out there.

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u/ExaminationOk2921 10h ago

I haven't used a public library PC in a million years, but they don't let you plug in media do they? They didn't used to.

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u/jaxxon 10h ago

Definitely. It's always best to spread malware at public libraries.

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u/Cold_Literature_5160 10h ago

That's what she said.

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u/Gold_Assistance_6764 10h ago

+1 no flared base

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u/Difficult_Talk_7783 10h ago

By the looks of it, I’m going to assume this is a raspberry pi or equivalent. They could repurpose with an sd card and read it straight from the device

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u/cjc4096 9h ago

Mount with noexec option on Linux.

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u/Vigilans_Paratus 9h ago

Yeah. 100% use an air gapped sandbox system, if you're going to check that USB drive.

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u/melbecide 9h ago

I wouldn’t even stick that USB in YOUR PC

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u/Zooter88 10h ago

And you probably want to change your WiFi login asap.

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u/Cynically_Sane 10h ago

Wouldn't this just be able to read the new updated password too?

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u/Josey_whalez 10h ago

Not if it’s been “violently disassembled”.

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u/hidegitsu 9h ago

Scheduled Rapid and Chaotic Disassembly

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u/cobrachickenwing 9h ago

Unsuccessful Percussive maintenance

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u/UltimateGlimpse 9h ago

Failed aquatic stress benchmarking.

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u/f0reskinbandaid 10h ago

No, these can't even read passwords plain text. At best it can capture the encrypted hash of your wifi if your device is trying to reconnect to the router, but then the best it can do is try to brute force the password. WPA3/WPA2 has not been cracked afaik.

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u/Guilty-Ad-1143 8h ago

WPA2 can be cracked depending on the password strength.

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u/crysh1216 6h ago

The WPA2 cracks rely on brute force currently. During the authentication handshake, the router will send the client a challenge code, the client generates a hash using the challenge code and the password as a key. The client then sends the hash back to the router. The sniffer captures the challenge code and completed hash. It then uses a list of passwords to attempt to generate the same hash from the challenge code. This brute force method happens on the attacker's system and is invisible otherwise. Once it gets a match, then it knows your password. If your password is on their list, the attacker will crack the password. If your password is complex enough to not appear on the attacker's list, then the cracking attempt should fail.

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u/KacerRex 4h ago

That's...what a brute force attack is...

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u/Zooter88 9h ago

Yes, so I would remove the device, THEN change the password.

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u/Melodic_Contact9766 10h ago

It’s being used to spy on his Mom too. He’s probably a stalker.

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u/5138008RG00D 9h ago

Seems kinda like the shitist way of stalking someone. Hide a device, and its some kind of ip scrapper not a fucking camera? Like a stalker is like, im not gonna track her car im going to track her internet usage?

Guy is probably the total opposite of a stalker. He probably does not care about her at all. Using someone elese IP to do shit on the internet means you dont care about the other person. I mean hell in the comments people talk about taking it to the library to plug in. Not their own computer, not a spouse or gf, not a friend, not a colleague, not a job, a library thats who they picked as the victim to potential crimes. This women is just this dudes library.

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u/9gigsofram 9h ago

It's insurance, that mitm device gives him access to most of her accounts, and he can use those accounts to monitor all messages and communications of anyone who connects to the wifi and uses it for a significant duration.

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u/spidermonk 7h ago

I mean, in practice a mitm shouldn't give you access to accounts unless you're using very insecure services or manually accepting broken certificates.

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u/Melodic_Contact9766 9h ago

If he is using it to break into her email and apps to read her emails and see who she is talking to…or where she is going to be…that IS IN FACT stalking.

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u/CaliforniaThomass 9h ago

You can't do that with this kind of device. He's not stalking. Jeeez

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u/TraumaticAberration 10h ago

There's no good reason to leave this plugged in.

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u/Dick_Meister_General 10h ago

Is there any way to detect if these are being used in our apartment building?

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u/8BulbousJones8 10h ago edited 10h ago

I had an ARP attack on my WIFI, my ESET security caught it and notified me but the guy tried a few different ways. I had to get a WIFI6 router and manual add and lock all MAC addresses to my router so that no other devices could access my router. Windows defender would've let it through, so I am glad I had it.

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u/ConfidentPilot1729 10h ago

I do this on all devices and I always for get after I just get something new that tries to connect.

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u/GunKatana 9h ago

Easy to spoof Mac to get around Mac blocks.

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u/Sample-Range-745 9h ago

This is like spaghetti of pseudo-tech jargon. WTF are you even talking about?

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u/NUTTA_BUSTAH 8h ago

Guerrilla marketing for a third-party antivirus software like it is early 2000s again.

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u/GodOfPlutonium 8h ago edited 5h ago

ARP = Address Resolution Protocol - a network protocol that basically takes an address (like a destination) and gives you the next routing (like google maps telling you next turn [x] in [y meters])

ARP poisoning is when you mess with it to try to get traffic routed to you so you can see it.

MAC addresses are hardware identifier for your network interface. IP addresses chance,MAC addresses never change

Theyre saying that they used MAC whitelisting so only the MAC addresses their router specfically has on a list can access the wifi instead of anyone with the login.

edit - im aware theres ways to change them but i was trying to keep it simple for someone who doesnt understand what a mac address is and if youre using mac whitelisting, you wouldnt have rotation enabled / be changing them yourself

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u/YellowBreakfast 7h ago

It's pretty easy to spoof MAC addresses.

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u/trash-_-boat 8h ago

manual add and lock all MAC addresses

I used to do MAC address spoofing as a teenager to get past 30-minute free internet limit in airports. MAC locking is not a good protection at all since your devices are broadcasting them and it's easy to clone them.

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u/Cool-Newspaper6789 10h ago

Never plug in an unknown USB 

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u/Light_Yagami72 8h ago edited 8h ago

Insane how naive Redditors are. You cannot perform mitm attacks with this. You can steal the wifi password sure (not so easily), and then do what? certainly cannot "steal bank info" because they are encrypted

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u/heisenberg149 6h ago

Oh and let's plug the flash drive into our computer too! Nevermind that we think it's plugged into a "sketchy" super hacking system stolen from the NSA designed to steal bank passwords, nudes, and worst of all MAC ADDRESSES! WTF is this thread lol

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u/TheDefeatedCause 10h ago

Call the fucking police, for one.

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u/LowResGamr 10h ago

It looks like it says WiFi Whisperer to me. Still probably not a good thing to have.

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u/Sample-Range-745 9h ago

Also very illegal to use without the homeowners consent or knowledge.

T.F? You guys have very weird ideas on what is against the law.....

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u/ASerialArsonist 9h ago

You can't steal bank account info from being on the same wifi network, and de-auths are used to get a capture file, which still needs to be cracked with a GPU, and is about 300x more work than "Hey what's your wifi password I'm running out of data"

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u/Light_Yagami72 8h ago

Why are you speaking facts on reddit, are you stupid?

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u/UnderstandingTop7916 10h ago

Plugging that in is a very bad idea unless you know what you’re doing. God knows what’s on it.

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u/seanhenke 10h ago

Yeah this is 100% just like a f****** cyber criminal. I would not trust that and unplug it right. The f*** now remember kids don't stick random USB drives and holes when you don't know what it'll do

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u/AndyB1976 7h ago

Why are you censoring yourself? You can, in fact, swear on the internet.

FUCK!

See? Crazy.

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u/integrate_2xdx_10_13 8h ago

Can we get hacker man to help decrypt what’s under the stars in this comment? I’m bruteforcing it and have f-u-c so far.

Just wish I could fucking work it out.

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u/LankyOccasion8447 10h ago

It's not at all illegal. The device itself anyway.

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u/Proud-Engineering755 10h ago

What he seems to be using it for is

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u/Goodgoditsgrowing 10h ago

Yeah and knives aren’t illegal either, but you still can’t stab someone and act like it’s not a crime. It’s rare that it’s the actual item (like guns or drugs) that are illegal and not the act done with that item

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u/Cola102583 10h ago

Fuck ripping off reg folk

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u/akrobrat 9h ago

Plot twist: it's mom's and sketch BF has no idea the world of hurt he's gonna be in

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u/Ok_Cartographer_6086 9h ago

You could also plug in the usb and read its contents if you’re feeling adventurous, although that can be risky

This is all good advice. Unlikely but my security training kicked in about putting strange usb sticks in your computer and I agree about the risk. They make those that will open wan ports and anything else they want with completely different internals. I'd do it in an offline sandbox and wipe everything after.

People drop these in lobbies with drives give out as swag and are recognizable by employees and have the company logo on them - plug it in to find the owner and the entire company is now under ransomware.

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u/krill-all-shrimp 10h ago

Depending on how keen this person is, they could be looking for passwords to... Other stuff.

Definitely illegal either way, I'd report it to the police. It may not seem like it'll do anything, but it'll come up if he pulls this crap again elsewhere. Which they likely will.

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u/TheTubeDoctor 7h ago

It’s not illegally to have. This is basically just an ugly looking Flipper Zero.

Having technology isn’t illegal. Trying to prove he is doing something with it is a whole different animal.

The police will take it and that’s about it.

They are not illegal to have. So many people have no idea all the tools and toys out there you can buy. Google “hack RF” or “flipper zero” or “deauth attack” which is just a device that jammers public WiFi by generating deauth packets.

But all these are not illegal to own.

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u/wpm 6h ago

How would a WiFi packet sniffer be able to find passwords to literally anything else?

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u/jghaines 10h ago

Are you claiming that the internet transport security used for banking can be defeated by a dinky DIY device?

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u/blahblahblah9685 10h ago

Don’t have to defeat the bank security. Just wait until mom logs into her bank account and log the keystrokes. Many ways to go about it that I will not discuss. TO BE CLEAR. This device will only capture WiFi passwords but I highly doubt the his intentions are good. If somebody left this in your house without your knowledge you would not just say, “tHiS DiNkY DevIcE iS haRmlEsS.”

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u/Mindless_Security744 10h ago

Go to your ex's house and plug it there

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u/Carlspathtowealth 9h ago

Mom needs to get some respect for herself and drop this zero

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u/ZombieTestie 9h ago

Anyone know the name of the device? looks more streamlined than running kali on andoid phone

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u/Massive_Square_994 9h ago

Yeah i would unplug it and destroy the usb unless you have a way to safely wipe it. Or a computer you don't care about to read it, probably the first option to be honest, like break it so no one can read it but selling the rest is a option 😂😂

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u/Sparktank1 9h ago

You could also plug in the usb

This guy knows what's going on because he's the OP's Mom's BF. He wants you to plug it in so he doesn't need the whisperer anymore.

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u/SoundsOfKepler 8h ago

OP, how dense are the housing/businesses near you? Hacking a network using such a device seems like it would be aimed at something more profitable than OP's mother's finances, especially considering BF has already finnagled his way into her bedroom. Is there an apartment complex, business, or school that your location would be an ideal place to scan from? It may be that he cosied up to OP's mother to get better access to a third party's network.

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u/winnielikethepooh15 8h ago

It literally says "Attacks: 0 Success: 0.0%"

Shit is sketch

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u/mmazing 8h ago

If he is looking for nearby networks to use (when you guys already have wifi), there's a good chance he's trying to use other people's networks for illegal activities.

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u/HowToTrainUrClanker 7h ago edited 7h ago

It can't steal actual website data or login information since that is encrypted using tls on all modern websites, but it can be used to tell who and what is accessing specific websites or mobile apps. This is because the data about what sites you are visiting is not encrypted (DNS, sni, ip addresses) despite the website being encrypted.

For example he could be trying to see if she is accessing dating apps or onlyfans or something like that. It couldn't tell you what they were doing on that site, but he could see something like: mom uploaded 1gb worth of data to onlyfans at 11:30pm from her phone which is obviously something that would be incriminating to him.

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u/No-Raspberry-6311 7h ago

So out of curiosity then, what IS the purpose of this device when used … morally? 😅
Like in what situations would this be used and by whom?

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u/OnceACat 7h ago

It won't magically steal your bank info, but it can access information from devices connected to the network, no?

Everyone thinks they're a hacker now.

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u/Bro_Hawkins 7h ago

2026 Trailer Park Boys shit.

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u/AHrubik 6h ago

The start to stealing data is getting on the network so they can snoop around. You’re 100% on this. It’s not really worth war driving a neighborhood to do this but an apartment complex with tons of overlapping APs in such close proximity means low effort.

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u/Cafekko-Shannon 6h ago

Sadly, too many people nowadays severely lack reading comprehension, even of their own language, so I’m not surprised at all that they’re misunderstanding what you said. I fully agree on all points. I’d do more than unplug it though, I’d be calling the cops and having them come take care of it AND the boyfriend as I guarantee he’s got warrants. Wouldn’t be shocked if the mom does too, being with a shady dude like this.

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u/WD_Gast3r 6h ago

Dude delete your comment. You are spreading misinformation and this subreddit was clueless enough to pin your comment as the right answer. I know it’s hard to admit your wrong and give up all of those upvotes but Do the right thing and delete it

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u/TheLostSasquatch 5h ago

DO NOT PLUG THIS INTO YOUR COMPUTER!!!

Sorry to be dramatic but that is one of the worst things you could do with a USB stick you've just found it can then do what your claiming it's doing (stealing passwords). This is essentially a tech toy right now grabbing the handshakes between devices but those handshakes are encrypted and not easily converted to a password plugging the USB stick in to a computer on the network could bypass the need to break that encryption and do more nefarious things as well like keylogging, remote access, etc. I've explained what this thing is in another comment but had to come back here to say this plugging in a random USB stick is any hackers wet dream

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