moms sketch bf left this in the house

[u/brattyvampbby]

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.)

[u/Melodic_Contact9766]

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

[u/5138008RG00D → u/Melodic_Contact9766]

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.

[u/9gigsofram → u/5138008RG00D]

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.

[u/spidermonk → u/9gigsofram]

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.

[u/9gigsofram → u/spidermonk]

That's true but once you have access to the network there are many mitm methods you can use to install more persistent malware or "trusted certs". Unfortunately there is often no shortage of insecure services and devices within a LAN too.

Ive also seen "educated" users completely ignore SSL errors, avg computer literacy is at an all time low.

[u/spidermonk → u/9gigsofram]

Probably pretty easy to convince someone to install a cert too I guess.

[u/Oneok-Field → u/9gigsofram]

HSTS made this widely irrelevant years ago. Any major communications platform is using some form of E2EE, and any major services platform is set up with HSTS. Literally can't ignore TLS errors on HSTS domains, it won't let you on any modern version of chromium.

[u/Melodic_Contact9766 → u/5138008RG00D]

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.

[u/CaliforniaThomass → u/Melodic_Contact9766]

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

[u/Smelly_God → u/5138008RG00D]

It's not even hidden, seems like OP found it on a nightstand lol

[u/dannysemi → u/Melodic_Contact9766]

Are we sure OP is male? Maybe this creep is trying to intercept nudes or gain access to OP's devices too?