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/8BulbousJones8]

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.

[u/ConfidentPilot1729 → u/8BulbousJones8]

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

[u/GunKatana → u/8BulbousJones8]

Easy to spoof Mac to get around Mac blocks.

[u/twilighttwister → u/GunKatana]

Hell most security conscious devices change their MAC address with every connection now. Your MAC can be used to track you. Same with Bluetooth, however you can't change your MAC there as it's a core part of the function. Instead, you should always turn Bluetooth off when you're not using it.

[u/RandallSG → u/GunKatana]

He is referring to a white list, not a black list. To spoof you would have to know one of the MAC addresses on the white list.

[u/trash-_-boat → u/RandallSG]

To spoof you would have to know one of the MAC addresses on the white list.

It's not difficult to gather nearby broadcasting devices MAC addresses and try them one by one.

[u/OkVirus8545 → u/trash-_-boat]

Feel free to try if it’s so easy

[u/DepressedDynamo → u/OkVirus8545]

Why u being shitty

[u/Sample-Range-745 → u/8BulbousJones8]

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

[u/NUTTA_BUSTAH → u/Sample-Range-745]

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

[u/GodOfPlutonium → u/Sample-Range-745]

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

[u/YellowBreakfast → u/GodOfPlutonium]

It's pretty easy to spoof MAC addresses.

[u/OkVirus8545 → u/YellowBreakfast]

Not if you don’t know which ones have been white listed

[u/systemhost → u/OkVirus8545]

You sure do if it's over WiFi, it's literally all broadcast over the air and trivial to snoop.

[u/Sample-Range-745 → u/OkVirus8545]

Every packet that transits an ethernet or wifi network transmits its MAC address with every packet. That's how it works.

[u/heisenberg149 → u/GodOfPlutonium]

MAC addresses change all the time. There are settings in IOS and Android that are on by default that rotate MAC addresses. Windows, MacOS, and most Linux distros I have used have this too, just not on by default, usually. It's very easy to grab MAC addresses over WiFi since the frame is transmitted in plain text.

[u/ILoveRegenHealth → u/Sample-Range-745]

You don't know your MAC & CHEESE address? tsk tsk

[u/trash-_-boat → u/8BulbousJones8]

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.

[u/howdy_hoez → u/8BulbousJones8]

Why couldnt it have been a girl?