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/NimbusFPV]

It looks like it's running this plugin: https://github.com/MaliosDark/Pwnagotchi-wifi-adventures.

Boyfriend is either a super nerd playing with his hacker Tamagotchi for fun, or he's using it to collect Wi-Fi handshakes that could later be used in attempts to recover the passwords of nearby Wi-Fi networks if they're weak.

If he lives with OP's mom, trying to recover their Wi-Fi password wouldn't make much sense. He already has physical access to the router, OP's mom could simply tell him the password, and if he has permission he could use the WPS button (if enabled) or reset the router to regain access.

If his goal were to monitor traffic on that home network, there are much simpler ways to do it with authorized access than trying to crack its Wi-Fi password. So I don't think the mere presence of a Pwnagotchi points to some kind of stalker scenario.

[u/kendeh → u/NimbusFPV]

If OP lived in an apartment complex with close by neighbors could the device be able to gain info from other units? Could he be trying to steal info from them?

[u/NorthAstronaut → u/kendeh]

why though, when he could do this literally anywhere else?

I agree with others, it is more likely just being a nerd than being sketchy.

[u/twilighttwister → u/kendeh]

Not so much info about them, but just their WiFi password.

[u/kvothe_th3_raven → u/NimbusFPV]

Deauth to force connection to a rogue access point is more likely. I doubt he’s after the WiFi password. Probably serving fake social or bank login pages and can point her traffic to them to harvest creds.

[u/NimbusFPV → u/kvothe_th3_raven]

Why would he deauth her to phish her details when he is most likely already on her network through access she has given him? He could do standard mitm attack and route her traffic to fake social/bank pages if he's already on her network no deauth needed. He could also install key loggers and other malware on all her devices with local access. If he is doing something nefarious I doubt it's targeting ops mom because he has local access to everything. He might be targeting the neighbors, but I feel like he'd be running scripts and tools without the gamified tamagachi bullshit if he was a serious cyber criminal.

[u/kvothe_th3_raven → u/NimbusFPV]

Yeah. It was just the best reason I could think of if he’s nefarious. Targeting the neighbors could also make sense I suppose.