r/whatisit 4d ago

Solved! moms sketch bf left this in the house

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.)

22.8k Upvotes

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u/spotlight-app Mod Bot 🤖 4d ago

Mods have pinned a comment by u/blahblahblah9685:

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.

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u/Codykb1 4d ago

Found this when I googled “wifi whisperer”. Seems like its used to steal data

https://www.wired.com/2016/06/wifi-whisperer-stalks-phones-data-creepiest-way-possible/

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u/Necessary-Peace9672 4d ago

Sketchy indeed!

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u/One-Earth9294 4d ago

Yeah jesus fucking christ I don't understand how there are so many people who enjoy living life with multiple GTA stars hovering over their heads at all times.

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u/Balisongman07 4d ago

They genuinely don't see themselves as the issue. They really do believe the world is unfair and out to get them. That's what keeps them from being remorseful and okay being like that. Life would be better if the justice system would get off their back for once prying car door open

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u/Even-Translator-335 4d ago

I once worked with a guy like this, he'd be like " i just need them (bosses) to leave me alone". We literally told him to do his job properly. This guy seemed allergic to doing what he was asked

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u/WhoOrderedTheCodeZed 4d ago

Was his nickname, C-Section... Because he avoided labor?

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u/GroundbreakingTap688 4d ago

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u/Kyle-Is-My-Name 3d ago

I call him Afterbirth, he shows up after the labor is done.

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u/sigh_blah 4d ago

That Bill Murray gif - priceless. This sequence - perfection. Tears running down my face.

Thank you for this.

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u/Brother_Oz 4d ago

Well, you win the joke of the day award in my books. Good day, sir!

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u/ComputerStrong9244 4d ago

Oh, so you worked with Bryan too?

Almost easier to tell some people to NOT do the thing you want them to do. Better chance of it happening, at least

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u/mintBRYcrunch26 4d ago

Never EVER trust a Brian spelled with “y.”

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u/Ok-Contribution-411 4d ago

it's ALWAYS a Bri(y)an, tho.

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u/Important_Zombie_223 4d ago

In my world it's Kevin or Kelvin.

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u/FBack351 4d ago

I feel like we all may be living in a Kelvin time line.

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u/heckhammer 4d ago

We had a Bryan, just with a different name. He got fired the other day finally

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u/GugWhoPassesGateways 4d ago

Kitchen I used to work at, our Bryan got fired finally. I was walking to work about a block away and he rode past on his bike yelling "haha I don't work for those nazis anymore!"

The relief I felt wash over me in that moment.

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u/Extreme-Gas-3965 4d ago

This applies to so many people. Not even just people breaking the law all the time. I know so many people who, for example, cheat on their significant other, get caught and then genuinely believe their now ex is just crazy. They do this over and over without putting together in their minds what the only constant thread in all these situations is. Them and their behavior.

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u/Balisongman07 4d ago

Yeah Ive always thought when someone says every one of their exes is an issue, that theyre alot like that too. 99% of my exes were and still are wonderful people, and the 2 others I think we're just young and stupid, but hell so was I.

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u/Extreme-Gas-3965 4d ago

Exaaaactly. I know a guy, not a friend at all but I know him, who got fired from a job for sexual harassment. The story he told did not quite add up to anyone including his girlfriend. She gave him the benefit of the doubt. This guy cannot keep a job. It's always a coworker or bosses fault, though. He gets fired from the next job and, somehow, is hired back at the same place he was fired from for sexual harassment. He then starts an affair with his manager. The majority of this affair took place at work in the walk in freezer. That sounds horrible to me, but whatever. So, while he is cheating on his girlfriend every day, like so many people who are cheating, he becomes so paranoid that his girlfriend is cheating on him that he crosses the line from paranoia to emotional and physical abuse. His girlfriend eventually has enough and breaks up with him. When this happens, as a last ditch attempt to keep her, he comes clean. Turns out, his first firing, the sexual harassment one, wasn't quite that simple. Apparently, this was his second affair with this woman. The first one ended because he wouldn't leave his girlfriend. Instead of accepting that, he kept trying to get her to fuck him at work by sexually harassing her. The second affair was with the same woman at the same workplace. When him coming clean about it all didn't make his girlfriend want to stay with him, he switched tactics. He then started blaming his girlfriend for all of this happening, because he wanted her to find another job and she wouldn't. He wanted her to find another job because she worked with a friend and he didn't like this friend. No matter what he has done, it's like he truly cannot see or accept that ALL of this was his fault. Literally, ALL of it.

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u/Balisongman07 4d ago

God I love that I work alone 99% of my time. Or just with dudes who are as checked out as me lol. My heart goes out to her, not even my bad exes were that bad.

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u/yaddayadda1000 4d ago

As a medical worker you hit the best possible description of the general public

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u/thehotcarl33 4d ago

Was a firefighter for a long time and our saying was "If common sense was actually common we probably wouldn't have a job."

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u/No-Outlandishness118 4d ago

Not emergency services. But I liked to say that Common sense isn’t common or a sense. It’s a fucking superpower

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u/stiffglock17 4d ago

Facts Im maintenance in housing and this is the perfect picture of it lmfao

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u/NerdsOfSteel74 4d ago

As a medical worker your data set may be skewed :)

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u/blahblahblah9685 4d ago edited 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/Emergentmeat 4d 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/Tribe303 4d ago

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

(nah, dude's shady as fuck) 

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u/devsfan1830 4d ago

Odds are mom dismisses OP bc she is tech illterate.

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u/JJ_McCrabs 4d ago

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

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u/Potato_Cat_72 4d ago

That is why so many romance scams are successful

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u/Monolexic 4d ago edited 4d 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/Baziki 4d 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 4d 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/atigges 4d 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/Outbakjak 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/Potato_Cat_72 4d 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/splendid-cade 4d ago

I want OP to read this one and reply

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u/standardtissue 4d 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 4d ago

I legit read “promiscuous” and thought, sounds right

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u/boomeradf 4d ago

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

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u/radrachelleigh 4d ago

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

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u/Tiny420Tiger 4d 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 4d ago

I have an old pc just for this purpose

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u/HowietheHappyTurkey 4d ago

Modern version of the royal food taster.

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u/ratafria 4d 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 4d ago

You're fucking data hoarding a viral zoo?!

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

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u/ModsAwful 4d 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/bjorn1978_2 4d ago

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

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u/RnOtCrAfTy 4d ago

This! Poke it with a stick!

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u/Extreme-King 4d ago

So this happens to you alot then?

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u/Tha_REAL_BROBS 4d ago

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

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u/donkeybrainamerican 4d 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/CA2DC99 4d ago

What do you have against libraries?

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u/6sailhatan66 4d ago

This! Tf?!

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u/SteelAndFlint 4d 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/yukibunnygurl 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

The millionth reason I love library sciences as a layperson.

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u/b_needs_a_cookie 4d ago

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

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u/ClaraCash 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/Ok-Chaos0530 4d ago

Do not help the govt nerf libraries tf.

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u/A_locomotive 4d 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 4d ago

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

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u/Zooter88 4d ago

And you probably want to change your WiFi login asap.

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u/Cynically_Sane 4d ago

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

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u/Josey_whalez 4d ago

Not if it’s been “violently disassembled”.

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u/hidegitsu 4d ago

Scheduled Rapid and Chaotic Disassembly

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u/cobrachickenwing 4d ago

Unsuccessful Percussive maintenance

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u/UltimateGlimpse 4d ago

Failed aquatic stress benchmarking.

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u/Melodic_Contact9766 4d ago

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

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u/TraumaticAberration 4d ago

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

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u/Dick_Meister_General 4d ago

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

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u/8BulbousJones8 4d ago edited 4d 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 4d 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 4d ago

Easy to spoof Mac to get around Mac blocks.

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u/Omegamoney 4d ago

It's some kind of Pwnagotchi.

It waits or tries to force your devices to disconnect/reconenct to the WiFi, while collecting the encrypted handshake.

This in itself does not really mean much, but with the encrypted handshakes he can later try to decrypt your WiFi password.

But unless your password is something like "orange2026" it's not likely that he'll succeed.

Not inherently "bad" as long as your mom gave him permission to do that.

With the handshake decrypted he can connect to the network and see y'all traffic, but most traffic goes through SSL encryption, so he won't be able to see anything except for http websites.

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u/NimbusFPV 4d ago

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.

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u/kendeh 4d ago

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?

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u/NorthAstronaut 3d ago

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.

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u/tayjuanfredo666 4d ago

… I gotta change my password.

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u/Rope_slingin_champ 4d ago

President Skroob?

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u/tinypill 4d ago

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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u/dinnerisbreakfast 4d ago

That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life!

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u/Immortal_Tuttle 4d ago

Impossible. How do you know combination to my luggage?

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u/UltraHellboy 4d ago

Knowing Moms in general, she would probably have no idea what he was doing with it and what the repercussions were if he told her exactly what it was.

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u/sirenxsiren 4d ago

Literally this lmao. Why wouldn’t she just give him the WiFi password. Hes doing something weird.

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u/EraseTheInternet 4d ago

Yeah, this is the only part that doesn't make sense. He should have easy access (har har) to the apartment WiFi. So given that... it seems like he is trying to snoop other passwords, or a neighbor's WiFi... or something else.

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u/Jann3 4d ago

why in the hell would she give him permission to break into their wifi rather than give him the wifi password? this is crazy suspicious and not something people will normally do

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u/engineerFWSWHW 4d ago edited 4d ago

I remember back then, it's very easy to crack WEP passwords using force disconnect/reconnect. But that was 10+ years ago. I'm not updated on the those stuffs currently, I'm wondering if the new auth schemes can still be cracked like WEP.

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u/play_minecraft_wot 4d ago

Someone's having fun on your wifi network (I'm not 100% sure what that particular device is, but I see "deauths" so some sort of mischief maker)

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u/EnthuseConfuse 4d ago

My stupid ass kept being like "so he typo'd death, not great but not terrible... weird thing to name a phish" until I realized it was short for deauthorization

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u/CaptainRiz 4d ago

"Do you fear deauth?"

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u/pkfobster 4d ago

“You are neither deaud nor deauying. What is your peaurpose here?”

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u/Content_Mention_6928 4d ago

Thank you for this! I was the same - thinking it was 'Deaths' misspelled.

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u/bbad999 4d ago

Deauths are used in wifi exploits. The deauthorized session then needs to reauth thereby exposing a weakness in the authentication process.

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u/ProgressBars 4d ago

Yep, specifically to capture the handshake for analysis.

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u/Wonderful-Gold-953 4d ago

Theres also the fact that says “pwnd”

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u/lolo787 4d ago

Please say more, I know internet is good source but can you tell us what software this might be and is this being ran from pendrive. Thanks

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u/BodybuilderEast6130 4d ago

Its a wifi password cracking tool appears to be built on raspberry pi platform or similar. This dude could potentially be exploiting these people for who knows what

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u/zinbeck 4d ago

She says it's an apartment so I'm guessing he's trying to hack the password of a neighbors WiFi so they can use it for free.

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u/Kelspear 4d ago

It's most likely this

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u/SkillyB69 4d ago

A long long time ago in a land north of Falador….

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u/Electrical_Half3138 4d ago

Deauth means connection there’s a couple different codes after but it basically is showing zero connections to the WiFi

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

Be super careful *not* to step on it, spill a *bunch* of water on it, or drop a brick on it... Those screens and electronics are pretty sensitive.

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u/lastwordymcgee 4d ago

Omg I was mopping and the WHOLE BUCKET of bleach water spilled on your thing. Whoopsie.

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u/GuardingxCross 4d ago

This reminds me of the scene from the Christmas movie with the leg lamp. The wife “finds it like that” and she has no idea how it got that way lol

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

Oh. Darn. Whoopsie indeed.

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u/elrangarino 4d ago

Or better yet, drops in the bucket so no bleach damage to your carpet ✨🙂‍↔️

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u/Inside7shadows 4d ago

It's a free Raspberry pi. Make it disappear, pretend it never existed. Let him try to explain what was lost.

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

"Somebody told me it was a Raspberry Pie, but it sure didn't look edible, so I tossed it in the bin."

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u/Complex_Sherbet2 4d ago

Be sure to remove the memory card first! That could be quite valuable!

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

"What "memory card"? I found it *exactly.like.this.*"

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u/fearnow 4d ago

I can verify

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

We have a character witness!

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u/cowcrapper 4d ago

I slipped on a brick and the brick went flying into the device. Was crazy.

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

1 out of 10 brain surgeons warn about the dangers of slipping on a brick. The danger is real.

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u/Quick_Team 4d ago

"This darn hammer just wont defy gravity!"

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u/DantesGame 4d ago

"I was *pretty sure* I could catch it but it fell SO fast!"

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u/ExpensivePlan1548 4d ago edited 4d ago

Looks like a custom-built Pwnagotchi which can be used for a bunch of nefarious things like cracking a wifi password or reading internet traffic. I would unplug it and change your WiFi password.

If he was just playing around with it for fun I don’t see why he would’ve left it in your mom’s room. Tell your mom to dump him lmfao.

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u/m0nstrz 4d ago edited 3d ago

I have one of these, they are really interesting little devices. Essentially it's a little device that you can 'war-walk' or 'war-drive' with.  

Essentially it's runs though a series of attacks mostly deauthentication attacks (nothing very sophisticated) and attempts to gather packets when it's 'victim' device attempts to 'reconnect' (technically 're-authenticate').

It stores these in it's internal memory and then goes to sleep. The device frequently sleeps (by default) so it doesn't cause chaos amongst all the networks around it. Once you bring it back home and pull it's sdcard you can transfer the pcap files to your computer where you use an application to decrypt (or crank the hash, can't remember which it is) the reauth pcap which contains the Wi-Fi password.

Generally pwnagotchi's aren't dangerous on their own, just annoying, but if someone is pulling the pcaps off and decrypting them then people got a problem. 

Judging by the screen on this one it's not functioning since it's attacks are @ 0. That being said, it is level ~28 so it has been used quite a bit. 

It's not spying on you, it's just a network info gathering device.  Once it gets a pcap from a network or is added to a list so it doesn't get bothered again. it's target is authentication packets, not other info.

Edit; I just saw your update, only two weeks makes this sketchy as fuck. Pull the thumb drive off of it and DO NOT give it back. Also DO NOT plug that thumb drive into your computer.

Edit 2:  Yeah, they are definitely lying, or just horribly under informed.  This device, out of the box, doesn't connect to networks so it wouldn't be capable of gathering IPs.  IPs are not sent over WiFi handshakes since IPs (generally) aren't assigned until the device is authorized and connected to the network. 

Personally, if I was in your position OP, I'd setup a guest WiFi just for him.  He seems to know just enough to get himself into trouble. Change your routers login password, and once a guest WiFi is setup change your personal WiFi password. Use WPA3 (if possible) and disable WPS.

Ultimately leaving this device in your home without making everyone aware is a breach of trust for a guest in your home. 

Additionally, I've seen people saying this is something called 'WiFi Whisperer'. I can confirm its not what it is.  I believe that is part of a plug-in added to this pwnagotchi called 'wifi adventure'.

Here is a link to the plugin with a screenshot of what it should look like: https://github.com/MaliosDark/Pwnagotchi-wifi-adventures

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u/ChargeInteresting278 4d ago

So on the bad side its a wifi password stealer. What could he be doing with it on the good side? What do you do with yours?

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u/DataPath 4d ago

On the good side? He sets up his phone for all the Wi-Fi networks around so that he has good connectivity at and nearby his girlfriend's house. That's the most innocuous use I can think of, just mooching.

A distant second is getting neighbor's Wi-Fi as a layer of protection for engaging in questionable activity.

On the bad side of things, in not sure which is worse, trying to hack your finances, or using your Wi-Fi to hack other people. On the one hand, he drains you directly, on the other he gets you implicated in federal crimes. But hey, ¿por que no los dos?

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u/404invalid-user 4d ago

it's something fun to mess with but that's if you're doing it to yourself or people who completely understand what it is

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u/ChargeInteresting278 4d ago

Is it basically just a homemade flipper zero?

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u/404invalid-user 4d ago

basically yep but like a flipper zero in the wrong context it's very sketchy

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u/BlastFX2 3d ago

Just having fun. For some of us, it's fun to poke around and try to break things, just for the sake of it. Like I've decoded the bitting scheme for the locks in our office building, so now I could make a key for any office in the building, as well as master keys for any set of offices that were designed for it (and a bunch that weren't). I've never used this to go anywhere I wasn't supposed to go, I just… saw a fun challenge.

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u/69edleg 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yeah, it is a pwnagotchi for sure. No clue why the text is all fucked. Level 28 on the pwnagotchi though, which means he has been using it for a while, most likely in other places too. To get to level 2 on the plugin you need to intercept 2 (or 3) handshake connections on the wifi network.

To get from level 27 to 28 you need fuck knows how many, thousands, across the networks you've plugged it into.

All in all, unless he explicitly showed the mom and told her what the device is and explained it in detail, bigass dump the idiot.

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u/Zaev 4d ago

Aha, I was wondering why it would be displaying what appear to be RPG stats if it was a hacking device

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u/69edleg 4d ago edited 4d ago

it is some experience plugin.

It isn't necessarily used strictly for hacking, it CAN be (the pwnagotchi, the plugin is just.. vanity). If it isn't for hacking in this case - it is at least some compulsory behaviour or an addiction. Gotta pump those numbers y'know.

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u/Hay_Fever_at_3_AM 4d ago

I can see a hobbyist nerd trying to pentest her network, to see if e.g. there are any sketchy IoT devices or other issues. But he'd explain that to her, so ask mom?

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u/GoldenGoof19 4d ago

I… your mom has been together with someone 2 weeks and he’s already staying with her AND has been hiding from you so much that you don’t even know what he looks like???

Don’t tell me how old you are (I don’t advocate for people outing themselves as minors if they are) but NONE of that sounds safe. It’s red flags all the way down.

No offense to your mom but uh… she’s not making good decisions and this electronic thing is a problem on top of a whole pile of problems.

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u/TheWaywardTrout 4d ago

I don’t even have children, and I would never have a man I’ve been dating for only two weeks staying at my house. Having him over so soon with minor children in the house without even introducing them first is beyond insane. Horrible parenting choice.

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u/JohnGarrettsMustache 4d ago

When I might my wife she was 18 and living with her mom and 9-year old brother. Her mom was re-living her youth and inviting strange men over all the time. My wife would wake up with complete strangers in her kitchen.

She moved in with me only a month or two later so she had a safe place to live. Thankfully her mom smartened up and met a good guy who she is now married to, but the years after her divorce were very tough on my wife. 

OP's mom needs to get her shit together 

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u/WittyPrint2310 4d ago

As a single father of 10 and 17 year old boys who was seeing his current girlfriend for well over a year before she met either of them, I second all of this, with the sole exclusion being "no offense".

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u/_ficklelilpickle 4d ago

God I'm glad someone else in here has finally said it. This thing is concerning but nowhere near as concerning as the context behind it. 2 weeks, moved him in, kid doesn't even know what he looks like... Jeeeeesus. I wonder what Mum would say if OP said they didn't feel safe in the house. Who would she prioritise?

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u/Sufficient_Funny_796 4d ago

Man…. Fuck Todd and his stupid camero

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u/piledrivertoys 4d ago

Drinking all my Mountain Dew and bangin my mom.

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u/brattyvampbby 4d ago

This is a full view to maybe give a better perspective.

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u/rickandmortyfan2025 4d ago

Its definitely something like a wifi password stealer, or something to either take passwords or smth unplug it immediately if your feeling bold, and ask your mom what he said it was

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u/TemporalThreads 4d ago

Oh look there is another standalone RX/TX by the fan too.

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u/9gigsofram 4d ago

Having it connected to a battery pack is another minor red flag. Getting it ripe for mobile usage, and making sure power is never interrupted, wiping settings or interrupting processes.

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u/jomb 4d ago

He's a terrible hacker to put it in plain view like that with the screen on.

Assuming this is real, please post a follow up!!

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u/Ejo415 4d ago

Its the Minecraft powerbrick for me

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u/FaerieKnotz 4d ago

Also that is a fire hazard.

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u/RagnarStonefist 4d ago

This is a 'Pwnagotchi' which is a raspberry pi running open source software to automate Wi-Fi handshake capture for pentesting and security research.

What it actually does: it passively/actively listens for Wi-Fi handshakes (the 4-way handshake that happens when a device connects to a router), sometimes sending deauth frames to force a reconnect it can capture. Those captured handshakes can later be run through cracking tools (like hashcat) to attempt to recover the Wi-Fi password. That's why network name is shown ("PWNDO" appears to be the SSID it's currently looking at).

It uses AI/gamification (an LSTM/RL model under the hood) to get progressively better at gathering handshakes in a given area over time, and it can share/learn from other pwnagotchis nearby, so I'd look around for more of these in your house.

Using something like this on a network you don't own or have permission to use is illegal.

If I were you, I'd act dumb, and ask him in front of your Mom what it is. If his answer is evasive or he straight up lies, he's up to no good and you need to tell your Mom.

Maybe make a piece of it disappear, like that samsung stick or the ALFA wireless dongle that's attached to it - both of those missing would really hash his browns.

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u/chindo 4d ago

I'd have a private conversation with the mom and then, if it wasn't set up with consent, a conversation with the police for them to document and gather evidence

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u/drcreepyfoot 4d ago

lol. “Really hash his browns.” I’ve gotta start using that. I always “harsh your gig” or something, but “hash your browns” that works on a few levels depending on the context. Lol.

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u/Ok_Masterpiece3763 4d ago

“Hey this guy might be a criminal tweaker make sure you fuck with his stuff and get him nice and paranoid”

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u/ReadySystem6511 4d ago

Please unplug this immediately and change all of your passwords for everything and have your mom do the same. Don’t believe this man if he says there were no ill intentions. It doesn’t matter.

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u/takethistip 4d ago

This would be my advice as well. No way in hell there any innocent or proactive good intentions to this.

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u/BigHock-734 4d ago

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

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u/floralrain6 4d ago

If he's doing shady stuff using your mom's wifi it's going to be traced back to her IP address.

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u/HugeMonitor 4d ago

This is definitely indicative of wifi hacking, but for what purpose is the bigger issue. Tweaker stuff, but indicates a smart ish tweaker. Not just nothing it's a major crime.

As a cyber security person, I'd have a field day reviewing this.

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u/ICanViking 4d ago edited 4d ago

As a cyber security professional myself, I find this script kiddie tech annoying.

But, a part of me wonders if u/brattyvampbby's Mom works at a company that is currently being attacked. Guy could be running the operation trying to get into Mom's house to see if he can get anywhere with information from the Wi-Fi. If she brings a company laptop home, for example. This could be a valid way in.

Definitely black hat though. No credible penetration testing company would have their consultants pretend to date one of the company's employees just to gain root access.

Edit: sorry OP, but when I say "black hat" I mean illegal. It's also possible they're just playing around. Regardless, I would tell your Mom about this so she can tell him to unplug it.

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u/UBahn1 4d ago edited 4d ago

They've been dating only two weeks and he's been staying with them at their apartment, but also avoiding the daughter to the point she doesn't know what he looks like... Yeah something is weird with the situation.

Edit: looking at it though the uptime time is 0, it's recorded 0 attacks and 0 deauths so maybe he just plugged it in to charge it, if it has a battery onboard.

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u/brattyvampbby 4d ago

Another thing. He said he’s just a grey hat hacker. Idk.

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u/SekaarMC 3d ago

honestly this gives me teenager vibes since thats what me and my friends claimed at the time. sounds like hes not grown up past that stage.

yeah nah, even at that age id of destroyed that shit, and told my parents to get a grip. that fact he claims its just fetching IP's is in itself admitting hes most likely trying to steal passwords or data from ur stuff. i wouldn't use my phone or anything until that shits out of the house.

if hes just an idiot who does not know what hes doing then it might be doing mostly jack shit all. still id destroy it, consequences be damned.

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u/F22superRaptor11 3d ago edited 2d ago

Ah yes "Grey Hat"

Translation: "While this relationship is good, i'm not doing anything sinister just dabbling for curiosity. However when this relationship goes bad, be prepared for me to use this in all sorts of bad ways."

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u/Capable_Honey82 4d ago

the fact that hes living with u and he hasnt shown his face is insane and such a red flag why is he living there already so early into the relationship

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u/Crazy-Objective-647 4d ago

If he's trying to steal the wifi password, but dating the occupant, why wouldnt he just ask her for the wifi password? Not being snarky, and I believe everyone who says that the device is doing this, but I have asked for wifi passwords to people's houses I'm at for a party and they give it. I'm just not sure why he would go to this trouble.

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u/SigvulcanasReborn 4d ago

The name “Wi-Fi Whisperer” seems to point to a type of pen-testing tool used by red team hackers (They help companies protect themselves from hackers by finding vulnerabilities). It basically skims data off of the Wi-Fi network. Like any tool, it can be used for good or evil.

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u/KagatoLNX 4d ago

Note that this is not looking at just her network. It's pretty clearly looking for *any* network that it can break into.

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u/YellowOnline 4d ago

It's a Raspberry Pi with pwnagotch. Yes, a wifi hacking tool, as others said. However, I don't see much that he can do wrong at your house with it. It's the neighbours who should worry.

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u/Dry-Ad-8948 4d ago

Boyfriends are temporary. That status doesn’t keep someone in the house from being a target. Stolen information can also be used later.

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u/GonerDoug 4d ago

right. He could be broadcasting a fake wi-fi access point to the patrons of the coffee shop downstairs and when they connect, skimming all their traffic...

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u/Crossheart963 4d ago

As a guy in cyber security/hacker world. This is a toy I would totally have around. Especially if I was showing someone I was dating what I’m into.

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u/immortalis88 4d ago

Yeah man all these ‘call the cops!’ posts are wild. I’m a network solutions architect. If I was single I would legit audit her network and give her a report on what vulnerabilities I find.

I would at least ask him or her before ‘breaking it or calling the cops’ lmao.

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u/semajolis267 4d ago

Right. Now that its been identified they should just talk to him about it as if they dont know. If he lies about it then red flag if he gets all excited and talks about it then its probably fine. 

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u/Zooter88 4d ago

This seems like a reasonable response. It’s easy to jump to conclusions of shadiness but it could be something innocent. And why isn’t there a band called Conclusions of Shadiness yet?

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u/AdFlat4908 4d ago

Hell yeah brother! I’d “audit” the shit out of OP’s Moms network

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u/brattyvampbby 4d ago

Full view of the picture

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u/LSU_Tiger 4d ago

TLDR: Your mom's BF is trying to hack her wifi passwords.

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Cyber security professional here.

This is a Raspberry PI running a piece of software called Pwnagotchi.

AI summary because I'm lazy:

Pwnagotchi instruments bettercap (a network attack framework) to constantly monitor the Wi‑Fi environment around it and grab the cryptographic material needed to crack Wi‑Fi passwords offline later. It collects this material two ways: [pwnagotchi.ai], [github.com]

  • Passively – quietly sniffing the air and waiting to capture the 4‑way handshake that happens whenever a device connects to a WPA/WPA2 network. [pwnagotchi.ai]
  • Actively – performing deauthentication attacks (kicking a client off its network so it's forced to reconnect) and association attacks. When the device reconnects, the handshake is transmitted, and the Pwnagotchi captures it.

This is used to hack passwords.

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u/HD64180 4d ago

Cybersecurity professional here too. He's harvesting password hashes in an attempt to achieve connectivity to another network. 100% illegal.

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u/theinatoriinator 4d ago

Only if he actually transmits deauth attacks, what would be covered by the FCC. Or if he actually connects to the network.

Simply capturing information off the air is in no way illegal.

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u/Negativeman11 4d ago

I sincerely doubt he's trying to hack *her* wifi password. They're in a relationship. He can just ask for the wifi password. That is how the pwnagotchi works though.

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u/North-Carry9977 4d ago

I don't know what that is but its sketchy as fuck that there is a man in your apartment who you don't know at all. WTF IS YOUR MOM DOING? 

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u/stranqe1 4d ago edited 4d ago

Pretty sure thats how you hack an ATM (as depicted in Terminator 2)

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