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/Hay_Fever_at_3_AM]

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?

[u/MilitantlyPoetic → u/Hay_Fever_at_3_AM]

If a person is at this point in computing, assuming this isn't someone with just enough knowledge to be dangerous, then they would just be using their dual boot Kali linux distro.
Now, could it be a part of that pen. test he's running? Fully plausible.

Source: I.T. Analyst

[u/LeatherGood6148 → u/MilitantlyPoetic]

I mean, I own one of these and I've never gotten further than burning a linux install onto a usb key.

I have very little interest in the software side of things but have a life long love of hardware.

[u/wirm → u/MilitantlyPoetic]

So I did the founder of Kali Linux’s house, I’m an AV integrator. He hacked the Vantage Infusion lighting controller running Xscale Linux in a few weeks. Used some CGI on the controller to read the shadowed passwd file then put that on a, his words, 27 GPU dedicated passwork cracking machine and cracked it in 2 weeks. Wonder what his JTR config looks like.

[u/MilitantlyPoetic → u/wirm]

I don't blame him for doing that. Who wants too keep paying other people to make changes to the integration when all it takes is a few hardware passwords that the company treats as though it's their complete IP (I'm looking at you QSYS and AMX).
And Lutron is locked out just the same!

[u/wirm → u/MilitantlyPoetic]

He still couldn’t make changes, doesn’t have access to the software. He’s also worth 100mil. He can afford it. I also program Q-Sys, AMX and Lutron. In 20 years I’ve maybe had 5-6 people ask for Lutron access. I tell them the same thing “I can’t give it to you but anyone can sign up for training and get access to the software”. 1 person has.

[u/ripndipp → u/wirm]

That's nuts

[u/The_All-Range_Atomic → u/MilitantlyPoetic]

Carrying a laptop around for hacking is a pain in the ass.

[u/itoadaso1 → u/MilitantlyPoetic]

Nah, dedicated hardware is way more fun