Review of WifiRobin Auto-Hacking Wifi Router

I recently purchased a Wifirobin auto-wifi-hacking router from China, so I thought I’d share my thoughts about it in case any of you are interested in one also. You can purchase online via wifirobin.com for about $120 US.

Note: Antcor also produce an identical router with model number AW54-SC, available cheaper than the WifiRobin brand model from dropshipping sites such as DHGate.com, so this review can be considered accurate for that model too. The only difference I can find is that Antcor already have a firmware update out that presumably fixes some of the problems mentioned in this review. As of writing there are no updates for the WifiRobin branded device.

1 paragraph conclusion:

In my tests, the device was only able to perform attacks on WEP-secured networks when there were also clients present and data being transmitted. Clientless attacks are not built-in, though they may be added in a future firmware update. Though the device claims to be able to attack WPA-secured networks too, it refused to hack my own home network saying “No clients” despite the fact that I had a few computers connected to it and transmitting data. I also found it incredibly difficult to set up and understand the router interface – I spent 3 hours fiddling with settings before I had a useable network hacked and retransmitted for my own use. But for that one use case – hacking a WEP network with some clients already connected, then retransmitting that network for your own use – it does actually work, and that in itself is quite an amazing accomplishment. I can only imagine it wil get better via future updates.

Interface issues:

I guess regular routers are hard enough to set up – one such as the WifiRobin that acts both as a regular wifi/3G (supposedly) router and an embedded wifi-hacking system just complicate things a million times over. It doesnt help that the online manual in incredibly basic and clearly written by a non-native speaker. I’ll write a better tutorial soon for anyone having trouble.

First off, you need to plug the thing in via USB and ethernet physical network cable to actually turn the device on and access the interface. You also have to configure your wired ethernet connection to a certain IP address manually, there is no DHCP plug-and-play in this thing. The online interface can then be used to set up most of the functionality, though the manual only describes a tiny subsection of it (for instance, I can’t for the life of me figure out what the claimed 3G network function is supposed to do). Curiously though, you can’t actually hack a network via the online config – you have to perform the actual hacking functions (such as scanning for networks and choosing your target) from the tiny LCD screen on the device itself. Once the device has been able to hack a network, it seems to say it to a shared memory area, and when you choose that as the network you wish to use in the online interface, it grabs the networks password from the shared memory and fills it in automagically.

The hacking:

As I said, I couldnt get it to work with my own WPA network, but it handled most of the WEP networks around me just fine. It doesnt inject packets though, so you’ll have to wait for it to collect enough crackable packets from the existing traffic (about half an hour).

Hardware:

It’s cute but plasticky, and while powering itself via USB might seem nice initially, the whole point of a router is to be put in the corner of the room and run by itself without the need of a physical machine. I’m thinking I’ll use the regular electrical socket to USB plug that came with my iPhone to power the thing more permanently. The Antcor model comes with a real power adapter, though it probably isn’t correct for your country unless you live in China, so thats just as useless.

Should you buy?

If you live somewhere with a *lot* of Wifi, then go ahead, it is bound to be able to hack one of them. If you have one particular network you wish to access, or you’re thinking it would be useful when you’re on the go, I’d give it a miss. I’d also say wait for my tutorial unless you’re really tech-capable, as the interface is hard to figure out at first, even for a geek like me. For the price of 2-3 months net access though, you can potentially get free wifi for life.