deauth reaper.

1. 01 · Why I built it

   A pwnagotchi with a personality and a point.

   I learn security best by building the tool, not reading about it. I wanted a Wi-Fi gadget that was genuinely fun to carry, honest about what it does, and mine down to the character on the screen.

2. 02 · The hard part

   From a plugin to its own machine.

   It started as a pwnagotchi plugin, then ran into the limits of the framework and a 512 MB single-core board. So I rebuilt it as a standalone service that talks to bettercap directly, keeps the e-ink HUD, and serves its own dashboard, with 176 tests holding the capture-and-crack path together. The pwnagotchi dependency is gone.

Who stays in controlAuthorized use only. I run it against my own networks and lab devices I have permission to test; my home network is whitelisted so it is never touched.

Hover a marked term to decode itTap a marked term to decode it

• Hunts on its own

  It watches the air, picks a target by signal, and captures the handshake the way a pwnagotchi does. Weak or invalid captures are thrown away on the spot, so the loot it keeps is loot it can use.

• Cracks in the cloud

  Every capture is checked on the device and invalid ones are dropped. Good ones go to the wpa-sec community service when a tether is up; cracked keys sync back, and the reaper celebrates each one on screen.

• Tethered to a phone

  It pulls internet from my phone over Bluetooth while it roams, pushes a notification when it lands a crack, and serves its own phone-first web dashboard. No coming home to a cable.

• Leaves protected networks alone

  It reads each network's security settings and skips any that use management-frame protection.

• One client, not everyone

  A targeted deauth touches a single device instead of knocking a whole network off.

• Finds a known device

  A hot-and-cold signal meter and a presence watchlist locate and track a device without sending anything.

• Heals itself

  A watchdog brings the capture interface back if it drops, and the upload queue keeps retrying until it lands.

• A dashboard on the phone

  Live counters, loot and health on a password-protected web page, updating as it works.

• Tested off the device

  Every hardware and network dependency is swapped in, so all 176 tests run on a laptop.

1. 01 · An authorized site audit

   Walking the floor.

   Tethered to a phone, it captures from approved networks, uploads them, and pushes a notification the moment one cracks.

2. 02 · A lab exercise

   One clean handshake.

   A single-client deauth forces one reconnect instead of taking a whole network down.

3. 03 · Teaching Wi-Fi security

   Why protection matters.

   Networks with management-frame protection are skipped on sight, which makes the case for turning it on.