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Why would an Internet radio appliance need to broadcast an SSID? (infosec.pub)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/homenetworking@selfhosted.forum
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A DAB/Internet radio (made by Karcher in Germany) broadcasts an SSID (details). It cannot be disabled and neither the SSID nor the MAC address can be changed.

Can someone explain why this is necessary?

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[–] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

Almost certainly leftover reference-firmware laziness, not an actual requirement. A lot of cheap WiFi-radio modules ship with a default setup-AP mode meant for initial onboarding via a companion app, and a lot of OEMs never gate it behind a real first-boot-only flag, so it just stays broadcasting forever.

Since you can't disable it or change the MAC, containment beats fixing it: block that MAC at your AP/controller so it can't associate with anything, or isolate it if your AP supports MAC-based assignment. Doesn't stop it broadcasting, but stops it being useful to anything nearby.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 2 weeks ago*

    Doesn’t stop it broadcasting, but stops it being useful to anything nearby.

    Any SSID broadcast is useful to Google and Apple spies (read: simple phone patrons) who feed the SSID to the mothership which is then used for mapping. There are security risks by that alone even if it’s blocked from my LAN, which I detail in these threads:

    Apart from tracking my residency, I boycott both Google and Apple, so I object to feeding them in the slightest even when it’s innocuous to me. The map data enhances their location products and feeds their advertising surviellance machines.

    Anyway, I appreciate your insight. I assumed it was a proactive act by Karcher and would not have thought that they were naive or lazy w.r.t. something baked-in upstream from them.

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