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Checking for audio or video devices in rental property

21 points by cyberlurker ↗ HN
Does anyone have any reasonable methods of checking for recording devices when staying and working at a rental property? I’ve always done a sweep of hotel rooms, mostly for sanitary reasons. But rental properties can be bigger and filled with more stuff. Also, it’s 2022! There are smaller devices than ever for both video and audio. Any reliable ways to sniff them out?

8 comments

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jstx1
I don't have an answer, I just wanted to share how foreign the idea seems to me. Not that it's necessarily unreasonable but it has never occurred to me to do this.
treesknees
It’s actually why I’m reluctant to stay in an Airbnb. Fake smoke detectors and alarm clocks, for example, can house a small camera and oftentimes there’s unmonitored residential WiFi where the camera can freely upload 24/7.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/airbnb-...

jstx1
Oh sure, I was thinking in the context of renting property long term. I've never used Airbnb because hotels seem a lot more straightforward and hassle-free.
zikohh
This article deserves a post for itself.
treesknees
One thing I do is use an app like WiFiman, or a laptop with nmap, to scan and find any existing network devices and determine what they are.

Network scanning won’t work for most commercial/guest WiFi systems like you’d see in a hotel, because they use client isolation which prevents your device from communicating with anything but the default gateway and maybe a DNS server. But it should work on most standard networks like what you’d find at a typical Airbnb rental.

gruez
> One thing I do is use an app like WiFiman, or a laptop with nmap, to scan and find any existing network devices and determine what they are.

doesn't that only work if the spying devices are on the same network? to detect all wireless devices you need something like wireshark + wireless adapter than can be put into monitor mode.

jeffdubin
When troubleshooting wiring issues, a common tool used to find a specific wire pair in a bundle is the tone and probe set. The tone tool injects tones ('deedle deedle deedle') at one end of the specific wire pair you're trying to trace, then you wave the probe (also called an inductive amplifier) around the far end of the bundle of wires and listen for the tones. As you get closer to the wire you're tracing, the tones become louder.

This inductive amplifier also converts all sorts of other EM fields generated by most electronic equipment into audible noises. CPUs, logic circuits, etc. will be heard as 'tick tick buzzzzz tick buzzz' or similar clicks and squeals. One big caveat is that the range of most EM fields picked-up is only maybe a foot or so. But if you were to run a probe up and down a wall or around objects you suspect might contain a recording device, you'd likely hear it.

This isn't the only tool I'd use, but it's a quick and easy way to get a basic idea of what might be hiding.

stef25
Fing! An app, as suggested on Michael Bazell's podcast.

Basic version is free and will tell you what's connected to your network. Haven't been in a rental property in years but I constantly use it just out of curiosity, in bars, coworking spaces etc.

The app will tell you the IPs of all connected devices and you can do port scans as well (nmap is better but less convenient). One time I managed to access the router of a coffee shop while waiting for my drink using default credentials, and from there got the video feeds of their security cameras.