[patcheudor]

In the US, what law makes it illegal to MitM network traffic using a WiFi evil twin or other technique? I'm genuinely curious because I was under the impression there are generally no such statutes and that the only thing that would be illegal is if the MitM used found credentials.

[pnutjam]

It doesn't have to be illegal for the cops to check it out. Sometimes it scares people off.

I had an officer acquaintance who said he pulled over a car with a shotgun in the back seat and asked who it belonged to, nobody was willing to claim it. He impounded it as abandoned property despite it being perfectly legal to possess.

[sonotathrowaway]

Possibly the CFAA?

[patcheudor]

The CFAA only applies to protected computers and intrusion into those computers. Watching network traffic or modifying network traffic in a MitM possition, without using found credentials doesn't seem to rise to the level of a computer intrusion. Of course, it's unlikely a protected computer is going to be connecting to a public WiFi AP in the first place..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_computer

[mehrdadn]

> The only computers, in theory, covered by the CFAA are defined as "protected computers".

> In practice, any ordinary computer has come under the jurisdiction of the law, including cellphones, due to the interstate nature of most Internet communication.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#P...