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iMac acquiring neighbours' wifi passwords

Hello all.

A few weeks ago when my iMac could not connect to my local printer via wifi, but it could successfully connect to the internet, I discovered that my computer was logged onto my neighbour's wifi network. I could see his password stored in Keychain Access. This has just happened again, but with a different neighbour's network.

What seems to be happening is that my daughter is visiting her friends in these houses, and they are sharing their wifi passwords with her and her iPhone. Then, the password is being shared either directly to my iMac, or via my own iPhone and then to my iMac. I know how to wirelessly share passwords between these devices deliberately, but I am mystified as to how it is happening unbidden. Shouldn't this feature require a request and an approval? I will remove the networks from my Keychain and from my phone's trusted networks, but I would like to prevent this from happening again - and I would like to know that other people aren't getting my wifi password the same way.


[iMac: late 2013, running Catalina 10.15.7, her phone: iPhone SE (2nd gen, iOS 14.0.1), mine: iPhone 8 (iOS 13.7)]


iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 11, 2020 7:23 AM

Reply
3 replies

Oct 11, 2020 8:24 AM in response to CrashCDA

About your Mac , make sure you have secured network see the article https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202068

You must have wireless network password that is same as base station passwords for airport express if used that must be saved in your router , the internet service provider router settings must be automatic .

You daughter visits neighbours , and ask their network name and wifi password and joins their network https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202639

But when she comes back home , their network name and password must be removed from iPhone https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT208941 , since iPhone / Macs are joined on the same network at home , she knows your network name and password ( usually in families the password is shared ) and joins so their network name is visible in Mac .

In Mac system preferences > network click on advanced > wifi > remove neighbours network name ( select them and click on subtract sign ) .

Note : if your network is not secured it can be joined to open networks , a lock must appear when you click on wifi on the top menu bar on your network name see the article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204070 , however there are neighbours network name in the list some might be secured ( having lock in front of it , some are insecure ) , it hardly matters the point is your network must be always secure , it will join automatically https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT202480



When settings are changed , in the last always click on apply to save .

Oct 11, 2020 10:25 AM in response to CrashCDA

She might be sharing iCloud passwords with Mac see the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/safari/ibrw12d5ed41/mac

The iCloud Keychain is set up on both iPhone and Mac both are signed in with same Apple ID and password , in your Mac open safari and its preferences and click the passwords , enter admin password to open the lock and remove the passwords .

See the section - If iCloud Keychain is on, but Safari won't save or autofill account or credit card information in the article https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT203783

Don't autofill the passwords ( uncheck the box in iPhone , not in Mac as major syncing of passwords is done from iPhone to Mac , read about private browsing in Mac https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/safari/ibrw1069/mac

Or its the choice of your daughter or you instruct to use private browsing in the iPhone also https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203036

Using private browsing the wifi passwords will not be auto filled in Mac keychain access .


Oct 11, 2020 9:20 AM in response to tygb

Thank you for your reply. These are all secure networks. I can manually remove them from my list of preferred networks, but my question is how do they end up there - how did these passwords propagate from her phone to my desktop computer? And how do I ensure that my network info isn't being shared the same way?

iMac acquiring neighbours' wifi passwords

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