Omar could have done anything. Changed the DNS to a phishing farm. Locked everyone out. Laughed.
He opened a terminal emulator on his phone. The trick was to look for the default SSID name. Xiaomi_4C_7B3A . The last four characters, "7B3A," were a hex fragment. He did the calculation in his head, cross-referencing with a known exploit from a 2019 data breach. The default password for untouched 4C units wasn't "admin." It was the router’s own serial number, hashed poorly into the last eight digits of its MAC address. XIAOMI Mi WiFi Router 4C Default Password
Then he remembered a forum post about Xiaomi’s older firmware. The 4C was a budget beast, but it had a quirk. If the router had never been set up via the Mi Home app, or if a frustrated technician had simply reset it to factory defaults, the password wasn't a word. It was a mathematical ghost. Omar could have done anything
The admin panel bloomed on his screen. A dashboard of pure, terrifying power. Connected devices: 14. The principal’s laptop. The school’s NAS drive. The security camera controller. The HVAC system. Laughed
He didn't have the MAC. But he had the SSID. He typed a string: 7B3A repeated twice.