@ls_milkyway 

Hi,

The QR code available for scanning on the phone is being generated independently by the phone itself. This feature doesn't depend on the Wi-Fi router. Even if the Archer A7 didn't have its own QR code generator (i.e. "Sharing Network" feature) it would still be the same.

So, if your friends leave their smartphones lying around unattended with the screen unlocked, then there is nothing stopping another person to look up the Wi-Fi password (or scan the QR code) and also the MAC address from one of those smartphones.

  @woozle 

Are you pretty sure that the sharing feature is phone dependent? I have seen some Youtube videos regarding this matter ....but they are suggesting to use WEP encryption ..then android phones will not display qr-code sharing option...which is sort of patching 1 problem but creating another  loophole.

Yeah the situation about unlocked phones lying around is true but there can be different SOHO scenarios ...for example a fired employee taking help from an insider etc.

The irony is we cannot disallow phones and other gadgets in the office.

  @ls_milkyway 

Ok. Your comment made me wondering about that WEP encryption.

So I searched through my collection of routers until I finally found one that is old enough to still support WEP and set it up accordingly.

Then I connected my smartphone (Android 13) to the router's Wi-Fi. With screen lock disabled it revealed the Wi-Fi password right away after tapping on "Share" and also showed a QR code (see the screenshots below). With screen lock enabled the phone will actually request the user to authenticate themself before revealing the password and QR code.

But anyway, the behavior with this particular phone is no different than if the Wi-Fi security was WPA, WPA2 or WPA3. 

And even if some phones don't generate a QR code, the Wi-Fi name and Wi-Fi password is all a person needs to connect to the Wi-Fi. A computer running Windows 10 that is logged in with the administrator account and currently connected to the Wi-Fi network will also reveal the Wi-Fi password with just a few clicks.