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How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

manas.tech

11–20 of 349 posts

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#13
post #4

So, there is no security feature that prevents a phone from connecting to a cloned wifi network??

If the SSID and password are the same, how would the phone tell the difference? I don't know. My Fitbit has a "find my phone" feature that uses Bluetooth to tell the Fitbit app on the phone to make a loud whistle. It's kind of handy and ive made use of it several times around my house, but obviously isn't useful outside Bluetooth range.

> If the SSID and password are the same, how would the phone tell the difference

MAC address, but devices don't care, by design they will connect if the SSID and encryption type are the same, actually, you can create a mesh wifi network at your house with regular routers or access points by doing so, connecting them with wired ethernet.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#14

Wait until dark, shine a flashlight around and look for reflection off the glass. Or use a metal detector...

Note to self: put a piece of retroreflective tape on my phone.

(I already have a roll of DOT stuff for bicycles, required on the front and rear forks if riding at night)

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#15
post #8
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you tell a wifi network is cloned if the SSID/password match? After all, it might legitimately be a new legitimate access point in the network.

Obivously using certificates and TOFU. APs would share the certificate. (That's how it should work, not how it does in practice)

I’ve always wondered how commonly black hats clone and exploit mass deployed public SSIDs like the “xfinitywifi” network you see in all major US cities with xfinity.

Presumably you could get a lot of random devices to automatically connect and then hijack DNS to cause trouble.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the SSID and password are the same, how would the phone tell the difference? I don't know. My Fitbit has a "find my phone" feature that uses Bluetooth to tell the Fitbit app on the phone to make a loud whistle. It's kind of handy and ive made use of it several times around my house, but obviously isn't useful outside Bluetooth range.

> If the SSID and password are the same, how would the phone tell the difference MAC address, but devices don't care, by design they will connect if the SSID and encryption type are the same, actually, you can create a mesh wifi network at your house with regular routers or access points by doing so, connecting them with wired ethernet.

MAC address can of course be spoofed easily as well.

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#17
post #3

I thought "find my" on newer iphones could do local non-cellular location services, like airtags.

They can, but the AirTag has to be "seen" by another connected device and that device must relay the GPS position it was "seen" at. I don't know if Apple IOS is correct enough to log the time and position of AirTags when the device itself is disconnected from a network...

The newer devices can locate each other via ultrawideband triangulation too, completely detached from the cell network. They have special chips for this built-in: https://www.pocket-lint.com/phones/news/apple/149336-how-app...

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#18
post #15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obivously using certificates and TOFU. APs would share the certificate. (That's how it should work, not how it does in practice)

I’ve always wondered how commonly black hats clone and exploit mass deployed public SSIDs like the “xfinitywifi” network you see in all major US cities with xfinity. Presumably you could get a lot of random devices to automatically connect and then hijack DNS to cause trouble.

[deleted]

Re: How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site?

#19
post #4

So, there is no security feature that prevents a phone from connecting to a cloned wifi network??

Yeah, back in the day before HTTPS was common, this used to be a viable attack where people would set up rogue hotspots at cafes and whatnot and intercept all your traffic.
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