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Modern Wardriving (2023)

simonroses.com

31–40 of 72 posts

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#31
1. Of the many problems, one critical issue with using this for anything other than security research, is accurate mapping in urban dense areas. Essentially, you are constructing a map of Wi-Fi->Lat/Long or BLE -> Lat/Long.

I believe google's solution to this is 3D modeling of buildings[1] based on research from people like Paul Groves[2].

2. I think the other issue, not with wardriving but with use of such open source infrastructure in general, is launching products that could rely on this mapping. It requires a lot of money and is a bit of a chicken & egg problem. It's also a privacy concern to collect all that Wifi/BLE data for any commercial use.

3. I was also saddened to know about Mozilla MLS shutting down due to f**ng patent trolls[3] that mean that until such competition sucking scum is taken down these technologies will remain boxed to hobby land, small scale diy-ism and security research.

[1] https://insidegnss.com/end-game-for-urban-gnss-googles-use-o... [2] https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/6850

[3] https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/retiring-the-mozilla-locatio...

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your view will change once you see your home IP address on the search warrant. And no, i am not going to invite the public to share in my vpn too.

(A) That's not how search warrants work. (B) Having your computers spuriously seized for a police investigation is a risk shared by every computer user, but those investigations cost money. They don't tend to seize your hardware frivolously, except to intimidate (fairly common for security researchers, for some reason). If you have a public Wi-Fi network, and there's no reason to believe you're a culprit, they're mor…

>> having your computers spuriously seized for a police investigation is a risk shared by every computer user

Not where i live. We have layers of rules specifically designed to prevent random actions by police.

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#33
post #10

In 1895 a young Italian studying Maxwell's equations wondered if perhaps you didn't need wires to send an electromagnetic message, and after months of tinkering beamed the first radio message which rang a bell on the other side of his parent's attic. The first person he showed this to was his mother, who to her credit didn't accuse him of witchcraft but gave him a hug and supported him in all his future ventures. He…

Marconi always gets credit, but Tesla invented it: https://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html

No. Your source makes clear that Marconi sent the first message (Tesla failed to send a radio message in 1895, Marconi succeeded). Read "My Father Marconi" by his daughter Degna. Fantastic book.

Other than that, a very fascinating read, the link you shared. Patent stuff is silly, but were way less silly back then, and had more positive 2nd order effects back then.

It was cool how Tesla and Marconi held each other in high regard, and built on each other's works.

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#34
Ah yes, memories of my laptop, an Orinoco card, and Netstumbler cruising down the highway during my day-job. Shortly after that I added an X-10 video receiver and a USB Hauppauge WinTV adapter to capture video transmitters too. I'd reach over and trigger a screen-shot whenever live video came into view. Once in a while I'd even capture myself driving through a parking lot or something on the feed.

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#35
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not make your community better by having your router also broadcast an open public network?

For the same reasons I don't invite the entire neighborhood into my kitchen for dinner every night. If people want wifi, they can buy it themselves.

They might be dissidents that don't want their internet traffic associated with their physical identity, which makes it quite hard to "buy it themselves" in places where cash isn't used or ID cards are commonly registered.

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(A) That's not how search warrants work. (B) Having your computers spuriously seized for a police investigation is a risk shared by every computer user, but those investigations cost money. They don't tend to seize your hardware frivolously, except to intimidate (fairly common for security researchers, for some reason). If you have a public Wi-Fi network, and there's no reason to believe you're a culprit, they're mor…

>> having your computers spuriously seized for a police investigation is a risk shared by every computer user Not where i live. We have layers of rules specifically designed to prevent random actions by police.

It's not the street-level police who sign the warrants for seizing computer hardware.

Yes, the risk is quite low, but it's a risk shared by any occupant of an INTERPOL member state.

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because freeloaders and/or malicious actors will abuse my generosity

Freeloaders? Well, yeah: isn't that the whole point? We're all freeloaders, in some sense, unless you think you've earned the water you drink and the air you breathe. By giving back to the Freeloader-available Resource Pool (the commons), you're becoming less of a freeloader. Malicious actors? That relies on there being malicious actors physically near you , which isn't necessarily a valid assumption. Set up a DMZ, t…

Well, I've certainly earned the plumbing system that supplies the water to my house, I pay for it and my labour indirectly supports the building out of that system.

WiFi isn't some sort of aether, it is created.

Re: Modern Wardriving (2023)

#40

Instead of using all this fancy hardware just to contribute to a proprietary database, i'd recommend uploading to BeaconDB[1] using NeoStumbler[2] on your phone. [1] https://beacondb.net/ [2] https://github.com/mjaakko/NeoStumbler

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