The antennas are back! Wardriving in a Tesla.

antennas on tesla
This project was cannibalized over a year ago.  With Raspberry Pi as difficult to get ahold of as they’ve been, i thought this project might never come back to life.  I launched a number of pi liberating ideas with some success.  I now have enough for both fun personal projects and to get my work done.  I felt i should explain the name wardriving.  It is a variation on wardialing.   Wardialing was trying phone numbers, looking for interesting things on the phone.  Wardriving is similarly driving around looking for interesting things in the air.

pi family

My wardriver is not pictured above, but these Pi are ready for whatever comes next.  I’ve recovered an assortment of different Pi from original B+ (pi-hole) to a 2GB Pi 4 (broken helium miner).  One of the best parts of this setup is the early Pi 3 (not B+).  This was a lucky find as it consumes less energy and produces much less heat.  With only 6 radios running (including GPS) the lower performance hasn’t been an issue, but the reduced power has been incredible.  Early testing has me getting an additional 20-40% battery life vs the original pi 4 configuration.  my cable management has also improved with this iteration.  The setup fits in a small box in my trunk instead of a tangled mass of wires in a large bin (prototyping is fun).  The reason power is so important because, believe it or not, the amperage you can pull out of a Tesla for accessories is limited.  Without an alternator dumping piles of unclean energy i am forced to resort to BYOB (bring your own battery).  I got a monster battery to power the Pi 4 and even more radios and accessories of the original prototype.

war driver pi in a box

It is fun using the ADSB live tracker in Los Angeles as there are always planes above.  Next step will be DJI drone tracking and some sort of dashboard indicator/control.  I started a WiGLE account, it’s off to a pretty good start.  i found a few APs, but i’m still figuring out how to share BT.  maybe i’ll join the #HardHatBrigade group.

war driver kismet data sourceswar driver kismet screen
be3n wigle stats
Kismet Live ADSB tracking in Malibu

Defcam 2.0 Preparation and more from Defcon 27!

DC27 Defcam2 - link UP

So I did not “complete” my hat until very late Friday when i finally got it to announce its link status on its new set of 14 segment displays.  It performed admirably all weekend.  Thanks to Paul for safely transporting it to and from Vegas. I must also thank Stephen for his late night help on Wednesday. (tacos are not enough)  Without his amazing soldering, i’d still be trying to figure out what i had done wrong.  Here are some pictures from that night and the con to follow. . .

DC27 Defcam - Return to operationDC27 Defcam2 - PreparationDC27 Defcam2 - new headerDC27 Defcam2 - PrototypingDC27 Defcam2 - CompleteDC27 Flight - Solar CollectorsDC27 - Nixie Badge
DC27 Villages - Rogues Village - Shuffle TheoryDC27 Talks - Detecting Mac MalwareDC27 Villages - Hacking a BoatDC27 - Badge Rick
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Status update:

I’m back in Vegas for Defcon and it’s going swimmingly. so much so that i might get some actual swimming in.

Patrick Wardle Speaking at Defcon 27Thanks to the late night help of Professor Franklin i have improved and redeployed the Defcam!be3n at defcon 27 with defcam streaming hat?

Back to reality after another amazing DEFCON!

I met a pile of incredible people.  Bought some amazing toys (for science), some i’ve even got working.  Saw some talks and demos.  Talked to some of my heroes and listened to even more.  I saw Ladar Levison talk about epoxying your ports and adding thermite to your hard drives.  I played with the ECU of a fake car!  now i just have finish building the DarkNet Badge!  enjoy my pictures. The hat data is still being analyzed.  I’ll try to build something out of it eventually.


DEFCON26 - Badge Acquired DEFCON26 - Car Hacking Village Badge DEFCON26 - Blockchain Badge DEFCON26 - Show us what you got?! Battlefield Las Vegas - Mac-10 Battlefield Las Vegas - Tank Collection Battlefield Las Vegas - Tank crushing car Battlefield Las Vegas - Tank crushing car close
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Got my first MRI today. . .

The purpose of the scan today was investigating back pain, nothing serious.  In keeping with my tradition of publishing too much information, enjoy this animation of a flight through my spine.

The experience was actually much easier then I anticipated.  The machine did not move me as much as they show on medical television shows.  Not as loud either.  30 minutes in the tube was a bit much, by the end, i was ready to get out.