Status update:

be3n wardriving wigle map

Half a million Wifi access points discovered!  I’ve also integrated the Raspberry Pi Foundation 7 inch touch display into the phone compartment on my Tesla center console.  This allows me to see the status of the scan as well as change operating modes.  There are almost no light leaks with the lid closed, but at night the screen is washed out in photos. A usb port was added for convenience.  I will want to clean up the USB port and add some physical buttons.

wardriving interface lid closewardriving interface at nightnightwardriving interface added usb

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

Stepping back into Wireless Security

wifi-crack Believe it or not, my home network actually used Radius authentication many years ago. Before I got a Nest (which still cannot connect to anything that isn’t open, WEP, or WPA/WPA2).  At the time, I assumed the Nest app talked directly to the thermostat.  Not true.  It just needs internet to talk to it’s servers where it receives the commands and preferences from the app.  Armed with that knowledge and recent revelations about the security of WPA2, I set to the task of reimplementing Radius on my network.  First, I needed to asses which devices, like the Nest, would be unable to make the transition.  Luckily, most of these devices don’t need anything more then internet access.  One was moved to a hard line and the last attached to a Radius capable wireless bridge.  I added a internet only wireless network for my embedded devices and moved my privileged network to Radius authentication. It was time to change my password anyway. Stay safe!

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My favorite products play well together!

DiskStation and Amplifi

Ubiquity’s Amplifi wifi mesh system is awesome and incredibly easy to setup. It also looks great next to Synology’s DiskStation product line.  Together they make the most amazing Time Capsule replacement. The functionality doesn’t stop there.  The DiskStation does so much more then just backup.  As a backup however, it allows you to mirror the disks for extra protection as well as synchronize between other servers, DiskStations, cloud storage, or even AWS S3!  Getting nearly 200Mbit everywhere!  Already backing up three computers.  What other services should I add to the Synology?

Defcon 2016 photos and videos

Close ups of my much coveted badge.  Some hardware and base stations of the wifi village.  Both Information Society and Berlin played on Saturday night!  Shot a video of an amazing demo from the Car Hacking Village.  A car modified to play games instead of driving.  Also, the best of my flight home.  Some great pictures of Hoover dam and some of the solar farms and mesas as we few home.

defcon 2016 badge closedefcon 2016 badge chipdefcon 2016 wifi villagedefcon 2016 wifi village 2 
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