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Wardriving From 1500ft Up
luciensims writes "Wireless networking blog e3.com.au is running a story about a few of their members flying a private aircraft 1500ft above Perth, Western Australia. They found over 90 access points. Details are here."
How do you write with chalk at 1500ft? Must have looong arms...
Fly-by Hackings?
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
> Speaking of security... I wonder how ethical it would be to code up a script that maps to printers /boss/. The boss will understand the problem at once! Where the usual "Let's invest in security" is less palpable. /do/ anything about it already. /best/ way of letting a site know about a security hole?
> available on open/insecure WLAN netbios networks and print out "Your Wireless Network is insecure,
> Please fix it!"?
This might be helpful to the local sysop. This printout can be shown to his (her)
On the other hand, it could rase the question why the sysop didn't
What is the
-- (:> jms cs.vu.nl (_) --"---
are they going to mark the locations by skywriting? :)
Fbi warns of wireless (again)
From the well-duh dept
Fbi agents warn: If you see plane circeling you office, check your pavement for chalkmarks! If they are there, then you should check your wireless accespoint`s manual under the topic importand, must read, security!! on the first page
Also, think of the potential of hooking radio controled helicopters/planes up with wireless, give them some ai and a phone home by wireless+internet feature and you can send it everywhere in the western world, just let it ask for its next waypoint (any big city) by e-mail
Rumore has it the winning team for the wardriving contest at Defcon 10 used a Las Vegas chopper tour to scan for Access points.
check here:
http://www.securitytribe.com/wardrive.html
and results from the contest here:
http://www.dis.org/wl/score.txt
What an aggressive society we have become!
What kind of bastard /.'s a little old home (ex desktop) machine like that?!?
;-)
heheh.. I guess your gonna get that upgrade you were talking about now aye?
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
Who puts access points at 1500 feet anyway? :)
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
So every time I fly on a commercial airliner, I'm reminded to turn off my cell phone for the duration of the flight. Yet these people are using wireless technology in the air. And there are lots of stories of people using cell phones on flights (e.g. on Sep 11). What exactly is the danger here in using wireless in the air?
Gates' Law: Every 18 months, the speed of software halves.
Perth has a large wireless LAN community access network. See innaloo.net for more details. They use high powered 802.11b gear to set up long range links, which would likely be visible from low flying aircraft. Also see links on that page to other Perth freenet/WLAN's.
I'm lucky to get 30 metres (100ft) range from my Apple Airport gear..
posted by Jason Jordan on Sunday August 18 2002 @ 05:14AM WST
Projects
[link to pictures]
We did it! It's gotta be a first! We don't need no car to car WLAN's - we go WarDriving at 250km/h in an aircraft... 8-)
Cap'n Richard, Will (Yagi), Peterh & me took "IGI" - a Grumman Tiger 4 seat aircraft up to 1500ft and flew around Perth picking up AP's with Netstumbler running on an Handheld Ipaq/Cantenna and Kismet on a Toshiba Tecra 9000 with built-in Antenna.
We stopped at Rotto first for a quick run to the Bakery, but then it was on. We got 92 AP's with Kismet... and 95 with NetStumbler.
You can check out the photos by clicking the link below. There is also an image generated by Cap'n Richard to demonstrate the track we took around Perth available on the Rogues site.
You can check out the Kismet & NetStumbler logs for yourself:Note: The Kismet dump file is not included for security reasons. After reviewing it, I found IRC conversations, emails and clear netbios traffic for known local Perth users. I will follow up with them to "improve" their security.
Speaking of security... I wonder how ethical it would be to code up a script that maps to printers available on open/insecure WLAN netbios networks and print out "Your Wireless Network is insecure, Please fix it!"?
I know what the law says so I'd never do it... but it would give the sysadmins pause wouldn't it ... 8-)
Reposted on Sunday August 18 2002 @ 05:14AM WST
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
e3 is currently down for maintenance. Please try again in 30 minutes.
In other words, the server exploded into a pile of twisted wire,metal,and silicon.
they're trying to build another one.
no google cache available at this time. Besides, the page is served via php..
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
The e3 webserver is a Gateway (moo) PC! It's a little Celeron 400 with 192mb of RAM and a single IDE Hard Drive.
Anyone want to send a server?
wut?
this plane
/Styx
I am a pilot who flies a small, single engine aircraft and does so very, very frequently, and often for very long distances (coast to coast, etc.).
Cell Phones can and occasionally do interfere with the NAV-COM radios, but most of the time they do not. However, I recall one time when a friend hadn't turned off his phone and I couldn't hear the tower as a result, despite the fact that I was sitting on the ramp only three hundred yards/meters away. As soon as he turned his cell off, reception was fine, so it can and does interefere rather catopstrophically at times, when conditions are right.
I haven't measured VOR-DME deviations due to cell phones, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they didn't interfere with navigational signals as well, when conditions are right. That could potentially be catastrophic during flight in IMC (instrument) conditions, particularly if there were terrain nearby.
In any event, alll that is rare. Most of the time cell phones will at most add a little static to the transmission or reception, and often they won't interfere noticably at all.
That is only half the picture, however.
The FCC has made it illegal to use cell phones in the air because one phone call can occupy a slot in several cells at the same time, vastly decreasing the call capacity of the system.
Two hundred people on a jumbo jet using cell phones could well equal 20,000 people on the ground. It clobbers the cellular system, and is sufficiently bad that the FCC has made a regulation against using such phones in flight. The FAAs regulation is basically "obey the FCC regulation."
Of course, if it is an emergency, FAA regulations clearly state that any (FAA) rule may be violated if the saftey of the flight requires doing so. The FCC might not be as flexible, but in a true emergency I for one wouldn't worry about it, and use the damn thing anyway if I needed to.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
A model plane, processor, wireless card, directional antenna and GPS. Send the drone off to scout for access ponts -- either email the data back using the access points found or download the data after the drone returns.
This'd be great on vacations. If it's fast enough, send it ahead of you on your intended route, and leapfrog from one access point to the next. If it's too slow, send it out on reccy mission when you stop for the night. By the time you're checked in & done with dinner you'll know where to go to get on the net.
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." --Napoleon Bonaparte
Go Perth!
It's clear that Perth is really making great progress in the wireless community - we're ahead of the rest of Australia in terms of size of the network and interest per capita and we're really starting to link the state up.
While the wireless communities in other states are arguing over how they're going to incorporate or how they're going to manipulate everyone politically - here in WA we're focusing on actually making it work with no one person running the show. Decisions are made by the consensus, not an individual voted in to speak on our behalf. People contribute because they're interested and keen to help out.
It's seeing initiatives like this warflying expedition which really makes me glad to be a part of the Perth wireless community!
Go Perth!
-- Wireless WaFreenet user since March 2002
working on my private certificate.
I'm not sure how my instructor would respond the next time I go up if I brought my laptop and told him 'I want to fly over the city at 1,500 feet.'
The Internet is generally stupid
Reminds me when the US was easedropping on Russia's first cell phones back during the cold war... How hard would it be to put somebody (or two sombodies preferably) in an ultralight or glider and just float around looking for access points? Sounds like covert ops stuff; Floating around in your black "Escape from New York" glider and crashing enemy networks from the sky.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
The article talks about how they used Netstumbler on the Ipaq... so of course that sparked my interest. I googled around and couldn't find a PalmOS 802.11b sniffer... and I'd love to play with my Visor/Xircom Wireless combo in the same way.
Anyone know of / developing a PalmOS 802.11b sniffer?
---
"how can the same street intersect with itself? i must be at the nexus of the universe!" - cosmo kramer
While I agree that abiding by FAA regs while flying is wise, I'm not convinced at all of the technical merit here. It seems to me that if airplane electronics were so fragile that the very low power RF from an 802.11b transmitter or cell phone could affect them in any way, they'd be dropping out of the sky everywhere.
Oh oh! I've got a hot connection, stop the plane!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Hey I've played Counter-Strike at 30,000ft before (hmm very blurry photo...). However we just used a UTP crossover cable, no wireless.
Boeing ran some tests on their craft, TRYING to interfere with its electronics. They couldn't.
:)
These things are built to withstand *LIGHTNING* hitting the aircraft.
A small plane might have problems, not a commercial airliner.
The cell phone restrictions are FCC regulations due to interference to towers caused by high-flying phones.
Just don't use it during takeoff/landing, that's when the more "sensitive" navigation electronics are used (which is why NOTHING can be turned on then.)
With the pilot's permission, many people have used amateur band handhelds on airplanes to help them get WAS (Worked All States) and WAC (Worked All Counties, not Countries) on VHF/UHF. You're talking 5 watts here, not even a misconfigured 802.11 card can come close to this, and it's far closer to the airliner's comm frequencies too. Of course, ham HTs are typically pretty high-end RF-wise because hams are picky about performance.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Probably a nice, and polite thing to do, but it could end up with you in jail for life -- especially if you warn a government office (using unauthorized access to a government computer to cause a change in (security) policy).
POLICE!. FREEZE!
Keep your hands in the air, and step away from the computer!
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
I love climbing 10,000 ft. mountains in Oregon and pulling out my 2 meter ham rig and hitting repeaters in Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada. It's fun watching people pull out their cell phones and not get service. I tell them to step down a few feet off the summit and then they always get service. I assume that on top you hit so many cells that the systems just can't handle hitting cells over 100 sq miles.