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The Low-End Approach To Wireless Hacking

Posted by timothy on from the not-enough-empty-cans-yet dept.

Adrian writes "Zack Anderson, an MIT student, created a solution to wardriving on a budget: warcarting. The Warcart is a shopping cart retrofitted with just about every sort of wireless sniffing device available. It has pivoting antennas and a smoke grenade launcher. It can even dispense infected USB flash drives. It's part of a talk about subway fare-collection-system vulnerabilities that will be given at Defcon 16 in a few days." "Mostly as a joke," says the site — but only mostly.

32 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Where's the batteries? by Thelasko · · Score: 3, Funny

    or does it have a really long extension cord?

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    1. Re:Where's the batteries? by Perf · · Score: 5, Funny

      FAQ:

      Batteries are in the garbage bags hanging of the sides. They are fuel cells that run off cheap booze and the juice from stinky socks. Old cigarette butts are used to filter the fuel. (And for the occasional smoke.)

      No, he isn't talking to himself - his Bluetooth headset is really small.

      "The Almighty" is the name of his computer and it uses voice recognition.

      It's normal for a dedicated hacker to sleep with his system in doorways and skip baths for weeks on end.

      The tinfoil attached to his body helps cancel the effect the body has on wireless reception.

      Don't worry if you can't understand his language. His intelligence is super advanced, not deficient.

  2. Looking back.... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We realized that Skynet started, not with an evil corporation or secret government project, but with a wise-ass MIT student and a shopping cart.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Looking back.... by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      We should *be* so lucky as to have Skynet handicapped by a MS operating system.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  3. Anyone up for a pool? by MiKM · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm gonna start a pool on how long it takes before the guy using this gets 'detained' or otherwise harassed by the gov't for looking suspicious. I give it a month.

    1. Re:Anyone up for a pool? by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

      how about the fact that its illegal to operate a scanner outside of your home in most states without an amateur radio license?

      40mm smoke grenade launchers, or any for that matter are considered a firearm. discharching one in public will see you sent to jail.

      is that 25-1300 antenna modified to exclude cellular bands? what about the receiver? if not, another trip to the jailhouse.

      flash drive dropper? littering. in california, violation of prop 65 and EPA standards can apply. you just dropped a little chunk of lead onto the ground after all...

      intentionally snooping the 900mhz communications spectrum? jailed.

      plus, this cart has the intent to exploit computer systems and networks. thats a violation of federal law.

      screw a month, this thing is a rolling prison sentence. i give this shit-whistle a week.

      --
      Good people go to bed earlier.
    2. Re:Anyone up for a pool? by uglydog · · Score: 2, Insightful

      wait... HE'S the idiot?! HE'S just a nerd playing with his electronics. whoever thinks he looks suspicious would be the idiot. i don't think it's just me with my tech background that can tell the diff. like the over-reaction to the mooninites in boston and in other places, and the over-reaction whenever someone sees some white powder: people need to chill the fuck out. yes, i realize someone took down the twin towers and killed 3000 ppl. but the response to this has been an over-reaction

    3. Re:Anyone up for a pool? by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's exactly what's wrong with the world today. Be normal, conform, and nobody gets hurt. Dare to be different, dare to leave the path the "normal" people walk on, and you're "suspicious".

      What does he do? He's pushing a cart full of electronics down the road! So? May I only use a cart to push around my groceries? Who said that? Who are you to dictate what has to be in my cart?

      Freedom is first and foremost defined by how much freedom you grant to someone who isn't or doesn't think like everyone else. If your freedom to be what or how you want ends at what is defined as normal or "agreeable", China is a perfectly free country.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Anyone up for a pool? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you really think any cop on the street can identify that for what it is? I'd rather guess he'll be arrested for pushing around something that looks like a highly sophisticated kind of bomb.

      Later the things you list will be brought up, to avoid making the cop look stupid.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Obnoxious. by EchoD · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A shopping cart loaded down with monitoring and recording equipment?
    That's cool. Some tool pushing it around, broadcasting music, and pretending private property is public? That's rather obnoxious.

    The operator seems to be the only difference between an interesting application of technology and some douche nozzle who wants his fifteen minutes of fame by trying to coax people into a conflict just so he can "make a point".

    --
    If I only had a moose...
  5. on what charge? by thermian · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pushing a Trolley with intent?

    He might try to make a run for it, That's a cop chase I'd like to see on TV....

    --
    A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
  6. Re:Too much free time... by maxume · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would take this more as a sign of not enough beer.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  7. Cool I want one !!! by wooferhound · · Score: 4, Funny

    I really want one, so what is the first step . . . Oh Yeah, Steal a shopping cart ?

    --
    We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
  8. Re:Class? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As an MIT graduate, I also agree. This gets a pretty low score on the "hack" scale.

    If you are going to cause a disturbance, at least make it really clever (like making the dome into R2D2) or putting the shell of a police car up there. Taking a shopping cart full of computer equipment into a retail store is just stupid.

    Somebody should encourage him to take it up to Logan airport. That would be a great idea. I hope it comes with a bulletproof vest for the operator.

  9. Uhhh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Only from MIT would something so stupid get so much attention.

  10. A bit of history?! by Dekortage · · Score: 4, Informative

    FTA: To understand the Warcart requires one understand a bit of history first. Wardriving, that is, driving with a laptop computer and tracking WiFi access points, first became popular around 2001.

    Well, if we're going to talk about history, how about wardialing in the 1980s, clearly the precursor to wardriving. The name goes back to the movie Wargames, in which the main character writes a program to find compuers by dialing phone numbers in sequence -- so the first wardialers were called "WarGames Dialers".

    As I recall, we could wardial thousands of phone numbers in a night and net several dozen modems... boy, that was awhile ago. Get off my lawn!

    --
    $nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
    1. Re:A bit of history?! by ACMENEWSLLC · · Score: 5, Informative

      To clarify, the name war dialing did not come from the movie. It was around long before the movie. The movie did a rather nice job of being accurate with how it worked - until the computer just started speaking on it's own later in the movie.

      War dialing turned up interesting results because many locations dropped VT100 onto a POTs line and had no log in authentication. In many cases you would dial up and if you had your emulator set right, you were root.

      With most interested in hacking the Internet, I often wonder if these type of open doors have come back into existence. There are many Ethernet->analog line "out of band" maintenance devices being put in place...

    2. Re:A bit of history?! by Minwee · · Score: 4, Informative

      To clarify, the name war dialing did not come from the movie.

      The _concept_ and _practice_ of "wardialing" was around long before "Wargames". The name was adopted as a reference to the movie.

      Anyone who tells you differently is just trying to promote their book.

  11. Interior Lights by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Funny
    FTFA:

    Interior lights add to the intimidation factor of the Warcart.

    Yes. Yes, they certainly do.

    --
    Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  12. Re:Where's the GPS? by wooferhound · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It really isn't very useful without a GPS Unit. How else would they map out their new Findings ?

    --
    We are Dead Stars looking back Up at the Sky
  13. Re:Suicide attempt? by lobiusmoop · · Score: 2, Funny

    Only if he attaches one of these to the front of the cart though.

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  14. A serious note by s31523 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    All kidding aside, war-whatever has gotten people's attention. I live in a cubicle-style neighborhood, you know, houses built on top of each other. I have a powerful Wi-Fi antennae and can "see" a dozen Wi-Fi points. When I first moved in, more than half were unsecured, default SSID, default password. Now only 2 are unsecured. Even the layperson has caught on and I believe this is in part of the war driving/flying/carting craze that went on.

  15. Shame on you slashdot by kernelpanicked · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I started looking at the comments before watching the video and every other one was putting this guy down and calling him a douche-$(insertwordhere). After watching the video, it appears that half of Slashdot has no appreciation for feeding the inner geek, and is just pissed off that this guy had live females stop and actually talk to him.

    --
    Ubuntu: If at first you don't succeed, blindly slap a sudo in front of it
  16. charges? by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At any given moment, you're breaking some law. Disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, etc. etc. Charges are easy to make up. And they don't have to stick, either - the arrest can still be effected. Then there's either some resisting arrest or an accident that results in the cart getting tipped over and all the equipment breaking.

    1. Re:charges? by Reality+Master+201 · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, you're wrong, I used the correct word for the intended meaning - "effected," in the sense of to bring something about. My usage becomes a bit clearer to the inattentive when the agent isn't elided:

      And they don't have to stick, either - the arrest can still be effected [by a police officer].

      "Affected" wouldn't make much sense in that sentence frame, or the paragraph as a whole.

  17. Push! by snspdaarf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At the height of the CB craze, and while on a mandatory separation from my car, I mounted a CB on a 10-speed, including a 1/4 wave stainless steel whip antenna. With a spring. I don't remember why. I learned a lot of practical physics with that rig. Newtons laws of motion, angular momentum, all kinds of things when taking a corner with that damn antenna waving around. Also a lot about weight of batteries. The shine will come off this Warcart rather fast.

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  18. Cordless phones... by BJZQ8 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most cordless phones are now digital 900 or 2400MHz. Unless you can decode that stuff on the fly, all you're going to hear is scratchy noise.

  19. Brilliant by johndmartiniii · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I concur with some fellow above who noted that we must be losing touch with our inner geek. Even if thing is riddled with illegal shit and the guy who created it is kind of an idiot, cheers to him for indulging himself.

    Then again, this comes from a guy who spends ALL of his spare time making wireless thin clients out of old laptops for mounting in picture frames and other surfaces in his house. Gotta get on that solar power next, this shit is getting expensive.

    The point, to hell with all you nay-sayers. Go back to whatever boring, gainfully-employed thing is is that you are doing while the rest of us have fun.

    ;p

    --
    If you don't know what you're doing, you can't make mistakes.
  20. Re:Too much free time... by houghi · · Score: 2, Informative

    One can NEVER have enough beer.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  21. High tech bag lady is all he really is... by shlompo · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have a bag lady with a shopping cart just like that that's living near my house...

    I should really change the password to my wireless network....

  22. Re:Class? by spidercoz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why...is it against the law to bring a shopping cart full of computer equipment into an airport?

    Of course it is. Doing anything odd or unusual or that makes someone confused or uncomfortable is terrorism.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
  23. Re:Class? by Fred_A · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Of course not. But neither is it to fill you with lead. As long as everybody is having fun it doesn't really matter of course...

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.