Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

ProxyGambit Replaces Defunct ProxyHam

Posted by Soulskill on from the watch-out-for-the-gubmint dept.

msm1267 writes: Hardware hacker Samy Kamkar has picked up where anonymity device ProxyHam left off. After a DEF CON talk on ProxyHam was mysteriously called off, Kamkar went to work on developing ProxyGambit, a similar device that allows a user to access the Internet without revealing their physical location.

A description on Kamkar's site says ProxyGambit fractures traffic from the Internet through long distance radio links or reverse-tunneled GSM bridges that connect and exit the Internet through wireless networks far from the user's physical location. ProxyHam did not put as much distance between the user and device as ProxyGambit, and routed its signal over Wi-Fi and radio connections. Kamkar said his approach makes it several times more difficult to determine where the original traffic is coming from.

8 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Anonymous cell phone by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

    I developed a system to allow non-trackable cellular phones, in which you could receive a phone call without revealing your location (once answered, you revealed your location); nobody will go for it, though. It only requires like a few bytes of broadcast packet exchange (goes up to a theoretical maximum of 48KB if every single phone in the world is ringing all at once on a global scope), and has a 0.00002% chance of ringing your phone when you're not actually receiving a call. I mitigated this with geographical limits, although they don't help for a non-answer (if you don't answer, it tries a regional, then a global ring, meaning your initial chance of a false ring is like 0.000000000000000000000000013% for any phone call made).

    Trivial shit.

    --
    Support my political activism on Patreon.
    1. Re:Anonymous cell phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      He's proposed the idea of broadcasting the MEID/ESN of every phone that is ringing in every mobile phone "cell" in the world/via Satlink(over GPS as an example).

      Rather than cell phones actively negotiating their position so that rings go to the correct location, the location discovery/authentication handshake occurs when the intended recipient responds to the beacon.

      Has he integrated the total $$$ in waste for the next 10-20 years at the current market rate for mobile data? I imagine this would waste millions-billions of dollars in unnecessary use of the wireless spectrum for a "anonymity" feature that is desired by less than 1% of all users.

      There are much cheaper ways to provide anonymity to those 1% of users.

    2. Re:Anonymous cell phone by Cow+Jones · · Score: 2

      He's proposed the idea of broadcasting the MEID/ESN of every phone that is ringing in every mobile phone "cell" in the world/via Satlink

      Personally, I would object to everybody being able to tell if/when my phone is ringing, and possibly even deduce whether I accepted the call from the duration of the "ringing" state. If that's really how this system is supposed to work, I'm not surprised the OP couldn't find any takers.

      --

      Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
  2. The appeal is in the doing, by bbsguru · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Samy has done a great job of documenting / illustrating this project, making it appealing even for those of us who don't particularly care about the benefits of anonymity.

    I kinda want to do this, just for kicks.

    Yes, my OTHER computer is anonymous, and will never visit any site I've been to.

    1. Re:The appeal is in the doing, by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      If it never visits ant of the sames sites, and that pattern is known, isn't that exploitable information?

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
  3. Re: INB4... by OverlordQ · · Score: 2

    No reason they should, this is using either 2.4Ghz Wifi or a GSM connection, neither of which have the encryption restrictions the HAM bands use.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  4. Re: INB4... by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

    No reason they should, this is using either 2.4Ghz Wifi or a GSM connection, neither of which have the encryption restrictions the HAM bands use.

    ProxyHam didn't have an encryption restriction, either, because it wasn't operating under amateur radio service rules. ISM 900MHz.

  5. It was a BlackHat / DEFCON publicity stunt by SuperBanana · · Score: 2

    Hackaday is pretty much spot on: http://hackaday.com/2015/07/14...

    There's always posturing for PR before BlackHat and DEFCON. This was to get the researcher's name on people's radar.

    Many a competent unix sysadmin could come up with something similar.

    What's hilarious is that despite how easy it would be to make something like this, the "researcher" just bought a yagi antenna and posed for a picture. They didn't even bother to point the yagi antenna towards the ground, for that matter.

    --
    Please help metamoderate.