- <title>Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Wed, 9 Aug 2017 23:59:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian
-web based ICT news magazine digi.no on
-<a href="https://www.digi.no/artikler/sikkerhetsforsker-lagde-enkel-imsi-catcher-for-60-kroner-na-kan-mobiler-kartlegges-av-alle/398588">how
-to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones</a> using the cheap
-DVB-T software defined radios. The article refered to instructions
-and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjwgNd_as30">a recipe by
-Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher</a>, and I decided to test them out.</p>
-
-<p>The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to
-bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip),
-and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from
-scratch. I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent
-Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build
-stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or
-some other version skew problem. While trying to get this recipe
-working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour,
-and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the
-gr-gsm package. I also found out that the lead upstream developer of
-gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of
-Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository. All I needed to
-do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.</p>
-
-<p>The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the
-loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM
-packages with IMSI numbers in them. The code is fairly short and easy
-to understand. The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool
-to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick
-and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a
-network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by
-default). This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the
-collector for a few days now.</p>
-
-<p>The updated and simpler recipe is thus to</p>
-
-<ol>
-
-<li>start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,</li>
-
-<li>build and install the gr-gsm package available from
-<a href="http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/">http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/</a>,</li>
-
-<li>clone the git repostory from <a href="https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher">https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher</a>,</li>
-
-<li>run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal
-where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you
-found a GSM station).</li>
-
-<li>go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.</li>
-
-</ol>
-
-<p>To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and
-running, I decided to package
-<a href="https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/">the gr-gsm project</a>
-for Debian (<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/871055">WNPP
-#871055</a>), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today.
-Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not
-know much about gnuradio stuff yet.</p>
-
-<p>I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as
-commercial tools like
-<a href="https://www.thespyphone.com/portable-imsi-imei-catcher/">The
-Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher</a> or the
-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker">Harris
-Stingray</a>, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make
-more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone
-is easily tracked. Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that
-I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also
-wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to
-track the position of the police officers to discover when there are
-police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location
-of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location
-of government officials...</p>
-
-<p>It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher
-script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on
-the GSM network. It will only collect one frequency at the time,
-while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all
-phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod
-program. Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the
-simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the
-parser code. I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than
-one frequency?</p>
+ <title>Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 21 Oct 2018 09:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to
+distribute content on the Internet. It is used all by all sorts of
+content providers, from national TV stations like
+<a href="https://www.nrk.no/">NRK</a>, Linux distributors like
+<a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> and
+<a href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, and of course the
+<a href="https://archive.org/">Internet archive</A>.
+
+<p>Almost a month ago
+<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/vlc-plugin-bittorrent">a new
+package adding Bittorrent support to VLC</a> became available in
+Debian testing and unstable. To test it, simply install it like
+this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian,
+several improvements have been made to it. In version 2.2-4, now
+available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to
+teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or
+magnet links. The last part is thanks to me finally understanding
+what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files
+are used for. By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry
+in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will
+suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page. The
+end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster and Sid,
+one can visit any
+<a href="https://archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft1080p">Internet
+Archive page with movies</a> using a web browser and click on the
+torrent link to start streaming the movie.</p>
+
+<p>Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin. One is the
+fact that it will hang and
+<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/13">block VLC
+from exiting until the torrent streaming starts</a>. Another is the
+fact that it
+<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/9">will pick
+and play a random file in a multi file torrent</a>. This is not
+always the video file you want. Combined with the first it can be a
+bit hard to get the video streaming going. But when it work, it seem
+to do a good job.</p>
+
+<p>For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test
+if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest. I tried, but do not
+know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working. For now
+the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was
+successfully loaded by VLC. If you have any suggestions, please
+submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
+
+<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
+activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
+<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>