- <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>Valutakrambod - A python and bitcoin love story</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Valutakrambod___A_python_and_bitcoin_love_story.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Valutakrambod___A_python_and_bitcoin_love_story.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 29 Sep 2018 22:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>It would come as no surprise to anyone that I am interested in
+bitcoins and virtual currencies. I've been keeping an eye on virtual
+currencies for many years, and it is part of the reason a few months
+ago, I started writing a python library for collecting currency
+exchange rates and trade on virtual currency exchanges. I decided to
+name the end result valutakrambod, which perhaps can be translated to
+small currency shop.</p>
+
+<p>The library uses the tornado python library to handle HTTP and
+websocket connections, and provide a asynchronous system for
+connecting to and tracking several services. The code is available
+from
+<a href="http://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/valutakrambod">github</a>.</p>
+
+</p>There are two example clients of the library. One is very simple and
+list every updated buy/sell price received from the various services.
+This code is started by running bin/btc-rates and call the client code
+in valutakrambod/client.py. The simple client look like this:</p>
+
+<p><blockquote><pre>
+import functools
+import tornado.ioloop
+import valutakrambod
+class SimpleClient(object):
+ def __init__(self):
+ self.services = []
+ self.streams = []
+ pass
+ def newdata(self, service, pair, changed):
+ print("%-15s %s-%s: %8.3f %8.3f" % (
+ service.servicename(),
+ pair[0],
+ pair[1],
+ service.rates[pair]['ask'],
+ service.rates[pair]['bid'])
+ )
+ async def refresh(self, service):
+ await service.fetchRates(service.wantedpairs)
+ def run(self):
+ self.ioloop = tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current()
+ self.services = valutakrambod.service.knownServices()
+ for e in self.services:
+ service = e()
+ service.subscribe(self.newdata)
+ stream = service.websocket()
+ if stream:
+ self.streams.append(stream)
+ else:
+ # Fetch information from non-streaming services immediately
+ self.ioloop.call_later(len(self.services),
+ functools.partial(self.refresh, service))
+ # as well as regularly
+ service.periodicUpdate(60)
+ for stream in self.streams:
+ stream.connect()
+ try:
+ self.ioloop.start()
+ except KeyboardInterrupt:
+ print("Interrupted by keyboard, closing all connections.")
+ pass
+ for stream in self.streams:
+ stream.close()
+</pre></blockquote></p>
+
+<p>The library client loops over all known "public" services,
+initialises it, subscribes to any updates from the service, checks and
+activates websocket streaming if the service provide it, and if no
+streaming is supported, fetches information from the service and sets
+up a periodic update every 60 seconds. The output from this client
+can look like this:</p>
+
+<p><blockquote><pre>
+Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.560 6593.690
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.560 6593.690
+Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.570 6593.690
+Bitstamp EUR-USD: 1.159 1.154
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.570 6593.690
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690
+Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690
+Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Paymium BTC-EUR: 5680.000 5620.240
+</pre></blockquote></p>
+
+<p>The exchange order book is tracked in addition to the best buy/sell
+price, for those that need to know the details.</p>
+
+<p>The other example client is focusing on providing a curses view
+with updated buy/sell prices as soon as they are received from the
+services. This code is located in bin/btc-rates-curses and activated
+by using the '-c' argument. Without the argument the "curses" output
+is printed without using curses, which is useful for debugging. The
+curses view look like this:</p>
+
+<p><blockquote><pre>
+ Name Pair Bid Ask Spr Ftcd Age
+ BitcoinsNorway BTCEUR 5591.8400 5711.0800 2.1% 16 nan 60
+ Bitfinex BTCEUR 5671.0000 5671.2000 0.0% 16 22 59
+ Bitmynt BTCEUR 5580.8000 5807.5200 3.9% 16 41 60
+ Bitpay BTCEUR 5663.2700 nan nan% 15 nan 60
+ Bitstamp BTCEUR 5664.8400 5676.5300 0.2% 0 1 1
+ Bl3p BTCEUR 5653.6900 5684.9400 0.5% 0 nan 19
+ Coinbase BTCEUR 5600.8200 5714.9000 2.0% 15 nan nan
+ Kraken BTCEUR 5670.1000 5670.2000 0.0% 14 17 60
+ Paymium BTCEUR 5620.0600 5680.0000 1.1% 1 7515 nan
+ BitcoinsNorway BTCNOK 52898.9700 54034.6100 2.1% 16 nan 60
+ Bitmynt BTCNOK 52960.3200 54031.1900 2.0% 16 41 60
+ Bitpay BTCNOK 53477.7833 nan nan% 16 nan 60
+ Coinbase BTCNOK 52990.3500 54063.0600 2.0% 15 nan nan
+ MiraiEx BTCNOK 52856.5300 54100.6000 2.3% 16 nan nan
+ BitcoinsNorway BTCUSD 6495.5300 6631.5400 2.1% 16 nan 60
+ Bitfinex BTCUSD 6590.6000 6590.7000 0.0% 16 23 57
+ Bitpay BTCUSD 6564.1300 nan nan% 15 nan 60
+ Bitstamp BTCUSD 6561.1400 6565.6200 0.1% 0 2 1
+ Coinbase BTCUSD 6504.0600 6635.9700 2.0% 14 nan 117
+ Gemini BTCUSD 6567.1300 6573.0700 0.1% 16 89 nan
+ Hitbtc+BTCUSD 6592.6200 6594.2100 0.0% 0 0 0
+ Kraken BTCUSD 6565.2000 6570.9000 0.1% 15 17 58
+ Exchangerates EURNOK 9.4665 9.4665 0.0% 16 107789 nan
+ Norgesbank EURNOK 9.4665 9.4665 0.0% 16 107789 nan
+ Bitstamp EURUSD 1.1537 1.1593 0.5% 4 5 1
+ Exchangerates EURUSD 1.1576 1.1576 0.0% 16 107789 nan
+ BitcoinsNorway LTCEUR 1.0000 49.0000 98.0% 16 nan nan
+ BitcoinsNorway LTCNOK 492.4800 503.7500 2.2% 16 nan 60
+ BitcoinsNorway LTCUSD 1.0221 49.0000 97.9% 15 nan nan
+ Norgesbank USDNOK 8.1777 8.1777 0.0% 16 107789 nan
+</pre></blockquote></p>
+
+<p>The code for this client is too complex for a simple blog post, so
+you will have to check out the git repository to figure out how it
+work. What I can tell is how the three last numbers on each line
+should be interpreted. The first is how many seconds ago information
+was received from the service. The second is how long ago, according
+to the service, the provided information was updated. The last is an
+estimate on how often the buy/sell values change.</p>
+
+<p>If you find this library useful, or would like to improve it, I
+would love to hear from you. Note that for some of the services I've
+implemented a trading API. It might be the topic of a future blog
+post.</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>