blog/archive/2017/09/09.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from September 2017</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from September 2017</description>
   6                 <link>https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Visualizing GSM radio chatter using gr-gsm and Hopglass</title>
  11                 <link>https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Visualizing_GSM_radio_chatter_using_gr_gsm_and_Hopglass.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Visualizing_GSM_radio_chatter_using_gr_gsm_and_Hopglass.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Fri, 29 Sep 2017 10:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby
  15 mobile cell towers.  And this radio chatter is available for anyone
  16 with a radio receiver capable of receiving them.  Details about the
  17 mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the
  18 phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post.  The
  19 mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell
  20 phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI).  By paying
  21 attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave
  22 an area.  I believe it would be nice to make this information more
  23 available to the general public, to make more people aware of how
  24 their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to
  25 listen.&lt;/p&gt;
  26
  27 &lt;p&gt;I am very happy to report that we managed to get something
  28 visualizing this information up and running for
  29 &lt;a href=&quot;http://norwaymakers.org/osf17&quot;&gt;Oslo Skaperfestival 2017&lt;/a&gt;
  30 (Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske
  31 library.  The solution is based on the
  32 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html&quot;&gt;simple
  33 recipe for listening to GSM chatter&lt;/a&gt; I posted a few days ago, and
  34 will show up at the stand of &lt;a href=&quot;http://sonen.ifi.uio.no/&quot;&gt;Åpen
  35 Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of
  36 Oslo&lt;/a&gt;.  The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka
  37 IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot
  38 representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in
  39 the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.&lt;/p&gt;
  40
  41 &lt;p&gt;We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian
  42 Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers
  43 connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an
  44 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/marlow925/hopglass&quot;&gt;English version of
  45 Hopglass&lt;/a&gt;.  A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the
  46 grgsm_livemon_headless processes from
  47 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm&quot;&gt;gr-gsm&lt;/a&gt; converting
  48 the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.&lt;/p&gt;
  49
  50 &lt;p&gt;The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly
  51 patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver),
  52 and the Hopglass data is generated using the
  53 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/IMSI-catcher/tree/meshviewer-output&quot;&gt;patches
  54 in my meshviewer-output branch&lt;/a&gt;.  For some reason we could not get
  55 more than four SDRs working.  There is also a geographical map trying
  56 to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their
  57 coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I
  58 believe.  The code should be replaced with code to look up location in
  59 a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases
  60 mentioned in
  61 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher/issues/14&quot;&gt;the github
  62 issue for the topic&lt;/a&gt;.
  63
  64 &lt;p&gt;If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!&lt;/p&gt;
  65 </description>
  66         </item>
  67
  68         <item>
  69                 <title>Easier recipe to observe the cell phones around you</title>
  70                 <link>https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html</link>
  71                 <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Easier_recipe_to_observe_the_cell_phones_around_you.html</guid>
  72                 <pubDate>Sun, 24 Sep 2017 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
  73                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A little more than a month ago I wrote
  74 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simpler_recipe_on_how_to_make_a_simple__7_IMSI_Catcher_using_Debian.html&quot;&gt;how
  75 to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking
  76 to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a
  77 cheap USB software defined radio&lt;/a&gt;, and thus being able to pinpoint
  78 the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an
  79 accuracy of a few kilometer.  Since then we have worked to make the
  80 procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any
  81 manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.&lt;/p&gt;
  82
  83 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gr-gsm&quot;&gt;gr-gsm&lt;/a&gt;
  84 package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the
  85 IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode
  86 the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.&lt;/p&gt;
  87
  88 &lt;p&gt;Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git
  89 clone of two python scripts:&lt;/p&gt;
  90
  91 &lt;ol&gt;
  92
  93 &lt;li&gt;Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka
  94   testing).&lt;/li&gt;
  95
  96 &lt;li&gt;Run &#39;&lt;tt&gt;apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy
  97   python-scapy&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; as root to install required packages.&lt;/li&gt;
  98
  99 &lt;li&gt;Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using &#39;&lt;tt&gt;git clone
 100   github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;.&lt;/li&gt;
 101
 102 &lt;li&gt;Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.&lt;/li&gt;
 103
 104 &lt;li&gt;Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run &#39;&lt;tt&gt;python
 105   scan-and-livemon&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; to locate the frequency of nearby base
 106   stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.&lt;/li&gt;
 107
 108 &lt;li&gt;Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run &#39;&lt;tt&gt;python
 109   simple_IMSI-catcher.py&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; to display the collected information.&lt;/li&gt;
 110
 111 &lt;/ol&gt;
 112
 113 &lt;p&gt;Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually
 114 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/issues/336&quot;&gt;its underlying
 115 program grgsm_scanner&lt;/a&gt;) do not work with the HackRF radio.  It does
 116 work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get
 117 very cheaply
 118 (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ebay.com/sch/items/?_nkw=rtl+2832&quot;&gt;for example
 119 from ebay&lt;/a&gt;), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio
 120 and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.&lt;/p&gt;
 121
 122 &lt;p&gt;As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the
 123 frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every
 124 cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used.
 125 To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to
 126 scan-and-livemon to use several receivers.  Further, I am not sure if
 127 phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so
 128 this approach might not see all phones around you.  I typically see
 129 0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.&lt;/p&gt;
 130
 131 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve tried to run the scanner on a
 132 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi&quot;&gt;Raspberry Pi 2 and 3
 133 running Debian Buster&lt;/a&gt;, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem
 134 to be too CPU intensive to keep up.  When GNU Radio print &#39;O&#39; to
 135 stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the
 136 radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the
 137 GSM data fast enough.  If you see a stream of &#39;O&#39;s from the terminal
 138 where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more
 139 CPU power.  Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point
 140 where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers?  I tried
 141 using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong
 142 with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().&lt;/p&gt;
 143 </description>
 144         </item>
 145
 146         <item>
 147                 <title>Datalagringsdirektivet kaster skygger over Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet</title>
 148                 <link>https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Datalagringsdirektivet_kaster_skygger_over_H_yre_og_Arbeiderpartiet.html</link>
 149                 <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Datalagringsdirektivet_kaster_skygger_over_H_yre_og_Arbeiderpartiet.html</guid>
 150                 <pubDate>Thu, 7 Sep 2017 21:35:00 +0200</pubDate>
 151                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For noen dager siden publiserte Jon Wessel-Aas en bloggpost om
 152 «&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uhuru.biz/?p=1821&quot;&gt;Konklusjonen om datalagring som
 153 EU-kommisjonen ikke ville at vi skulle få se&lt;/a&gt;».  Det er en
 154 interessant gjennomgang av EU-domstolens syn på snurpenotovervåkning
 155 av befolkningen, som er klar på at det er i strid med
 156 EU-lovgivingen.&lt;/p&gt;
 157
 158 &lt;p&gt;Valgkampen går for fullt i Norge, og om noen få dager er siste
 159 frist for å avgi stemme.  En ting er sikkert, Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet
 160 får ikke min stemme
 161 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Datalagringsdirektivet_gj_r_at_Oslo_H_yre_og_Arbeiderparti_ikke_f_r_min_stemme_i__r.html&quot;&gt;denne
 162 gangen heller&lt;/a&gt;.  Jeg har ikke glemt at de tvang igjennom loven som
 163 skulle pålegge alle data- og teletjenesteleverandører å overvåke alle
 164 sine kunder.  En lov som er vedtatt, og aldri opphevet igjen.&lt;/p&gt;
 165
 166 &lt;p&gt;Det er tydelig fra diskusjonen rundt grenseløs digital overvåkning
 167 (eller &quot;Digital Grenseforsvar&quot; som det kalles i Orvellisk nytale) at
 168 hverken Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet har noen prinsipielle sperrer mot å
 169 overvåke hele befolkningen, og diskusjonen så langt tyder på at flere
 170 av de andre partiene heller ikke har det. Mange av
 171 &lt;a href=&quot;https://data.holderdeord.no/votes/1301946411e&quot;&gt;de som stemte
 172 for Datalagringsdirektivet i Stortinget&lt;/a&gt; (64 fra Arbeiderpartiet,
 173 25 fra Høyre) er fortsatt aktive og argumenterer fortsatt for å radere
 174 vekk mer av innbyggernes privatsfære.&lt;/p&gt;
 175
 176 &lt;p&gt;Når myndighetene demonstrerer sin mistillit til folket, tror jeg
 177 folket selv bør legge litt innsats i å verne sitt privatliv, ved å ta
 178 i bruk ende-til-ende-kryptert kommunikasjon med sine kjente og kjære,
 179 og begrense hvor mye privat informasjon som deles med uvedkommende.
 180 Det er jo ingenting som tyder på at myndighetene kommer til å være vår
 181 privatsfære.
 182 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_talk_with_your_loved_ones_in_private.html&quot;&gt;Det
 183 er mange muligheter&lt;/a&gt;.  Selv har jeg litt sans for
 184 &lt;a href=&quot;https://ring.cx/&quot;&gt;Ring&lt;/a&gt;, som er basert på p2p-teknologi
 185 uten sentral kontroll, er fri programvare, og støtter meldinger, tale
 186 og video.  Systemet er tilgjengelig ut av boksen fra
 187 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt; og
 188 &lt;a href=&quot;https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring&quot;&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;, og det
 189 finnes pakker for Android, MacOSX og Windows.  Foreløpig er det få
 190 brukere med Ring, slik at jeg også bruker
 191 &lt;a href=&quot;https://signal.org/&quot;&gt;Signal&lt;/a&gt; som nettleserutvidelse.&lt;/p&gt;
 192 </description>
 193         </item>
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