3 ms·

What do people do with the data from WiGLE wardriving?

noasaservice 4y ago
If I know the said or bssid, I can find where you live/work. It's also an alternate way of doing location using GPS+wifi without doing what Google did and uses.
cpeterso 4y ago
I don't know what WiGLE users do with the data, but I read the WiGLE admins sold Wi-Fi location data to Microsoft to bootstrap Bing Maps back in the day: https://wigle.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=586 https://wigle.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=586 I helped bootstrap Mozilla's Location Service (MLS) to support geolocation on Firefox OS without Google Location Services. Mozilla even had its own Wi-Fi "wardriving/stumbling" app (MozStumbler https://github.com/mozilla/MozStumbler https://github.com/mozilla/MozStumbler) and an opt-in stumbler in Firefox Android. But after Firefox OS was retired, Mozilla didn't have have a need for MLS. That said, Mozilla still runs a Wi-Fi geolocation service open to other projects (like GNOME's Geoclue service). Mozilla also publishes cell tower location data and shares with the OpenCellID project. I worked with Mozilla's privacy and security teams to see if we could publish the Wi-Fi location data, but we didn't find a practical, privacy-preserving way to do that. For more information about MLS (including a zoomable world map of the Wi-Fi location coverage), check out https://location.services.mozilla.com/ https://location.services.mozilla.com/
tsujamin 4y ago
In red teaming: it’s helpful for identifying client sites based on repeating ESSIDs at different locations or ESSIDs being broadcast by the same BSSID manufacturer or controller. Saves me a drive around town sometimes. Not sure how useful that is to everyone else though…
hoherd 4y ago
I scraped a ton of Nintendo 3DS street pass relays from all over the world and used some homebrew code[1] on a pi to rotate to a new item in the list once every few minutes, which provided me an endless amount of street pass game data. Nintendo shut the relay servers down in early 2018 though, effectively killing the homepass community, so that's all in the past now. Too bad because my kids are sitting right here playing 3DS and they can only streetpass with each other. [1] https://github.com/danielhoherd/homepass https://github.com/danielhoherd/homepass
vegetablepotpie 4y ago
Find funny WiFi names of course Apartments by the university are always great -notyours -notthefbi -robopimps -prettyflyforawifi -MartyMcWiFi -DontStealMyWiFi Also, I’ve discovered Neighbors have conversations with their SSIDs. DontLetYourDogPoopOnMyYard MyDogDoesntPoopOnYourYard Also it’s fun to see someone still using WEP. You wonder if someone plugged it in a router c. 2000 and forgot about it. Or maybe it’s a honeypot.
_int3_ 4y ago
Good question. When I used WiGLE few years ago , i wanted to know if there was 1. free wifi in my area, 2. possibility to find geo-location of router from bssid, and 3. if there was local community wifi network. Found out that there was not enough public data, so i went to wardriving with WiGLE (private). Answer was 1. No 2. WiGLE is not very precise 3. No.
WelcomeShorty 4y ago
Upload it to Wigle and flaunt your ranking to other war drivers :) And demos. Get an audience, setup a PI with Kismet, show the audience their phones are permanently broadcasting ALL the SSIDs their phones have ever connected to, enjoy the stunned faces. Pick one phone's list of SSIDs (make sure you agreed with the "victim" that this is ok) and map the list of SSIDs with Wigle to locations.

If I know the said or bssid, I can find where you live/work. It's also an alternate way of doing location using GPS+wifi without doing what Google did and uses.

cpeterso 4y ago

I don't know what WiGLE users do with the data, but I read the WiGLE admins sold Wi-Fi location data to Microsoft to bootstrap Bing Maps back in the day: https://wigle.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=586 https://wigle.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=586 I helped bootstrap Mozilla's Location Service (MLS) to support geolocation on Firefox OS without Google Location Services. Mozilla even had its own Wi-Fi "wardriving/stumbling" app (MozStumbler https://github.com/mozilla/MozStumbler https://github.com/mozilla/MozStumbler) and an opt-in stumbler in Firefox Android. But after Firefox OS was retired, Mozilla didn't have have a need for MLS. That said, Mozilla still runs a Wi-Fi geolocation service open to other projects (like GNOME's Geoclue service). Mozilla also publishes cell tower location data and shares with the OpenCellID project. I worked with Mozilla's privacy and security teams to see if we could publish the Wi-Fi location data, but we didn't find a practical, privacy-preserving way to do that. For more information about MLS (including a zoomable world map of the Wi-Fi location coverage), check out https://location.services.mozilla.com/ https://location.services.mozilla.com/

tsujamin 4y ago

In red teaming: it’s helpful for identifying client sites based on repeating ESSIDs at different locations or ESSIDs being broadcast by the same BSSID manufacturer or controller. Saves me a drive around town sometimes. Not sure how useful that is to everyone else though…

hoherd 4y ago

I scraped a ton of Nintendo 3DS street pass relays from all over the world and used some homebrew code[1] on a pi to rotate to a new item in the list once every few minutes, which provided me an endless amount of street pass game data. Nintendo shut the relay servers down in early 2018 though, effectively killing the homepass community, so that's all in the past now. Too bad because my kids are sitting right here playing 3DS and they can only streetpass with each other. [1] https://github.com/danielhoherd/homepass https://github.com/danielhoherd/homepass

vegetablepotpie 4y ago

Find funny WiFi names of course Apartments by the university are always great -notyours -notthefbi -robopimps -prettyflyforawifi -MartyMcWiFi -DontStealMyWiFi Also, I’ve discovered Neighbors have conversations with their SSIDs. DontLetYourDogPoopOnMyYard MyDogDoesntPoopOnYourYard Also it’s fun to see someone still using WEP. You wonder if someone plugged it in a router c. 2000 and forgot about it. Or maybe it’s a honeypot.

_int3_ 4y ago

Good question. When I used WiGLE few years ago , i wanted to know if there was 1. free wifi in my area, 2. possibility to find geo-location of router from bssid, and 3. if there was local community wifi network. Found out that there was not enough public data, so i went to wardriving with WiGLE (private). Answer was 1. No 2. WiGLE is not very precise 3. No.

WelcomeShorty 4y ago

Upload it to Wigle and flaunt your ranking to other war drivers :) And demos. Get an audience, setup a PI with Kismet, show the audience their phones are permanently broadcasting ALL the SSIDs their phones have ever connected to, enjoy the stunned faces. Pick one phone's list of SSIDs (make sure you agreed with the "victim" that this is ok) and map the list of SSIDs with Wigle to locations.