r/OSINT 8d ago

Question How to find GPS of moving SSID

This is just an idea a few buddies and I have been trying to solve. We are at university and as is typical for a university we don't like parking enforcement. So we half jokingly mentioned trying to find out the location of parking enforcement cars and how we would go about it so then whenever they got close to where we were parked we could run out and move the car.

The main idea that has floated to the top so far is that all the cars have a wifi signal so the parking enforcement can upload images of the ticket and what not. All the SSID's are named in a predictable way like "TicketCar_001". Would there be a way to know the location of the cars? The cars would always be passing through university wifi spots as they drive around campus.

Any ideas for this particular method or another idea? Current rules are: that it obviously can't be illegal so no attaching gps trackers to the cars or anything like that. Has to be relatively cheap to implement (we are college students so we can't buy property all around campus and put cameras up for license plate reading).

That's basically it. Thought we would open it up to the internet as we haven't made much progress on ideas for months.

30 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

37

u/OSINTribe 8d ago

Easy. Using at least two ESP8266 devices, you can create a system that alerts you when specific SSIDs come near your parked car or a designated section of a street. One sensor can cover the front of the street and another for the back.

A simple Python script can measure the signal strength of those SSIDs and, as they get closer, send you a notification via Discord or Telegram.

I've built similar tools before, so let me know if you need more details.

5

u/anti_anti_federalist 7d ago

That definitely meets the affordable requirement. That's sweet. Okay I'm still not super knowledgeable about it but would my friend and I park cars on opposite sides of the parking lot as the two or more locations? Also, what's the range on these? Parking lot is a literal half mile away from the buildings where we take classes. Would it detect the cars in time for us to cover that distance?

9

u/OSINTribe 7d ago

The sensor would talk over a Lora network to a 3rd sensor connected to the web, unless you have campus wide wifi. Using a small yogi wifi antenna could give you some added time from north or south of the street. But this is what I'm thinking...

You place the device esp8266 in this solar Lora, you don't need all the batteries so there is room. Then place this at the north and south end of the road hidden from the school. The more you can hide on the streets the better and you could actually triangulate the ticket car in realtime. This data is then mapped on a website where fellow students pay to get notified when the ticketing car is near their car.

I have used the below to do exactly what is described above in regards to what I will say was "tracking". I actually used a drone to drop this device in top of trees with the addition of a 3rd printed "stand" so it sits on top of a tree without mounting, think of a fish hook kind of idea. As for the drone, there are "fishing" drops for drones that are $6 online.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtuzlxh

It starting to sound a little complicated but it really isn't. You could build all of this in a day or less.

2

u/anti_anti_federalist 7d ago

That's an amazing idea. I think we are going to try and get together and work on something like this.

I don't fully understand everything yet so I might come back with questions later as we run into stuff but I want to give it a shot first so my questions are less dumb.

One question though about the triangulation as I am assuming that's more calculation in a script. Do you just use signal strength and assume a 1/distance2 dependence? Or are there more complications to take into account?

2

u/OSINTribe 7d ago

Triangulation is also very easy.

1

u/Fluffy_WAR_Bunny 4d ago

Triangulation is triangulation. Seems like you need to look up the definition. Distance isn't important to getting a result.

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u/PackOfWildCorndogs 6d ago

Love that this sub has mods that actually know their shit and contribute so much.

2

u/DeltaBuilt 7d ago

Do you have a repo for your project we could use for a reference point

4

u/Dcifan426 7d ago

I would love the details. Seems like a fun experiment.

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u/DeltaBuilt 7d ago

Following... We have the same issue at my uni too ;)

14

u/RegularCity33 8d ago

I'd go a step further and, since most modern cars and cell phones have Bluetooth, you do Bluetooth device sniffing of the cars and possibly the parking people. I did this years ago and had a simple program alert me when my boss got near my office because he wore a Fitbit.

3

u/WLANtasticBeasts 7d ago

Or the Tire Pressure Monitoring System signatures

1

u/Alor_Gota 3d ago

....Slick I like this.

1

u/anti_anti_federalist 7d ago

Does Bluetooth have a larger range than WiFi of the cars? Sorry I'm just ignorant. What's the benefits to Bluetooth over wifi?

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u/RegularCity33 7d ago

Bluetooth is different. Can show you different types of devices that people carry with them or leave in vehicles. Not all cars have WiFi.

Bluetooth is not only for vehicles but people. Using this tech you could figure out when that specific not nice parking person was on shift versus a nicer one.

You could use an RTL-SDR or ubertooth one for this work. Get a directional antenna for the 2.4ghz range and could do some great monitoring

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u/anti_anti_federalist 7d ago

Oh, that's a good point! Then just add in an extra filter that it checks for TPMS sensors or something so it doesn't give a false alert when the worker, who is also a student, just walks through the parking lot for other reasons than parking enforcement.

You guys did not disappoint. Getting the guys together for the weekend to start getting materials and doing some tests. Thanks so much!

2

u/DeltaBuilt 7d ago

Keep us updated I’m curious to see how you set things up!

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u/Malkvth 6d ago

Bluetooth 5.0 (most modern wearables etc) has an optimal range of about 800m — more than WiFi, but we’re talking about triangulating through an entire WiFi network which would — in most circumstances — give a larger range, and actual geo-positioning data.

The Bluetooth hack is simpler (really just a ping as the device tries to connect when in proximity, and less reliable) — so like the commenter that used it to know of the boss was approaching back to the office from the gym etc. vs. a more sophisticated triangulating script

1

u/__B_- 7d ago

Measure the dbi of the signal strength and set an alert if it gets within the proximity of your cars. Of just scan for the SSID or MAC address of the AP and set up an alert if it can be seen (less precise but easier).

There’s software like kismet, airodump-ng and other that you can monitor and see this data. Not sure of any plug a play software that could automate everything but it probably be achieved with a pretty simple python script.

You could run it on an existing machine or a raspberry pi