I went wardriving in downtown LA this morning with Frank Keeney and Mike Outmesguine from SOCALWUG, and published a few quick phonecam snapshots from the road which you can see here. Both Frank and Mike drive incredibly tricked-out vans packed with wall-to-wall wardriving gadgetry. Their recipe is basically (a) one or more notebook computers equipped with an independent wireless connectivity source (sierra wireless, boingo, or Sprint PCS 'net service), because they don't exploit the networks they sniff; (b) GPS device cable-connected to the main wardriving notebook to map out longitudinal/latitudinal coordinates of each WLAN along the way; (c) ham radio for two-way chat with fellow wardrivers in your team who are on the streets with you; (d) handy power converters that plug into your cigarette lighter and handily power a six-plug power strip so you can wardrive all you want with no battery worries.
Mike and Frank use several apps for network sniffing. Netstumbler is one, and is probably the best known. There are a few cool apps for PDAs, one of which is a PDA-specific version of Netstumbler. But this morning, the guys also used an application you may not have heard of — Kismet, which Frank prefers for his Linux laptop. It serves up insanely detailed data that goes way beyond SSIDs and network strength. Kismet allows you to view details of network traffic, right down to actual filenames being transmitted through unencrypted WLANs. We sniffed close to 400 network points during a 40-minute cruise that covered Chinatown and downtown LA's financial core. The percentage of these which were totally open, vulnerable, unencrypted networks was mindboggling. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of those naked WLANs appeared to belong to city/state government and law enforcement offices. Always good to know the public's data is in good hands.
More on Kismet here. Discuss
