I did not understand any of that…
Meet Rayhunter: A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying
Submitted 2 months ago by Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying
Comments
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
This is the easiest explanation I could come up with:
Your phone (or other cellular devices) constantly broadcasts a few identifiers. The IMEI, which is tied directly to the cellular hardware in your device, and the IMSI, which is tied to your SIM card. Law enforcement uses so called cell-site simulators, which basically pretend to be cellular antennas, while actually just grabbing IMEIs and IMSIs from every device in the area. This is often used during protests, in order to identify those who attend them.
Rayhunter is a piece of software that detects the presence of cell-site simulators, making attendants of protests aware of the hidden danger.
This is especially important, now that the US basically transformed into an authoritarian state. We’ve already seen how Trump strategically uses law enforcement to crack down on protests, such as the BLM movement in 2020. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_a63r5Km9I) Being aware of law enforcement/intelligence operations that try to identify and track down protest attendants is more important than ever.
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They do this so consistently at protests, the Georgia AG tried to claim it showed criminal intent to not bring your phone to a protest for tracking.
db2@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Short version is it’s a man-in-the-middle detector to see if you’re being spied on, using a cheap off the shelf cellular device.
MTK@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Lit lit lit
Geodad@lemm.ee 2 months ago
There used to be an IMSII detector app in F-Droid. No idea what happened to it.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
It needed Xposed framework and worked only on some devices, which are not available anymore.
Geodad@lemm.ee 2 months ago
That explains it. Thanks.
Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
It probably needs some permissions that aren’t available in newer Android versions anymore
NOPper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Doing my part!
ililiililiililiilili@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Is it necessary to get a cell plan to run the hotspot? If its just a matter of buying the $20 and loading EFF’s software, I’m definitely onboard!
Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Is it necessary to get a cell plan to run the hotspot?
As far as I’m aware: no. Cell-site simulators could theoretically only target devices that connect with a valid IMSI, but I kinda doubt that they are doing that. But you could get a cheap prepaid SIM, instead of an actual cell plan.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
As far as I’m aware: no.
How does data get back to EFF?
db2@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I know for phones even an inactive sim works to talk to the towers enough for 911 to work. Might be the same.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
Just got mine and getting this error. Would appreciate any support you nerds can give me because I don’t have a Github account:
Using adb at ./platform-tools/adb Force a switch into the debug mode to enable ADB /Applications/release/install-common.sh: line 20: ./serial-macos-latest/serial: Bad CPU type in executablerottingleaf@lemmy.world 2 months ago
From what’s written here, it appears you have an Intel Mac and the thing has only ARM Mac executable, or the other way around.
Ulrich@feddit.org 2 months ago
It didn’t mention anything about the CPU in the install instructions…
I guess I’ll give it a try on my Linux machine.
Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Bad CPU type in executable
Do you use an Apple Silicon Mac by any chance?
Jrockwar@feddit.uk 2 months ago
It’s the other way around, an Apple Silicon Mac would be able to run an intel binary through Rosetta (I think there’s almost no exceptions at this point). It’s intel macs that can’t run Arm specific binaries.
NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I think it needs special hardware to run on:
It is developed to run on an Orbic mobile hotspot (Amazon, Ebay) which is available for $20 or less at the time of this writing.
FireWire400@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Whoever designs their logos definitely needs a raise IMO.
I’d buy all the stickers if it didn’t cost three times their value just to ship them to me.
AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
I hadn’t noticed this until you pointed it out, but yeah, their logos are fire