boring answer: do not broadcast an SSID
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
48 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
22848 readers
223 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try [email protected] if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Don't do this, your phone will periodically ask for hidden SSIDs everywhere you go, making you easy to track passively.
How does that make you easier to track?
Unless you turn off WiFi, phones are always searching for WiFi anyway.
Most devices actively ask around for the hidden SSIDs they know about. As in, they send a broadcast in cleartext called a "probe request" containing the list of hidden SSIDs every time they scan for access points.
Today usually the scans use randomised MAC addressess for privacy, but that doesn't help if you have any hidden SSIDs stored because of this list. Places like shopping malls are known to use these beacons to track the movements of individual people.
Before 802.11w (that still works almost always because 802.11w tends to be deactivated for compatibility), there was a trivial way to "unmask" a hidden SSID, you have to wait for someone to talk to the target access point, send a disassociation frame to the victim, and wait for the probe request / response when the victim automatically reconnects.
Do that many people use hidden ssids that it's worth for non-state actors to track them?
How do you have friends who visit log into your WiFi?
easy, i dont!
Just a guess: you do it for them?
How if you can't see it listed?
Plus, if it's a phone you can use your phone's wireless settings to generate a QR code that they can scan to connect automatically to the wifi. I no longer have to deal with spelling passwords or writing it for them or whatever. QR code, scan, connect, easy easy.
Good point, thanks!
"Connect to a hidden network" and it will ask you for the SSID and authentication details.
Ahh, thanks!
Wu Tang Lan
Another contender is “five year LAN”
My hotspot's name is "Searching..."
Got my best friend like 5 times with it.
"US Secret Police Station"
Havana Syndrome Ray Gun Emitter
FBI Surveillance Van #x is always a classic
Bill Wi the Science Fi
If your devices all support Unicode in SSIDs, "Perfectly Normal WiFi" in Mandarin.
beanis
ItBurnsWhenIP
"Beanis Connection"
:agony:
Okay now this is epic
Flowers By Irene
wifi network
Boo
I bet you enjoy the default Windows desktop background.
I think Gerald would be a nice name for a wifi network
While LAN puns are always good, these days I'm thinking "fuck it be explicit" so how about 'Execute all cops'?
5G Transgender Woke Ray
A classic for a network with a password is something on the lines of "Free WiFi for everyone"
Soviet Broadcast Tower
Cool Communist Compound People
“Router? But I barely know ‘er!”
Soviet Central Television
Don't talk about SSIDs. They can and are collected passively, with location data attached, on a wide scale. They can be searched by any old bloke.
Big Penis Academy
Not VLANdimir?
Pretty fly for a WiFi.