[HN Gopher] I'm putting a WiFi router into a wall charger
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I'm putting a WiFi router into a wall charger
Author : giuliomagnifico
Score : 161 points
Date : 2021-10-27 10:18 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (machinehum.medium.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (machinehum.medium.com)
| cunidev wrote:
| > I ended up choosing the Allwinner A33; it's an older MPU that
| came out in 2014. Tablet manufacturers used it in their Android
| devices, and since Android uses Linux, we should get good
| mainline support.
|
| Not quite. Mainlining ARM chips tend to be a demanding task, and
| the not-so-widespread A33 is still a work in progress
| megous wrote:
| Looks well enough supported, looking at the DT files in Linux.
| afandian wrote:
| Do yo know why this is the case? Due to integrated peripherals?
| Or is there something particularly incompatible about the ARM
| architecture?
| bravetraveler wrote:
| I think there's a fair amount of ARM that's different about
| each implementation.
|
| eg: early boot - initialization of hardware is timing/order
| dependent
| cunidev wrote:
| ARM SoCs are complex and often undocumented to anyone outside
| the company making them. The arch is fine, but many drivers
| are needed e.g. for clocks (and a lot of reversing has to be
| done). Having said that, downstream (Android) kernel will
| probably be fine for a simple use case such as this
| [deleted]
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| I have one of these travel routers[1] which I have always thought
| would easily be seen as old POTS RJ-11 telephone jack if it was
| spraypainted beige.
|
| 1: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt300n/
| proxysna wrote:
| > Drop one of these in a Mcdonald's, and nobody's going to expect
| a thing. You can leave it for days, while it collects data and
| marshals it back to your home network.
|
| brave assumptions. it's will be gone in 30 minutes.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| Was thinking the same thing. Leaving stuff in public that
| resemble known consumer electronics will guarantee they perform
| disappearing acts ASAP.
|
| Ideally, you'd want something firmly attached to a wall,
| something that looks industrial/enterprisey, like it's an
| important part of the building alarm, water, power, HVAC or
| network system. Then people won't fuck with it.
|
| And when you're installing it, wear a brightly coloured safety
| vest, helmet, badge, clipboard, safety boots and a tool belt
| around your waist. That way you look super official and nobody
| will question you and I just made this stuff up, no guarantee
| that it'll work IRL :)
| marcosdumay wrote:
| The police on my city arrested this week 3 people that stole
| ~4tons of cable, on daylight, in crowded streets.
|
| They did exactly that. Got a very visible vest, with a
| company logo, closed part of the walkway, and dig the cables
| without anybody suspecting anything.
| Wulf_ wrote:
| :( it's the second time today I've read the 'F' word on HN. I
| usually don't encounter it here which makes me like this
| community more.
|
| I'm not a leader of this community so my opinion doesn't
| matter but as a fellow human I'd like to request that you use
| another word to express yourself. I know this is subjective
| but I wanted to share this with you. In any case, I hope you
| have a good day :)
| a1369209993 wrote:
| Die in a fire, politically-correct scum.
| folkhack wrote:
| Cursing is pretty common on here. Just re-read the
| guidelines and there's no rules against inappropriate
| language like the "f-word"... Especially when considering
| such a benign usage as the parent comment, ie: just
| replacing the verb in "mess with" which is not targeting
| the language at anyone/anything.
|
| It may not be as common as other platforms, but casual
| conversation does happen here which includes the occasional
| curse word.
|
| Just trying to inform - I'm sorry you're sensitive to it.
| Deinos wrote:
| Agreed. I was thinking something like a GFCI Outlet Tester
| would have a better chance of sticking around... Make it seem
| like the electrician forgot to retrieve it but will be back
| for it in a few.
| proxysna wrote:
| Anything that looks like it is attached to wall or just
| hidden from eyes, will have a lot more chances to avoid being
| stolen/reported.
|
| When i see one of the usb outlets with exposed screws in
| public the only thing that comes to mind is to partially
| disassemble the oulet and power the device from it leaving
| the device inside. There is much less of a chance that
| someone will report a partially malfunctioning USB outlet
| than someone snatching a free power brick.
|
| Never done anything like that with a public outlet, did
| something similiar with my personal hardware.
|
| Regarding size, Lichee Pi [0] comes to mind.
|
| [0] https://www.licheepizero.us/
| blamarvt wrote:
| Now, put it in a case like [1] this with USB pass-through and
| slap a "Property of McDonalds IT" sticker on it and I'm
| guessing you could keep it there for longer...
|
| [1]
| https://www.allelectronics.com/item/actx-1620/16-vac-20-va-w...
| xxs wrote:
| c'mon epoxy the thing to the outlet
| EastOfTruth wrote:
| Are you saying that you need to hide a USB thumb-drive in a
| wall charger instead?
| agumonkey wrote:
| Order two game theoretic trick: fake a main socket device that
| is in fact a battery powered sniffing tool. Robber may
| willingly carry that thing in his home.
| allo37 wrote:
| It reminds me a bit of an Orange Pi Zero:
| http://www.orangepi.org/orangepizero/
|
| Cool project! I'm always impressed with people who have the
| patience to design their own MPU-based boards.
| tyingq wrote:
| There's a TP-Link WR810N, that looks quite a lot like a knockoff
| Mac charger. Can run OpenWRT, though a lot less well equipped
| than the device in the linked article.
|
| https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr...
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I use their updated version, advertised as a travel router. It
| is pretty small and I carry it while traveling.
|
| https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr...
|
| The 1st Gen Apple Airport Express, with the wall plug, was once
| a good option.
| andrew_ wrote:
| I use them (AirPort 1st gen) for a printer access point to
| enable wireless printing. Unfortunately they can't act as a
| wireless bridge due to hardware limitations and need to be
| hardwired to a network to function.
| mobilio wrote:
| AAE it's different because uses Broadcom chipsets.
|
| That TP-Links are running on Athreos and later on MediaTek.
|
| Difference - Broadcom drivers are old and for old Linux
| versions (like 2.4 or 2.6).
| sowbug wrote:
| I have a couple OpenWRT configurations that I used to use with
| the 703N to turn it into specific plug-and-play appliances:
| https://github.com/sowbug/703n.
|
| I'm not sure if they'd work with this model, but I hope they're
| helpful.
| gabkins wrote:
| Why assume that it will not go missing? People will probably get
| it and tinker with it at home. Some might throw it away outside
| of the establishment.
| karaterobot wrote:
| Right. The author mentions McDonald's as a site: I'd assume
| Starbucks or another coffee shop is probably a better one,
| since more people bring laptops there to work. Does a wall
| charger last more than a day plugged in at a Starbucks location
| before getting stolen or, at the very least, removed during
| cleaning?
| whalesalad wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort_Express#/media/File:Ap...
|
| Could be configured as a router, access point to extend a
| network, or could join a network wirelessly and then bridge
| devices on the LAN to it. Also had optical audio out. Really
| remarkable little device considering it came out in like 2004.
| deeblering4 wrote:
| > Drop one of these in a Mcdonald's, and nobody's going to expect
| a thing. You can leave it for days, while it collects data and
| marshals it back to your home network.
|
| Haven't you seen the 90s Hollywood smash hit 'hackers' starring
| Angelina Jolie? Never hack from you home network, it's
| universally stupid man!
| nikon wrote:
| You don't hack a bank across state lines from your house,
| you'll get nailed by the FBI. Where are your brains, in your
| ass? Don't you know anything?
| keville wrote:
| Okay, the quote is spot-on, sure; but the username? This is
| just surreal.
| Enginerrrd wrote:
| Except it was phreak that said it wasn't it?
| keville wrote:
| You're correct, but still, a suspiciously-accurate
| username for the quote-poster!
| phreack wrote:
| Now I want to post a Nikon quote. You're in the butter
| zone now, baby!
| bitwize wrote:
| It's stupid, man, it's universally stupid.
| swalsh wrote:
| This movie is how I learned not to store my meta mask mnemonic
| in a file named "junk"
| dylan604 wrote:
| i thought it was the trash file
| ruined wrote:
| yeah, garbage, okay, give me garbage
| rexreed wrote:
| Why as a wall wart? Odds of discovery and removal are high.
|
| Instead fit it into a lightbulb form factor, and replace a
| lightblub in the restroom. Or you can be SUPER brave and fit it
| into a wall outlet form factor and replace the whole outlet /
| receptacle.
| [deleted]
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| Make it look like a hubble-twist-lock that a 120VAC standard
| 15A recepticle accepts. No one would suspect. Scuff it up and
| make it dirty. Bingo.
| adfm wrote:
| Here's one I made years ago that found its way into a patent
| application or two.
|
| https://boingboing.net/2003/05/14/wifi-nightlight.html
| waltbosz wrote:
| I've heard of electricians who will change a live receptical. I
| even found this video exhibition
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WERqtFfgcyo
| jrockway wrote:
| Interesting. I would be inclined to attach ground and neutral
| first, though. That seems to be the algorithm for all manner
| of connectors (UK plugs interfacing with outlets, USB, SATA,
| etc. -- they all make sure ground makes contact before power
| or data).
| kube-system wrote:
| Devices connect ground first because if there's a fault
| when something else connects, they want to be able to send
| the power to ground.
|
| I think his plan was the opposite: to _avoid_ having a path
| to ground, in the case his body was part of that path.
| jrockway wrote:
| Isn't your body the best path to ground when the outlet
| isn't grounded?
|
| I kind of see what he's up to, though. Basically, if you
| touch the hot wire, or one of the screws that it's
| attached to, you probably get shocked. That is
| unavoidable; turn off the power before starting work to
| minimize your risk. (The risk is, of course, never zero,
| so do be careful even if you're sure the power is off.)
|
| If you connect neutral first and then hot, you still get
| shocked if you touch the hot wire... but you also short
| out if the hot wire that you're screwing to the terminal
| touches the neutral (or ground) wire. That will cause the
| circuit breaker to open (or failing that, a fire),
| defeating the purpose of working on an energized system.
| So I guess this procedure is optimized for uptime, at an
| increased risk of death.
| kube-system wrote:
| I think that is also likely, but I was thinking along the
| lines of: yes, your body is the best path to ground when
| the outlet isn't grounded, but, [hot > body > your shoes
| > floor] is higher resistance than [hot > body >
| neutral/ground]
| rpmisms wrote:
| Many electricians will do this if needed. My brother-in-law
| gets shocked with 110v on a regular basis, and doesn't really
| mind anymore. I don't think many would work on a hot 240v
| circuit, though.
| dilyevsky wrote:
| I've been accidentally zapped by 110 and 220 and former
| feels like a tickle compared to latter which was seriously
| painful
| Spare_account wrote:
| UK (230V) here, I've observed electricians working on live
| circuits frequently. That's why tools like this exist,
| 'safe' for working up to 1000V:
|
| https://www.machinemart.co.uk/c/vde--insulated-tools/
|
| Despite being warned not to over and over again, I have
| replaced multiple electrical outlets and light switches in
| my home without flipping the breakers
| laurent92 wrote:
| At least please don't be seen by kids. They might believe
| it's nothing.
| newaccount74 wrote:
| I've accidentally touched 230V a few times. It happened
| when I thought I turned off power but I didn't. (which is
| why you should short live and ground after turning off
| power to make sure it is actually turned off)
| sbierwagen wrote:
| I did commercial lighting for a few years.
| Relamp/reballast or LED retrofits are almost always done
| during business hours, with the lights on. Big lighting
| systems usually run at 277V. (Phase-to-neural voltage of
| 480V three-phase)
|
| I would much rather work on a hot 277V lighting fixture
| than a 120V wall socket. Much more room to work, wire
| gauge is way thinner. The downside is that you're always
| on a ladder, so a big shock is comes with a ten foot fall
| as a free bonus. If I'm touching anything inside a wall,
| the breaker is getting flipped.
| ISL wrote:
| > Despite being warned not to over and over again, I have
| replaced multiple electrical outlets and light switches
| in my home without flipping the breakers
|
| The consequences at hand make working with even house-
| voltage electricity a "wicked learning environment" [1].
| The first time you get things wrong may be lethal,
| without the opportunity to learn from experience.
|
| Please consider turning the power off the next time you
| do electrical work. I don't know you, but I still care
| whether or not you get zapped :).
|
| [1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/experience-
| studio/20...
| IshKebab wrote:
| "Despite being told I was doing something stupid over and
| over again, I continued to do that stupid thing."
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| Yes? Do you have anything more to say?
|
| The egg safety standards in the US and EU come to mind.
| Each standard considers the other standard to be so
| unsafe it must be _banned_. But they 're both fine.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| They are both fine, but probably dangerous to have
| _mixed_.
| OJFord wrote:
| That's not ' _why_ ' they exist, (at least, that's not my
| understanding, or why I have a set) it's not easy to not
| touch anything with anything else, but it's a nice
| safeguard while poking about somewhere you _think_ is
| made safe.
|
| What I haven't seen (and don't know why?) is a VDE
| screwdriver in the neon/LED voltage detection style.
|
| Personally I even isolate lighting circuits to change a
| bulb. It almost certainly wouldn't be a problem if I
| didn't, but it's so easy, why not.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| A residential voltage electric shock has a low probability
| of killing you, but each one has that probability, and some
| day you may be unlucky.
|
| Knowing how to move around the wire will further reduce the
| probability, so you can indeed learn to improve your odds.
| But still, each shock carries that probability (and it's
| much higher than the things we consider common, like
| driving a car in a high-speed road). How many times are you
| ok with putting your life at risk?
|
| One should better avoid working on live wires. If you can't
| avoid, there are gear and safety procedures that may save
| your life, uncomfortable as they are. There is no reason
| for getting shocked all the time.
| Dylan16807 wrote:
| > How many times are you ok with putting your life at
| risk?
|
| That's not the right question to ask. If it was that
| black and white then you'd never get in a car.
| hansel_der wrote:
| confirm from experience: 240V is no joking matter, but it's
| not _that_ dangerous either (otherwise it would be higher)
| rpmisms wrote:
| As long as 110 doesn't go through your chest, it's
| probably fine. I've had 110 through my chest and I was
| fine. 240 through your chest is a lot scarier.
| OJFord wrote:
| Macbooks (since the 'unibody' aluminium design)
| infamously pass a little stray current through the
| chassis, even earthed in the UK. It's quite unpleasant if
| I rest my hand between laptop and desktop keyboard
| (laptop sometimes to the side) touching both, like a
| steadily warming burn.
|
| Hardly compares to the shock (pun intended) I got when I
| happened to touch the long-'tingly' light switch at the
| same time as another well-earthed one through the door
| though.
| OJFord wrote:
| How can you leave that 'in a McDonalds for days'? I bet it would
| be nicked within the hour (by someone thinking it's just a
| charger).
| ImPostingOnHN wrote:
| perfect, get a whole bunch and we'll have potentially compiled
| a network of thieves without their knowledge
|
| do you think enough people are opportunistically malicious to
| form a reliable mesh network of jerks?
| tyingq wrote:
| Perhaps a wall-plug air-freshener form factor would last
| longer?
| samwillis wrote:
| Even better (or worse?) hide it behind the faceplate, a
| little more work but certainly better hidden! Just turn up in
| a yellow jacket, official looking lanyard and tools...
| fennecfoxen wrote:
| The (discontinued) Aruba AP-65 WB did this. It was
| originally targeted at hospitality applications (hotels
| etc), where the stealth factor deters tampering:
|
| https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/29557041/aruba-
| ap65wb...
|
| They did it as a 2-gang but you could surely do smaller.
| Maximus9000 wrote:
| or make it look like a blank wall faceplate on the consumer
| facing side, but on the other side it has a plug in to get
| power. Ideally, no tools are required to "install" it.
|
| To consumers, it should look like this:
| https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-1-gang-midway-
| nylon...
| xsmasher wrote:
| There are nightlights that are normal switchplates on the
| front, with springy connectors on the back that get power
| from the screws on the side of the light switch.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Single-SnapPower-SwitchLight-
| Built-Am...
| judge2020 wrote:
| Don't forget to bring a clipboard.
| Loughla wrote:
| You laugh, but when I was in graduate school working long
| hours, if I needed a break from the PhD's who controlled
| me, I would go to a random building with a clipboard and
| one other item (flashlight, red pen, sometimes just a
| stick) and find a dark room to hide/sleep in. No one asks
| you questions if you have a clipboard and something else
| that makes them assume you know what you're doing.
| jaclaz wrote:
| Coincidentally I just got an el-cheapo one, that bar the
| quite obvious antennas and blinking leds is a "direct plugin"
| (as your typical air freshener), the thingy is sold
| everywhere with different brands but the origin should be
| this[0], the nice thing is that it has the plug that can be
| rotated 90 degrees so it is good for both horizontal and
| vertical sockets.
|
| [0] http://www.pix-link.com/page50?product_id=144
| tyingq wrote:
| A little better version of that pdf:
| https://www.4gon.co.uk/documents/aruba_ap65wb_datasheet.pdf
| ectopod wrote:
| I wouldn't steal it but I would unplug it to stop the stink.
| Air fresheners do not.
| jsight wrote:
| It depends on the placement of the outlet. I think some are
| pretty inconspicuous under tables or seats. I bet there are
| places that wouldn't be noticed for days.
| thejosh wrote:
| Also https://hak5.org/collections/mischief-
| gadgets/products/o-mg-... is similar.
| hn_throwaway_69 wrote:
| I've always wanted to make something like this, but have it
| connect to a public WiFi network and operate as a VPN server.
| Thereby allowing fully anonymous internet browsing. One of many
| challenges would be getting past the captive portal.
|
| This would in practice be violating the terms of service of the
| WiFi network and possibly also be illegal?
| vineyardmike wrote:
| > This would in practice be violating the terms of service of
| the WiFi network and possibly also be illegal?
|
| Probably but you'd have to check the captive portal's TOS
| kawsper wrote:
| That looks neat, I used to use a ESP8266 to rickroll people that
| were looking for free WiFi: http://kaspergrubbe.com/esp8266
| jack_pp wrote:
| Seems a bit large for it to not draw attention
| nkrisc wrote:
| With a correctly designed enclosure (chamfered edges, black),
| it might not look all that suspicious tucked away somewhere
| charging a phone.
| aetherspawn wrote:
| You'd be better off putting a battery in it and dropping it
| under a bin or something.
| nkrisc wrote:
| That's going to be _way_ more suspicious that plugging in a
| phone charger, given the history of bombs being left in
| trash cans.
| pessimizer wrote:
| The reason why there's a history of bombs being left in
| trash cans is because it's easy and discrete.
| nkrisc wrote:
| Which is also why it's suspicious if someone sees you do
| it. Someone seeing you plug in a phone charger is much
| less suspicious.
|
| Obviously it's not suspicious if no one sees you do it.
| lanternfish wrote:
| Not that much larger than those big block laptop adaptors,
| black injection molding would make it look pretty legit.
| moksly wrote:
| While I'm unsure how it would pick up anything useful I can
| certainly see how it would work in an enterprise office.
|
| I've worked in the public sector for decades, and if you left an
| iPhone charger somewhere in an open office space, it would get
| used by someone.
|
| Slip a few of those chargers into one of our massive orders for
| hardware and no one would ever find out.
| alexpotato wrote:
| Guess everyone has forgotten about Conversnitch, the
| RaspberryPi based microphone disguised as a lamp:
| http://vimeo.com/87564506
| adolph wrote:
| It's amazing to see that the video is from 7 years ago.
| Within the year the Amazon Echo was released and folks put
| microphones everywhere.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Echo#History
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
| i_like_waiting wrote:
| Yeah, stuxnet type of distribution, you keep few of them around
| the office "dropped on the pavement" and chance of success is
| quite high
| dls2016 wrote:
| I've heard of IT departments who place USB sticks around the
| building and then send nasty-grams to whoever plugs it into a
| device on the corporate network. (I don't know exact
| details.)
| tootie wrote:
| This was probably more useful in the past but nowadays even
| local traffic is usually encrypted. All you'd catch is DNS
| lookups.
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(page generated 2021-10-29 23:01 UTC)