Public HD

I've been coming up with a sort of "Public harddrive" system for a while now. Sort of inspired by a mix of the USB Dead Drop thing and those "Free Little Library" boxes people set out. Kinda like one of those aforementioned USB Dead Drops but more known by the public, and without filesize or drive failure as limitations. A couple terabyte hard drives that you can put whatever on, but you still have to travel to and physically connect with. I was thinking set up a sort of cabinet thing that houses the drives, has a couple of retractable usb cables to plug into, set it out in public somewhere. There's a couple drawbacks to this i can think of but they're mostly manageable. There's of course people transferring pizza or other illegal content but that can just be deleted and checked for regularly. Malware and such could be a problem too but that could be checked for, at least the obvious stuff. Then there's the drive being formatted by someone, which i suppose could be remedied by consistent backups. What do you think of it, lain? Is it worth a shot? What would be some good places to set up something like this?

I live in a big city and we have little to no connection in the metro underground. I think it could be fun to have one piratebox in every metro, where one could connect to through wifi, and either share files or post something and read the posts from previous users.

>>6460 Use a read-only server. >>6463 metros are usually routinely scanned for such items as part of security sweeps

>>6464 but how would people upload to a read-only server?

This solution is only cool if its used. Even if you make an easy to use system with lots of sweet content, if nobody uses it, its not that interesting. So it might be a good idea to think of who your target users are. University students could be a good target audience. Tucking something like this into a library at a university might work well. You could hollow out a fake book, put in the drive and slip it on the shelves. You could put it by other technical books CS students would be likely to read and put something on the spine that tips them off. Knowing of course it would only last for a while before someone square finds out and removes/reports the existence of the book. >>6464 If you want to target commuters, a pirate box model might work better. Which is different than what you described but I bet people would use it. You could create a open public WiFi network called Free Files or whatever and use a captive portal to explain to people what it does. It would be available for as long as you are on transit though so might not work well. Having something like a cabinet to house drives would be cool, but where to put it so that its accessible? You could put it in front of a place of residence, but might be awkward to access.

>>6472 Wanted to clarify... i'm talking about creating a pirate box, putting it in your bag and bringing it with on every day on your commute.

>>6473 How would people know about it?

>>6474 Users would find it while looking for free wifi hotspots.

>>6460 love this idea. wish the dead drops took off earlier. just be wary of usb killers and similar attacks. participants should at least own/use one of these: https://www.usbkill.com/collections/usbkill-accessories/products/usbkill-shield >>6464 very cool idea. if r/w there'd be obvious availability vulnerabilities, so there'd have to be a way to get data on there (possibly a blockchain? nodes could vote to include a piece of data...).

>>6472 > You could hollow out a fake book, put in the drive and slip it on the shelves I am a librarian, if the staff is competent they will often check for books that have been tampered with. if your local library works 'open shelf' (meaning you can go and get the books by yourself) you might have about a month before they find out. a week tops if you have to ask your librarian for material instead A better solution for open shelf libraries would be to hide the drive inside the shelf itself, there's often space behind books, or lots of nooks and crannies that can comfortably house usb drives. I know because I do it myself and redirect discerning users to the stash location when they ask for programming books or other hard to acquire material. the rest of the staff is none the wiser

>>6460 when i lived in a big city in germany i tried a bunch of dead drops all had the same soykaf on it, nobody ever used them also now i would not use them because i dont trust people expect your soykaf be stolen or destroyed but if you want to do it, you could combine it with a geo cache

>>6496 I actually plan to do something similar to this in TUM. The Library is a no go but after the virus I will do it either in the Mensa or the Library.

>>6460 This is the dumbest idea. The main attraction of a USB drive is that it has enough write cycles to serve the function before someone destroys or steals it. A hard drive of large capacity is a big waste waiting to happen. Besides, nobody ever uses netbooks anymore, and smartphones are too wimpy to power a hard drive, nobody even carries a required cable. It's a crappy "art" project from 2009 ffs. Follow the piratebox route: get a tiny itty bitty computer board (one of those wifi card reader and 4G router thingies), slide in an SD card of desired capacity, compile upstream OpenWRT to avoid hax, set up a bulletin board software and place it near power source yet with good wireless accessibility and deterrence to vandalize/steal: a street or architectural light in public place is a great power source for evenings when local youths gather around to sip on beer. You will need some urban camouflage and social engineering skills to install this thing in plain sight without raising suspicion. Advertise with QR stickers because nobody checks for free wifi anymore. People actually capable of locating it are either super computer nerds who won't vandalize it, of your local FBI, lowering the possibility of being destroyed within 24 hours.

>>6743 You can also use 1, 2, 4, 8 kilobyte NFC tags, hide them behind radio-permeable material (plastic, tile, plaster, plywood, glass) and use them to exchange text messages and small files. Being both wireless and passively powered at close range makes it more resilient. Here is a device with similar data storage function, but pocketed: https://n-o-d-e.net/nfckey2.html And finally, some sort of software abstraction with nice gui: https://github.com/mofosyne/NFCMessageBoard

I want to use a bunch of old thumb drives for a similar thing. Just throw some books, maybe short videos and other cool material on them and write a short readme to tell the finder that they should put them out into public again after finding the files and maybe hitting me up with an email about where they found it. Then I would put them into public places, like using duct tape to stick them under a park bench, around uni maybe because people there are probably most interested. Any advice for this? Will people even bother with random flash drives that they find in random places? Will it survive for a couple of days outdoors in winter? What would you put on it?

Instead of just a drive by itself why not a Pi or similar small computing device added that is hardened against malware and can scan for and delete it from it's system automatically so you don't have to hassle manually checking? Just use a list and an AI recognition type so it doesnt need contantly updated so often. Also consider containing it in a sturdy waterproof container that wont block RF and burry it underground or if you're concerned someone will investigate put it up high in a tree out of sight so dogs can't get close. However signal strength will give it away anyway and will be checked first so that may be pointless effort. If you leave no DNA evidence if someone did put something illegal on it so long as no one saw you put it there and no record of you buying all the parts together and your phone didnt snitch your gps location it would be difficult to tie to you assuming this is a relatively public space but this gives you time to check what's on it. Dont invest too much money since you have to assume it will be either destroyed or seized.

>>7521 >that is hardened against malware and can scan for and delete it from it's system automatically so you don't have to hassle manually checking? Lol you have no idea how that stuff works right?

>>7522 I was just giving a general concept not suggesting I know how to do it or that it's currently possible that way. Ideas lead to eventual solutions.

>>7521 You just described a wireless dead drop variety. Been in use since portable computers with radio started selling, so like late 80's or so. Lately this sort of thing been known as PirateBox, LibraryBox, FreedomBox, BiblioBox, CowBox, and so on. Author of original USB dead drops map even made few: https://arambartholl.com/old/12v-eng.html Here's map for newfrens: https://deaddrops.com/ >Raspberry Pi AI recognition type soya_bean_product_consumer.png This thing will be discovered by less people than average Tor chan and how many of those have AI malware scanners? Does lainchan scan uploaded files for malware? Lol, who cares. Hardest thing would be getting it powered. You have to find unreachable place AND source of reliable electricity. What would that be? - light fixtures, streetlights - light boxes - PVC wiring channels - hanged ceiling - abandoned attics Which one of these has least technician attention and intermittent checks? >>6744 Here's what I found to possibly combine a full-fledged computer that needs 0.5A 5V power on average and a passive NFC tag: some "biohacker" degenerates made an implantable raspberry pi zero. Housed in biogel plastic to sit snug under someone's thigh skin. How is it powered then? Through Qi antenna, the "induction charging" technology that brings heat death of universe nearer so that apple users can no longer bother with plugging silly cables into their phones. http://www.pegleg.org/ Pretty neat idea in regards to concept of discreet dead drops. You bring a power bank battery with Qi coil, place it near, and get access to fully-fledged wireless computer right behind thin piece of wood/glass/tile which stays out of clear sight.

>>7524 >You just described a wireless dead drop variety I know. OP did a follow up post clarifying they want to do a PirateBox so I was responding on that note. >This thing will be discovered by less people than average Tor chan and how many of those have AI malware scanners? I understand your point but you're not getting the reason I mentioned that. I was going on the premise of trying to make it actually known by people passing by and where people dont have to be too afraid to try it if they arent very familiar because one malware and they could either not participate or could even seek out to destroy the deaddrop. Im also thinking people accessing it wanting to censor content or just wanting to be a dick and delete everything they can poses a potential problem. There should be some sort of time setting for uploads where with exception to the person who uploaded recently (in case of accidental upload of private data) it should be locked down for some time period before it allows deletion of each file. This helps keep it funner by making it so it can't be easily tampered with. Similar could be achieved by only allowing read and write access but with no deletion to anyone but those with an admin password. >Hardest thing would be getting it powered. Power could be reduced by making the wireless not constantly on Id imagine. Like maybe keep it to certain hours a day. Solar power for some locations may be enough depending how much power is needed but the panels weather bad fairly quickly when no maintenance so it wont last. If placed near power lines power could be harvested from the atmosphere though that's only if very low power is needed. The circular sensors on roads at stop lights use induction iirc so if you find one with a pothole to fill couldnt that be used as a power source assuming you can protect it all from being crushed? Or do they not have enough power that could be there? Sure you can put it in a drop ceiling and as long as it's not near a water or electric line no one will look there for years. I would be concerned on fire risk with that though so precautions should be there to help prevent that. Would using repeaters help make it harder to locate the device's location from it's signal strength? Or maybe signal strength should be fluctuated incrementally intentionally as another method to help hide it? Since you threw out an idea it reminded me I have for a while been thinking of what a decentralized internet alternative would be like and I came up with the concept of something between deaddrop boxes and meshnets. Basically to get users it makes more sense to use existing hardware so it should be app based rather than only available through dedicated hardware hardly anyone will build or even buy if mass marketed. Though i could be wrong on that part but depends where someone lives. From this app it should be that anyone can post what's an equivalent to a website that can be accessed either directly within range of the poster or through a meshnet depending on what the poster allowed and what a user selects to allow themselves to connect through. It should notify people when in detected range of either all or select "sites" which they can browse while in range or while available on the meshnet but also can download content individually like any website you can or save all the contents of the site to view like you would if connected but when out of range from the poster or meshnet and you can choose to auto download the content whenever something is new if you want (basically a feed) and also you can act as a host of that data which will extend the range of the deaddrop meshnet by creating mirrors of these sites among users. So in short it is flexible in use can be a deaddrop or meshnet depending on how someone wants to use it. Making it websites might make it funner and could potentially recreate a 90s - 00s like environment to interact though in a new way. Or at least i think this is different. I couldnt find anything when i looked into the idea.

>>7526 + Power lines worth harvesting are not usually located in convenient locations, however it's doable: watch?v=ZyfXvFicp8M. + Performing induction coupling on "civilian" AC wire (110-220V) would be similar to this I assume, but adjusted to scale of voltages: watch?v=KqbIhZO7SJc + Stoplight induction coils rarely go hand-in-hand with potholes, if they installed one recently, they'd patch surrounding potholes with fresh asphalt. + Railroads in some countries carry electric current for signalling purposes: watch?v=oeYVjOdkUEc but connecting might be difficult since you'll have to do it in place not touched by wheels which means rusted area, and then hide wires and computer under gravel and still make radio reachable + On extending the signal: a directional antenna that makes a very narrow cone could be used. People wanting to access the dead drop would have to stand in very precise spot giving them less ideas on triangulating the signal. Finding direction with equally directional antenna would be rather easy, but it you put it high enough to be easily reachable, it's still better than omnidirectional antenna hanging somewhere low. + Additionally, an optical data cable can extend range from valuable data-storing computer device to less valuable access point giving you time to detect breach and evacuate the data. Range covered by regular PON wire is 2 kilometers, a plastic optical wire does not emit electromagnetic fields, so it's very hard to spot buried or hidden behind plaster and impossible to find source unless full length is pulled out. + Splicing crimp-on connectors allow tapping into live wires (usually 12DC, heavy duty up to 220V AC) without breaking the main circuit. This way you could siphon some juice intended for a light fixture without being near the light fixture itself where frequent inspection is more likely to happen.

>>7529 I was maybe not clear enough. I was talking about harvesting of ambient EM near transformers for power lines wirelessly because making direct contact I assume not only is potential hazard but could be considered a major crime even if no damage is done. I may have underestimated the challenges of harvesting EM. Apparently RF energy harvesting is more doable. It uses what is called a rectifying antenna (rectenna). https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9481920 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224227375_Investigation_of_Rectenna_Array_Configurations_for_Enhanced_RF_Power_Harvesting Another option is harvesting vibrations from busy roads but I read vibration harvesting has challenges with the varying resonant frequencies.

>>7536 I posted two images but some reason only one posted

Regularly moderated PirateBox will be fine. It won't save u from illegal pixels or malware too, but it won't get USB-killed or formatted.

I had an idea of non-interactive "static" webpage that plays internal playlist of music on a manner of web radio. Is it possible to make one without javascipt front-end? I assume the only refreshing part of a page will be album cover + track name, so that could be done with frames, right?

>>7553 There probably already have been internet radio streamers made you can reference. How you should be doing it instead of all your time making a whole webpage make a URL that can be opened in any media player, not just in browser only, for the streaming. This will make it more inviting to some people. Im not sure how difficult it would be to get this to work but I think it should be doable? Album art can be contained in the metadata of each song I believe.

>>7574 m3u stream can contain both song names and album covers, no problem for media players. But let's say 95% of people who will encounter the piratebox, will interact with it through a web page, copying m3u address into media player for is hackerman wizardry to them. I want to make page less threatening to "some people" as you say, and to curb my autism, to contain all basic functionality a regular web radio offers: displaying current track and album cover on a webpage, but without JS. This seems doable from my shallow understanding of http autorefresh pushed from server, I know Le Chat server software does this for example. So far I have not found a ready-made web-radio server software offering this. If there's a web front end for album covers, it's in Javascript. Another obstacle is potato computing hardware the piratebox would run on. A music stream requires transcoding from source file, is 10 year-old pocket-sized router capable of doing that? Now that could be simply averted if you deliver a javascript "app" inside a webpage that emulates a music player gui, shuffles through media files on the piratebox meaning all the heavy computing is done on client device with no need for transcoding, the server itself only serves files over http.

>>7591 I've also read about music player daemon and is more confused now. What does it offer what a flat directory of read-only files exposed over http does not, and only a set of specifically tailored client softwares is able to interact with it, why can't regular media plyers like VLC interact with mpd? Besides, I don't need a full "streaming" server, the user only has to choose between "stations" each are shuffled playlists of music tracks, press play/pause and change volume, I don't need them to choose which individual music tracks to listen, in essence it's an Internet radio, should I pre-encode tracks into some sort of format, then the potato server won't be able to shuffle tracks randomly next time. It has to be "outsourced" into javascript client at this point, everyone carries a pocket computer capable of playing GTA SA and 8K video, my cheap disposable piratebox router board can not compete.

Even microcontroller can be a wireless dead drop Can't have much server-side processing on that. https://github.com/tomhiggins/MsgDrop https://github.com/tlack/popup-chat https://github.com/fenwick67/esp32-chatterbox https://github.com/fhessel/esp32_https_server

>>7594 Sounds like local message boards and chats would be fun for some uses if placed in right spots or could even just carry one with you and have a QR code on your shirt to connect people to it so they can anonymously talk to you and know it's you they are talking to so they can flirt if they are shy or just be jerks.

>>7604 >anonymously Between you, me and corporation that owns your phone :)

>>7615 Fair point but unless the browser records every bit of data that goes through it or your on screen keyboard keylogs and sends it somewhere (i checked if mine does and it doesnt even try to connect online unless I do an update) then not really.

Bump/Bump/Bump/Bump/Bump/

bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ bump ｏｒｉｇａｍａｌａｍａｊａｍａ

Due to surplus of 8+ year old chips, many Chinese factories started producing a very peculiar device in recent years. It consists of circa 2014 low-end smartphone hardware: Snapdragon SoC, 512MB RAM, 4GB eMMC storage, WiFi and cellular radio - in a USB dongle format. They call such device "4G LTE WIFI MODEM" and it runs Android under the hood. A particular off-brand device which is also sold for as low as $6-10 on Aliexpress was recently hacked to run mainline Debian with latest Linux kernel: ⸰ https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/08/21/review-of-4g-lte-wifi-modem-hotspot/ ⸰ https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/08/04/inexpensive-snapdragon-410-4g-lte-wifi-modem-debian-11/ ⸰ https://github.com/OpenStick/OpenStick/ ⸰ https://extrowerk.com/2022/07/31/OpenStick/

>>9798 This is very interesting. Any suggestions for usecases for such a modded usb dongle running Debian? Nevermind. They aren't selling that one with the Quad core SoC anymore. All the listings on AliExpress nowadays only come with a 9600 - a chip only designed for mere 4G routing functionality. https://hackaday.com/2022/08/03/hackable-20-modem-combines-lte-and-pi-zero-w2-power/

>>6460 I make my own USB killers and leave them in public places for people like you to find.

>>9901 Thanks, you saved me from a wrong purchase. I looked around aliexpress and found this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005037178617.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.21ef1802np7JFe I am trying to confirm with the seller if it is really the 8916.

>>9901 >>10009 The seller confirmed it and I made the order, let's see what I actually get (in a few days).

>>10009 >>10010 I just received the packet and disassemble the cover. It is indeed the real deal. The wiki in Chinese mentions that maybe the modem will not work on this particular device (FY_UZ801) but it will be able to run Debian.

>>10062 Finally, I can confirm through adb that the chip is the correct one (first pic) and that flashing it succeeded. The only unexpected thing is that it is necessary to connect it to using wifi and open a secret webpage inside it to turn on android debugging: http://192.168.100.1/usbdebug.html After that, the instructions on this webpage work fine: https://extrowerk.com/2022/07/31/OpenStick/ But it is important for this particular uz801 device to use base-generic.zip instead of base.zip and replace the boot.img with boot-uz801.img as per the instructions on the wiki: https://www.kancloud.cn/handsomehacker/openstick/2636506 I hope this is useful to other lainons.

>>10063 Can you change IMEI on this thing?

>>10067 Quiite possible, very naisu. https://github.com/OpenStick/OpenStick/issues/18 Tools download: https://mega.nz/folder/2zp0TAjK#gfRy26hnSKSwcP_0DIf-Jg

>>10063 very interesting, is there a way to read sms on this thing? I'm thinking that this would be a nice VPN/disposable phone number machine

>>10152 It should be possible, the wiki mentions it. https://www.kancloud.cn/handsomehacker/openstick/2647180 I think getting one with the correct bands for your country is the tricky part.

>>6496 That's the usual thing expected, not expect everybody be tech savvy or collaborate. People is scared from strange nets and they have internet already in phones, why they will search for wifi ? Even in android there is not notification for open wifi nearby anymore. My bet is target the curiosity of the most tech capable, and make it easy: Everybody have a phone so is good idea go for wifi spot, but then requires batteries. There is apps for android for make ftp and you could use a old smartphone or rpi. The usb dead drop requires a laptop or cables for connect in a phone, so you will get more unlucky to found people using it out. The university camps , tech library, hacker spaces, tech cons, and specially, zones crowd where the access to mobile data is impossible and there is not wifi alternative ( you could rival it, calling the spot adding "fun" or whatever) ( like metro, underground pubs.. ) are the places more desirable. The big problem is the autonomy of the device in that cases. Perhaps you can hide it inside another device like a pc tower or power socket. If you can log which files are read (without log MAC of course) could be really encouraging. In both cases, put a sticker like "want something good ? search WIFI/USB here" in the zone must help. Write it with pen could work... But that could raise a eyebrow from people working there. You could write it in the non native language from your country. The idea is attract the curiosity. This projects sounds so cool in mind but is useless because the random of it, and, in my case, I almost not use smartphone out of home and like I said, there is no open wifi notifications anymore. And for the rest of people will be the same. And if someone use it, you will get lucky if collaborate and not destroy. In my opinion, put a QR with your site / onion will be much better and less hard to maintain ( and less risky ). In some cases is illegal put stickers somewhere so the onion site sounds good.

>>6460 >I've been coming up with a sort of "Public harddrive" system for a while now. Sort of inspired by a mix of the USB Dead Drop thing and those "Free Little Library" boxes people set out. I believe it already exists and is called --geocaching and is used by pedophiles to share "files".

>>6460 >"Public harddrive" find /Videos/toddler -type f -print0 | xargs -0 shred -fvzu -n 9