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srlabs / blue-merle

The blue-merle package enhances anonymity and reduces forensic traceability of the GL-E750 Mudi 4G mobile wi-fi router
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
171 stars 26 forks source link

feature request: Add an option to disable the cellular modem, if the router is connected to a Wi-Fi. #25

Open Luther-Harris opened 8 months ago

Luther-Harris commented 8 months ago

I have a MacroDroid script on my phone, that automatically detects if my phone is connected to Wi-Fi, and then puts the phone into Airplane Mode, disabling the cellular modem, but without disabling the Wi-Fi connectivity. This prevents my phone from being associated with the locations where I spend the majority of my time.

There's no use for expensive mobile data if you're connected to free Wi-Fi, and a mobile router than is stationary for an extended duration, while connected to the cellular network, puts the owner at risk of being "geographically profiled".

The router will necessarily spend the majority of its time in locations associated with the identity of the owner, such as their home, or their place of employment, allowing them to be identified.

The duration of the surveillance necessary to identity the owner of the device, via "geographic profiling", could be less than 7 days.

Even if the IMEI is changed every 7 days, this is not sufficient to prevent the owner from being identified using historical CSLI (Cell Site Location Information) data, which is retained by cellular providers for a minimum of 2 years, if not permanently.

It is conceivable that CSLI data recorded in proximity to a sensitive location, such as a place of worship, a political protest, an abortion clinic, could be used to trace a person directly to their residence.

As as example, if the owner attended a political protest, or traveled to a jurisdiction where abortion is legal, before returning home to a state where it is not, merely changing the IMSI/IMEI would not preserve their anonymity, as the association with locations associated with their identity would already have happened.

Would the Blue Merle developers be willing to implement a feature that automatically detects the presence of a Wi-Fi connection, and then disables the cellular modem?

It could also function in reverse, with the cellular modem being re-enabled after the Wi-Fi is disconnected.

This feature would significantly increase the "location privacy" provided by Blue Merle.

Thank you, please tell me what you think.

muelli commented 8 months ago

I like the idea. Before building and maintaining something that reliably turns the modem on and off based on the currently used Wifi (or the network names in range), I guess we could start by offering a button the Web interface to cut the power from the modem. Maybe we can ask gl-inet to offer such functionality from their main Web UI.

Note to my future self: echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/lte_power/value

Luther-Harris commented 7 months ago

Note to my future self: echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/lte_power/value

I did a Google search for /sys/class/gpio/lte_power, and this page was the only search result.

Why not use the AT command gl_modem AT AT+CFUN=4 already being used by Blue Merle to disable the modem?

Which of these commands is best means of enabling "Airplane Mode" on a mobile router?

I think it would be a very simple "if/else" conditional contained within a while loop, in a bash script that's started automatically on every reboot.

I have a similar bash script running on my laptop, except that it shuts off the entire computer in the event that an unrecognized USB device is inserted.