[Ovmsdev] Hidden WiFi SSID connection?

Mark Webb-Johnson mark at webb-johnson.net
Mon Dec 4 10:20:04 HKT 2017


Forgot to mention that I found this article on hidden SSIDs that provides some technical details on how some clients do/don’t handle them:

https://lifehacker.com/5636856/is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure <https://lifehacker.com/5636856/is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure>

I’ve always felt this it was a bit of this:



and never used them myself.

Regards, Mark.

> On 4 Dec 2017, at 10:13 AM, Mark Webb-Johnson <mark at webb-johnson.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Attached message from 9th November gives more detail on the way the promiscuous mode wifi client currently works.
> 
> That scan approach won’t work for hidden SSIDs, but it will handle other SSIDs elegantly and won’t connect to any SSIDs not explicitly configured.
> 
> I’m really not sure how phones do it, or how that can be applied to the Espressif ESP-32 wifi libraries. I don’t think they round-robin connect to all configured SSIDs, one after the other - imagine you have dozens of SSIDs (I do); the power consumption would be horrendous. As you mention, maybe an active probe, but I can’t find that in the Espressif API:
> 
> http://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/v2.1.1/api-reference/wifi/esp_wifi.html <http://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/v2.1.1/api-reference/wifi/esp_wifi.html>
> 
> I don’t see anything in that API other than the (expensive) connect-to-an-AP in station mode.
> 
> I’m not overly worried about this at the moment, as it is relatively simple to switch to a specific SSID in a one-line script triggered by geolocation. Most likely users will be controlling wifi by geolocation / car state anyway. But, if you have time to look into any better way of doing it, please have a go.
> 
> Regards, Mark.
> 
> <[Ovmsdev] A promiscous wifi client.eml>
> 
>> On 3 Dec 2017, at 1:10 PM, Greg D. <gregd2350 at gmail.com <mailto:gregd2350 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Mark,
>> 
>> Yes, specifying the AP works fine (ignoring the crash I got when changing APs on the fly).  I certainly don't expect a scan to pick up a hidden AP, but I do think that connecting to a hidden one which has been configured should work the same as a configured one that is in full peacock mode with its beacons.  Both phones and laptops can; that's what probe frames are for.  
>> 
>> Conversely (haven't checked this), we should not be connecting promiscuously to an AP that has not been configured.  Way too likely to hit a Hotspot that requires a login / EULA Acceptance button, and thus breaking a perfectly good, if slow, LTE connection in favor of a hot WiFi connection that goes no where.  Not to mention the security angle.
>> 
>> Is the promiscuous connect loop driven from the results of the scan, or by walking / probing the list of configured SSIDs?  It should be the later.
>> 
>> Greg
>> 
>> 
>> Mark Webb-Johnson wrote:
>>> Connecting to a hidden AP should be just specify the AP ssid:
>>> 
>>>   WiFi mode client <ssid>
>>> 
>>> You won’t be able to see it in the scan, and won’t be able to promiscuously connect to it, but you should be able to directly specify it.
>>> 
>>> So long as you are running latest firmware and diff sdkconfig and sdkconfig.defaults is not too far off (pay attention to Bluetooth), it should work.
>>> 
>>> Regards, Mark
>>> 
>>> On 3 Dec 2017, at 12:11 PM, Greg D. <gregd2350 at gmail.com <mailto:gregd2350 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>> Ah, the proverbial "heap of trouble"...  {ahem} Sorry.  Perhaps something to tune later, or do we need to adjust things now?  
>>>> 
>>>> So, the original issue - automatically connecting to a hidden AP- is not related.  It's not a showstopper for me since I have the dongle, but could be important for some (e.g. WiFi at           home hidden, work is open).  It appears that the wifi scan code is somewhere in the ELF library set.  Is it worth trying to dig into it?
>>>> 
>>>> Greg
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Stephen Casner wrote:
>>>>> Greg,
>>>>> 
>>>>> The crash was in the "new" operation because you ran out of heap
>>>>> space.
>>>>> 
>>>>>                                                         -- Steve
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sat, 2 Dec 2017, Greg D. wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Is there an easy way to enable the wifi code to connect to an SSID that's known
>>>>>> (configured) but hidden, without directly telling it to?  i.e., using 'wifi mode
>>>>>> client' by itself (no SSID specified)?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Some of the places I want to connect to are visible (seen in a scan), but the home
>>>>>> network is hidden.  If it helps, running a scan within earshot of the home network
>>>>>> only burps up an error 'wifi: incorrect scan type: 1073583304'.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Greg
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> p.s.  Possibly related, I have the module in my Roadster, connected to the V2 server
>>>>>> via WiFi through a SyncUp Drive OBDII dongle that's being driven by the OBD2ECU
>>>>>> engine.  The SyncUp's WiFi hotspot is visible, and I have a startup script that gets
>>>>>> everything going, and the OVMS module auto connects through it.  I just tried forcing
>>>>>> the connection over to the home network (wifi mode client gregnet) and after switching
>>>>>> networks and reconnecting to the V2 server, crashed and rebooted (whereupon it
>>>>>> reconnected through the dongle's network).  Any ideas?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> OVMS > wifi mode client gregnet
>>>>>> Starting WIFI as a client to gregnet...
>>>>>> I (1519905) wifi: ap_loss
>>>>>> I (1519905) wifi: state: run -> init (0)
>>>>>> I (1519905) wifi: pm stop, total sleep time: 0/1415162800
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I (1519905) wifi: n:1 0, o:1 0, ap:255 255, sta:1 0, prof:1
>>>>>> I (1519915) ovms-server-v2: Disconnected from OVMS Server V2
>>>>>> I (1520415) webserver: Stopping Web Server
>>>>>> I (1520415) telnet: Stopping Telnet Server
>>>>>> I (1520415) ssh: Stopping SSH Server
>>>>>> I (1523025) wifi: n:6 0, o:1 0, ap:255 255, sta:6 0, prof:1
>>>>>> I (1523685) wifi: state: init -> auth (b0)
>>>>>> I (1523685) wifi: state: auth -> assoc (0)
>>>>>> I (1523685) wifi: state: assoc -> run (10)
>>>>>> I (1523715) wifi: connected with gregnet, channel 6
>>>>>> OVMS > I (1524725) event: ip: 10.30.1.102, mask: 255.255.255.0, gw: 10.30.1.1
>>>>>> I (1524725) ovms-mdns: Launching MDNS service
>>>>>> WiFi UP with SSID: gregnet, IP: 10.30.1.102, mask: 255.255.255.0, gw: 10.30.1.1
>>>>>> I (1524735) webserver: Launching Web Server
>>>>>> I (1524745) telnet: Launching Telnet Server
>>>>>> I (1524755) ssh: Launching SSH Server
>>>>>> I (1529915) ovms-server-v2: Connection is tmc.openvehicles.com:6867 <http://tmc.openvehicles.com:6867/>
>>>>>> ROADSTER_834/Gdbkt2017server
>>>>>> I (1530115) ovms-server-v2: Connected to OVMS Server V2 at tmc.openvehicles.com <http://tmc.openvehicles.com/>
>>>>>> I (1530115) ovms-server-v2: Sending server login: MP-C 0 1zyHGC+OXD1EofY2dlH19v
>>>>>> sy8L79oHSah2+yDqliMKTA== ROADSTER_834
>>>>>> I (1530305) ovms-server-v2: Received welcome response MP-S 0 N9H5zlASBHMxtzteFD9WpG
>>>>>> ZoNMc8491dJNxl/x6XSIxg==
>>>>>> I (1530305) ovms-server-v2: Got server response: MP-S 0 N9H5zlASBHMxtzteFD9WpG
>>>>>> ZoNMc8491dJNxl/x6XSIxg==
>>>>>> I (1530315) ovms-server-v2: Server token is N9H5zlASBHMxtzteFD9WpG and digest is
>>>>>> ZoNMc8491dJNxl/x6XSIxg==
>>>>>> I (1530315) ovms-server-v2: Server authentication is successful. Prime the crypto...
>>>>>> I (1530315) ovms-server-v2: Shared secret key is
>>>>>> N9H5zlASBHMxtzteFD9WpG1zyHGC+OXD1EofY2dlH19v (44 bytes)
>>>>>> I (1530315) ovms-server-v2: OVMS V2 login successful, and crypto channel
>>>>>> establishedbort() was called at PC 0x40121ad6 on core 1
>>>>>> 0x40121ad6: _Znwj at
>>>>>> /home/ivan/e/crosstool-NG/.build/src/gcc-5.2.0/libstdc++-v3/libsupc++/new_op.cc:54 <http://new_op.cc:54/>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Backtrace: 0x400886e0:0x3fff8140 0x400887df:0x3fff8160 0x40121ad6:0x3fff8180
>>>>>> 0x40121ab5:0x3fff81a0 0x40120200:0x3fff81c0 0x400f998e:0x3fff81f0
>>>>>> 0x400f3d3e:0x3fff8290
>>>>>> 0x400886e0: invoke_abort at /home/greg/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/./panic.c:519
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 0x400887df: abort at /home/greg/esp/esp-idf/components/esp32/./panic.c:519
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 0x40121ad6: _Znwj at
>>>>>> /home/ivan/e/crosstool-NG/.build/src/gcc-5.2.0/libstdc++-v3/libsupc++/new_op.cc:54 <http://new_op.cc:54/>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 0x40121ab5: _Znaj at
>>>>>> /home/ivan/e/crosstool-NG/.build/src/gcc-5.2.0/libstdc++-v3/libsupc++/new_opv.cc:32 <http://new_opv.cc:32/>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 0x40120200: _ZN10OvmsBuffer10PollSocketEil at/home/greg/greg/ovms/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-System-3-master/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-
>>>>>> System-3/vehicle/OVMS.V3/main/./ovms_buffer.cpp:145
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 0x400f998e: _ZN12OvmsServerV210ServerTaskEv at/home/greg/greg/ovms/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-System-3-master/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-
>>>>>> System-3/vehicle/OVMS.V3/components/ovms_server_v2/src/ovms_server_v2.cpp:247
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 0x400f3d3e: _ZL15OvmsServer_taskPv at/home/greg/greg/ovms/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-System-3-master/Open-Vehicle-Monitoring-
>>>>>> System-3/vehicle/OVMS.V3/components/ovms_server/./ovms_server.cpp:55
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Rebooting...
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> OvmsDev mailing list
>>>>>> OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk <mailto:OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk>
>>>>>> http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev <http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev>
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> OvmsDev mailing list
>>>> OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk <mailto:OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk>
>>>> http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev <http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OvmsDev mailing list
>>> OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk <mailto:OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk>
>>> http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev <http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev>
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> OvmsDev mailing list
>> OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk <mailto:OvmsDev at lists.teslaclub.hk>
>> http://lists.teslaclub.hk/mailman/listinfo/ovmsdev
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openvehicles.com/pipermail/ovmsdev/attachments/20171204/afa7639c/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: PastedGraphic-1.tiff
Type: image/tiff
Size: 284182 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.openvehicles.com/pipermail/ovmsdev/attachments/20171204/afa7639c/attachment-0002.tiff>


More information about the OvmsDev mailing list