Maps Viewer

[ChickenLegsOz]

The View Map feature originally from RawPhone was used to display a map with signal strength overlays showing tracked data about signal strength information captured through the app.

I have rewritten a portion of this but wanted to ask if this is what we want to display on the map or show something else as signal strength is not really a main objective of the project.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be great so I don't waste time on writing something we don't really want. :)

[SecUpwN]

@xLaMbChOpSx, instead of showing the signal strength, I'd rather prefer a map of where attacks happened. Although the main function of AIMSICD (showing if network encryption is disabled) is not implemented yet, but maybe AIMSICD can also upload the plotted map data and compare it with other results to trace down fake cell towers? Just my two little cents. I don't need a map with signal strengths.

[E3V3A]

First of all, don't spend too much time on the map function. We need the other AT stuff resolved first. (Also, I'd prefer to stay with Google maps, since that's what most people have, by stock/default, unless you have a better solution, with alternative maps, that are easy to implement.)

I'm thinking that there are 3 essential things to consider here:
a) Showing a BTS "history" that would indicate if there's a sudden BTS popping up, where one has not been seen before.
2) If the encryption of a BTS has changed.
3) If the signal strength of a BTS has changed radically "lately". [We need to think more about this.]

So it's hard to see what's going on with this, without pictures...

[ChickenLegsOz]

Yeah the maps stuff is already written I was just trying to get the database helper to play nicely with it but didn't want to waste my time if it was not something that was important at the moment. The tracking all works well and currently captures signal strength, cell information and location into individual tables which of course can be modified but the code is there to support SQLite database actions for whatever purposes are needed.

[SecUpwN]

@xLaMbChOpSx, I go with the suggestion of @E3V3A. Having an overview of these would be great. Maybe, in a later point of time, the map could automatically display identified real and fake cell towers..

[He3556]

No3 of @E3V3A is a very interesting point.

1. The fake BTS would send with a higher signal strength than the original.
2. But we should also notice the distance between the BTS and the phone. Because the fake BTS would imitate a BTS, which is far away - to overlay its signal. (If it imitates a near BTS, the catcher would need much more power, than the specification allows. And the radius would be greater > more phones would be catched or interruped)

So if we get a high signal from a BTS which is far away, this can be a "flag yellow" or red (to tell it in the words of catcher catcher)

But in reality i am not sure if it always works. The BTS is changing the signal power and so is the phone, too. There is a ETSI Spec. about how to regulate the sending power (for power saving).
I found it, when i was looking for a way to calculate the distance to the current connected BTS.

This could be a much stronger indicator. We could compare the measured distance to the geo-positions we get from the map. But this 2. option is hard to develop i guess. But i can do more research, if you think you can realize it somehow.

[E3V3A]

@He3556 ...Which is why we eventually need the raw diagnostic radio stream, so that we can also measure Timing Advance (TA) among other things...

[ChickenLegsOz]

The MapViewer class has been totally rewritten and is functioning correctly now including overlaying signal strength information, it has been upgraded to Google Maps API v2 whilst still maintaining compatibility with our minimum SDK level. I will push the commit shortly.

[SecUpwN]

@xLaMbChOpSx, version 0.1.6 crashes instantly when clicking "Show Map" - probably because I have to Google Maps installed? Just to let you know: I HATE Google. No, I really do! Why in the world let Google get more data about me than it really should have? I get your point that you had to change to Google Maps API v2 to enable new features and gain an API Key, but can't we use something more open and free like stuff from the NoGAPPS-Project? Would be EXTREMELY thankfuk for an implementation of that. I'm sure @mar-v-in is willing to help making the switch, too.

[E3V3A]

@SecUpwN Uhm, good idea eventually..., but not right now, everyone "has" Gmaps and as little I like to share my data with Google, at least it works very good. WHy do you have 2 Gmaps installed!? That is not really the App problem I think.

EDIT: Dammit, I keep on getting the auto-filled tag names wrong...

[SecUpwN]

@E3V3A, was this question meant for me? I am using AOKP for HTC One - Generic GSM and it naturally comes without GMaps. To be able to use things like my beloved Öffi (a public transport companion showing connections even with dealays) I utilize the App NetworkLocation for KitKat and Maps API 1 v0.5 Beta 3, both from the NoGAPPS-Project. I really see the potential of making AIMSICD become an awesome privacy-tool, yet we should try to at least not make it dependent on proprietary code by privacy-invading monsters like Google. Hence my question: Is a switch to a free and Open Source alternative like provided by @mar-v-in possible in the long run? Not sure if I ask for too much if the Maps stuff can be built into AIMSICD. What do YOU think of this, @xLaMbChOpSx?

[He3556]

There is something else we need to think about, when we switch to another map service sometime. The A-GPS is communication with Google Server, too. The assisted part sends out the Base Stations (Cell-ID's) to supl.google.com to get back information about the satellites in the area. This is usually a feature of the provider network. I didn't know, that Google delivers this feature in Android phones.
You can find the servers in the file /etc/gps.conf
It should look like this:
server 0.asia.pool.ntp.org
server 1.asia.pool.ntp.org
server 2.asia.pool.ntp.org
server 3.asia.pool.ntp.org
SUPL_HOST=supl.google.com
SUPL_PORT=7276

If disabled, it will take a few minutes to get the right GPS coordinates. It seems that this is a problem in some custom ROM's. I am wondering if this service is also blocked in China? I will look for more info's about all that, (alternative services) when the time is right. Just want to inform you about it.

[E3V3A]

@He3556 We'll the other thing is, that soon people will not know the IPs of other DNS servers, than those of google, so the question is how far we should stretch our paranoia? Of course if google provides ping times of a few ms versus a few hundreds ms's for other servers, that will impact GPS lock-on times when moving around in uncommon areas. But is this something WE should worry about here? I don't think so, I think we should just have the option to disable/block (or change gps.conf) A-GPS and keep a pre-downloaded local map in device. (Assuming this is still possible.)