Kismet + GPSDrive + MySQL + Python = Google Earth Wlan Map

admin — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 13:49:44 +0000

Last week I decided to build a map of the wireless access point in the Town. It is not really easy to find the right tools, so I decided to write this little Howto.

To archive this goal you need severals tools:

Kismet

First install Kismet. You need a wireless card that support RFMon in monitor mode. I think Madwifi cards, and patched Orinoco are the only ones that support this.

Launch Kismet, and now check for a given AP that kismet know the best level..

If everything is ok, edit the kismet config file and set gps=try

GPSDrive

Download and install the latest CVS version of GPSDrive (I have some issues with the latest tgz and kismet). The next step is to have a GPS working with gpsd. Most GPS will work, I bought a cheap one with a USB cord on ebay.

Simply launch gpsd, and after gpsdrive. You should see the reception level in GPSDrive.

MySQL

To use Kismet + GPSDrive, you need to have a MySQL database. In fact GPSDrive will ask to kismet the new APs, and dump this informations in a MySQL db. You can find the create.sql in GPSDrive sources.

mysql -u root -p < ./create.sql

This will add a user : gast / gast

First try

Ok, now launch GPSDrive and set the ‘use SQL’ (or edit the config file), and quit.

Now to start the whole stuff:

Plug the wireless antenna (this is better for wardriving ;)
Plug the GPS
Launch gpsd (be carefull to have enought satellite in view)
Launch Kismet (it should tell you, it find the GPS…)
Launch GPSDrive (it should display a little kismet logo on bottom)
Now, you’re ready to go, walk down the street you should see new APs on the GPSDrive map.

After the trip: Google Earth

Ok, now you have a lot of points in your database.. And GPSDrive have a little troubles to display them.. After a little time, i decided to install Google Earth, and look at the way to add new points on the map..

This, is quite simple, all i need to do is to extract data form the SQL, and build a xml file that contain all the points. I decided to write gpsdriveToGoogleEarth.py. This quick and dirty script will generate a file ‘ap.kml’. Now simply launch Google Earth and open this file. You will see something like this:

The main issue for me, is that Google Earth doesn’t support Linux right now so I need to dual-boot.. But this provide a easy way to build the card without too much pain. And i can share the Google Earth file others guys simply.

WARNING

I do this only for the fun, so don’t try to hack wireless access point using this howto, this is not the goal !

– Enjoy

Extract GPS from Kismet log with ElementTree

admin — Mon, 23 May 2005 21:58:45 +0000

I have read a lot of noise about ElementTree but never really used it. Tonight i need to extract a bunch of GPS data from a kismet log file. Let’s give it a try

from elementtree import ElementTree

data = open('Kismet-May-22-2005-4.xml','r').read()

detection = ElementTree.XML(data)

for node in detection.getchildren():
try:
print "SSID: " + node.find('SSID').text,
except AttributeError:pass  #hidden SSID
print "BSSID: " +  node.find('BSSID').text,
gps = node.find('gps-info')
print "Lon: " + gps.find('max-lon').text +  " Lat: "  + gps.find('max-lat').text

Really simple, and seems to offer really good speed. I now have another weapon for every day work.

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