[Starlink] Starlink terminal detector

Mon Dec 19 18:34:54 EST 2022

Greetings from Hiroshima where, on August 6, 1945, at this time in the 
morning, I would've had a couple of minutes left to live where I am 
sitting and typing this now. Makes one think. Neither Russia nor Ukraine 
respect the right to conscientious objection. Seeing my colleagues at 
work who are from mixed Russian and Ukrainian families makes it hit home 
daily what war means to them and their loved ones. Having to worry about 
a top student of mine whose Russian parents' business is affected by the 
war, and who may not be able to pay his international student fees next 
year, and may have to return home to face conscription and the meat 
grinder. He could be one of those who we see gleeful YouTube videos of, 
having bombs dropped on them from drones, with no shelter, wriggling in 
pain as they take their last breath. Makes me forget the price tag of 
the missiles for the moment.

That said, the Starlink WiFi router is of course only one RF source a 
detector might want to zero in on, and as it's been pointed out it's 
easily camouflaged or spoofed on the RF side of things. The satcom 
signal off the Dishy is another, and it's not as easily spoofed. 
However, Dishy will point itself where it can see most relay-capable 
satellites, which in Ukraine will be in a western or northwestern 
direction. Which means pointing the signal away from Russia and the 
detectors in most cases. Russians are by and large clever folks (never 
judge a people by its autocratic leaders) and are probably well aware of 
this. So we can book that military blog entry under fog of war 
misinformation.

On 20/12/2022 5:07 am, Dave Taht via Starlink wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 7:54 AM Eric via Starlink
> <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
> >
> > Get a bunch of US$3 ESP8266 devices, set them up in AP mode with 
> spoofed Starlink MACs and BSSIDs, power them with solar cells + old 
> vape-pen batteries and spread them all over the place. There's nothing 
> like causing the other side to shoot $50k missiles at a $15 decoy.
>
> Well, the difference in amount of traffic generated by an idle AP vs
> one in use would be large, and the interference
> caused by simulating traffic on the other APs a pita, but narrow
> channels and a bunch of APs does thin the herd.
>
> Meshy mode, at least adhoc, has fewer identifying signatures in the
> packet header, making an "AP" less obvious.
>
> >
> > ------- Original Message -------
> > On Sunday, December 18th, 2022 at 20:49, David Lang via Starlink 
> <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > > and change the name of the starlink wifi so it doesn't stand out 
> as much.
> > >
> > > David Lang
> > >
> > > On Mon, 19 Dec 2022, Oleg Kutkov via Starlink wrote:
> > >
> > > > From the beginning, the general rule is don't use Starlink WiFi. Or
> > > > hide the router somewhere to reduce RF emissions.
> > > >
> > > > We have developed a set of rules and recommendations about using 
> a PoE
> > > > injector or bypassing the Starlink router.
> > > > Unfortunately, a lot of people ignore safety.
> > > >
> > > > But there are some countermeasures on the way.
> > > >
> > > > On 12/19/22 05:03, Oleg Kutkov via Starlink wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Actually, there is nothing special.
> > > > >
> > > > > You can capture WiFi beacons and get a BSSID with a good 
> directional
> > > > > antenna. 10 - 15 km it's not a problem.
> > > > >
> > > > > They are filtering Starlink router BSSID to figure out that 
> somewhere
> > > > > there is Starlink.
> > > > > Starlink WiFi router uses Tibro corp. (74:24: prefix).
> > > > > On 12/19/22 04:41, Dave Taht via Starlink wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > Starlink detector boasted about... 10km range.
> > > >
> > > > 
> https://www.notebookcheck.net/Starlink-terminal-detection-radar-to-enter-testing-in-Ukraine-as-per-Russian-military-blogger.675439.0.html 
> <https://www.notebookcheck.net/Starlink-terminal-detection-radar-to-enter-testing-in-Ukraine-as-per-Russian-military-blogger.675439.0.html>
> > > >
> > > > > > I would have figured on starlinks less further front, 
> combined with
> > > > > > non los radios and ptp wifi being viable. Targeting every wifi
> > > > > > transmitter is a low percentage play, and adhoc modes for 
> directional
> > > > > > wifi with synthetic mac's harder to distinguish ...
> > > > > >
> > > > > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
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>
>
> -- 
> This song goes out to all the folk that thought Stadia would work:
> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dtaht_the-mushroom-song-activity-6981366665607352320-FXtz 
> <https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dtaht_the-mushroom-song-activity-6981366665607352320-FXtz>
> Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC
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-- 
****************************************************************
Dr. Ulrich Speidel

School of Computer Science

Room 303S.594 (City Campus)

The University of Auckland
u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz  
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~ulrich/
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