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Security Education Wireless Networking Hardware IT

OLPC's XO As a Wireless Hacking Tool 66

Posted by timothy from the well-equipped dept.
twistedmoney99 writes "InformIT.com has a whimsical yet intriguing look at the OLPC in an article series titled "One Leet Pwning Child — Give one, Get Owned". Part one details how to upgrade the core system with some extras, but part two is where the fun begins as the author converts the OLPC into a lean green hacking machine to enable wireless sniffing, setup the OLPC for vulnerability assessments, and stage the device for a little autopwning with Metasploit."
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OLPC's XO As a Wireless Hacking Tool More

OLPC's XO As a Wireless Hacking Tool

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  • 1 page link (Score:5, Informative)

    by RiotingPacifist ( 1228016 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:28AM (#23555879)
    Might just be virgin messing with me but the site isn't loading well, so here's the 1 page version [informit.com]
    and the google cache [64.233.183.104]
  • I like the name of the article. It makes me feeling like participating in the GOGO program all of a sudden...

  • lovely... (Score:5, Funny)

    by pasv ( 755179 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:34AM (#23555989) Homepage
    Great. Now we'll have to worry about those leet African hackers doing phishing.. Oh wait.

  • Autoconfig? (Score:5, Funny)

    by norminator ( 784674 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:35AM (#23556001)
    Does it come with Zealous Autoconfig? [xkcd.com]
  • Nigerian scams just got more interesting. :)
  • Sounds interesting! And there is one of these cut-down bare-bones minimalistic machines on ebay for just £389 plus postage.

  • Wasn't it the whole point? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Prof.Phreak ( 584152 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:41AM (#23556107) Homepage

    Wasn't it the whole point behind these things---to make kids more technical/geeky. It would've been a complete waste if everyone just used it for email and word processing.

    Now if only actual kids in 3rd world countries did cool things with these laptops---like coding/hacking/whatever.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Alwin Henseler ( 640539 )

      Now if only actual kids in 3rd world countries did cool things with these laptops---like coding/hacking/whatever.

      From this Heise article [heise.de] you can read:

      Since mass production of the first generation XO kicked off in November 2007, 600,000 units have been manufactured and distributed to Peru, Uruguay, Mongolia, Haiti, Rwanda, Mexico, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in the USA and Canada.

      I assume you're thinking most of those 600,000 XO laptops will NOT be used by actual kids to do cool things with?

      • I think he assumes that most of the XO laptops will be used just like ordinary kids use computers. This is "cool" in that the kids involved ordinarily wouldn't have the opportunity, but it's not "cool" in the geeky-cool sense.

        Eventually, we'll also be hearing about some of those kids doing geeky-cool stuff with their XO, but AFAIK no story like that has hit Slashdot.

  • what about aircrack? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RiotingPacifist ( 1228016 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:50AM (#23556221)
    The wireless sniffing section seams a bit weak, if they can Dsniff working, would aircrack-ng not also work?
    On an active network, with a bit of patience, aircrack & wireshark can get you all the information you need without leaving a trace, (granted if its a WPA network with a good key its a lot of patience).

  • Why is this noteworthy? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eatvegetables ( 914186 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:51AM (#23556233)
    I'm sure someone will happily correct me if I an wrong here. However, seems to me that just about any wireless enabled linux box + same toolkits = wireless hacking tool. Nothing to see here folks, just move along please ;)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      You can get it a lot cheaper if you can catch some little African kid alone on the way home from school.

  • Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day (Score:4, Funny)

    by Zegnar ( 704768 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:51AM (#23556239)
    Teach a man to phish and he'll never be hungry again!

  • News Flash (Score:4, Funny)

    by Script Cat ( 832717 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:51AM (#23556247)
    Computers can be used for hacking.
    Obviously this must be stopped now! Think of the children.
    Once they gain this forbidden knowledge, they'll threaten the social order in the god forsaken dirt hole where they live.

    1. Distribute computers.
    2. Children become L337 H4X0RZ
    3. ???
    4. Cthulhu

  • Irony (Score:3, Insightful)

    by stokessd ( 89903 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @10:51AM (#23556251) Homepage
    So a slightly modded (which is part of the original charter right?) OLPC can own the fleet of upcoming XP based OLPC's?!

    Am I the only one who finds that more than a little amusing?

    Sheldon

  • In other words (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @11:01AM (#23556379)
    Give a kid a fish, he eats for one day.
    Teach a kid to fish, he eats for a lifetime.
    Give a kid a laptop, and he empties your bank account.
    Teach a kid to program, and your job is outsourced to him.

  • Just tweeked my XO (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CambodiaSam ( 1153015 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @11:02AM (#23556387)
    I saw this article and ran to get my XO. Keep in mind I'm not a Linux user, so I type those command line instructions very slowly. After 15 minutes, I'm actively scanning my home network using Zenmap. If this goes well, I'll have to bring it along with me to a local, unidentified coffee shop! I personally think the most telling aspect of this excercise is that it has helped open the door of linux a little bit.
    • I have an XO too. I must resist trying this at work.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by saskboy ( 600063 )
        And keep in mind, at work they probably have a network intrusion system to nail your butt to the wall if you try port scanning or anything else.
  • These things cost $400* each, so it's not exactly a cost effective tool. You can get a used laptop with built-in wireless for quite a bet less than that. There's one on ebay for $90 closing in four hours at the time of this writing, in fact.

    *G1G1 price. I know they were alleged to be paying for additional laptops for impoverished children in foreign countries, but that seems really difficult for an outside party to audit, to me.

    It does disappoint me that Negroponte doesn't want to think of the laptops as

  • Eee PC (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AmonEzhno ( 1276076 )
    I will never understand why even bother with the OLPC...

    Why not just use an Eee PC, it's a solid computer, and with the price you end up getting significantly more. Coming from someone who owns an Eee and has used an XO several times; I can tell you that the XO is inferior in so many ways. Not just with little things either, anyone who has tried using that screen in non-ideal conditions knows what I mean.
    • What's wrong with the OLPC screen besides being a little small. I find that under non-ideal conditions (Outside) it has the only screen that actually works.
      The only real trouble I had was a stuck key that I fixed by peeling up the contact surface and sticking a tiny piece of double sided tape in there to act as a spacer.
    • WTF are you talking about?

      XO screen is often poorly used by software, especially when displaying thin lines at an angle and colored text, so it may not be the best for perfect viewing conditions. However it's far superior to most small laptops when those conditions are bad (ambient light from sun or close sources and such).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by xappax ( 876447 )
      Hackers, especially those attacking wireless networks, are looking for specific features that the XO delivers on:

      - Extremely good wifi range (far better than the Eee)
      - Very long battery life (again, better than the Eee)

      Both of these features in a small, highly portable machine are perfect for extended wardriving, sniffing, etc.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by saskboy ( 600063 )
      I own an XO, and have briefly used some Eees. The screen on an XO is so much better. What problem did you encounter exactly? The XO screen works in direct sunlight, even if you don't turn the backlight off by pressing the brightness down button a bunch.
      • The issue I had was in an office setting, the lighting was harsh and I couldn't read the screen, I concede that the points made are very valid, I wasn't aware of the battery life or wifi range.

        Dear god I'm turning into an Eee fanboy :(
  • So, you're supposed to be sneaking around and not raising suspicion while hacking on a brightly colored plastic computer that looks like a child's toy?? A generic laptop - or even better, a smartphone with wifi - allows you do do the same level of hacking, but look like your average person and not attract attention.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by saskboy ( 600063 )
      Nonsense! If anyone asks what you're doing, just tell them that you're holding your 3 year old's etch-a-sketch Fisherprice toy for them until they get back from the liquor store, and show them Tam Tam or Memory which you've quickly switched to on the display. Or turn it off silently, hold down the right game key when turning it back on, and it's just a Pong machine. ;-)

  • A slightly different take on this ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jc42 ( 318812 ) on Tuesday May 27, 2008 @02:12PM (#23559469) Homepage Journal
    I'd been thinking similar thoughts about my OLPC, but with very different terminology. I'd been wondering whether, with appropriate software installed, it would make a good "net admin" tool.

    Specific example: One of my other toys is a Mac Powerbook, which talks to the Airport that's attached to our local LAN (with a linux firewall/router). Yesterday was a very nice day, and I did as I've often done on other nice days: I carried the Mac out to the patio and tried to work from there. Without much success.

    While I've done this a lot over the past few years, this time the wifi went into its "fluctuating access" mode. The wifi signal strength, according to the Mac's little wifi icon, changed on a time scale of seconds from near full strength to various intermediate valued, to no access at all. I grabbed my OLPC, carried it out to the patio, and it reported a constant near-max signal level from the Airport. But I can hardly do any work on the OLPC, because of the crippled Sugar GUI. The two laptops have nearly the same pixel count on their screens, but the Mac lets me have 3 or 4 non-overlapping Terminal windows open at the same time, while the OLPC only allows one.

    Anyway, since the OLPC seemed to have no problems with the wifi, I'm wondering if I could use it somehow to diagnose the problem. The few times I've asked about such things on a Mac forum, the responses could be summarized as variants of the "It Just Works" mantra. I shouldn't worry my little head about things like this that are beyond my ken; I should just accept what's given to me. No clues about how I might diagnose such problems. Either that, or I should just pay for new hardware, which might not have the same problems.

    Now, I'm quite aware that to the media, the very fact that I'd consider installing software to analyze local wifi transmissions immediately puts me into the "hacker" category. I try not to tell them that I've been known (and paid) to write such software. ("What sort of shady corporations would pay a hacker like you to do their dirty work?" Dirty as in diagnose and fix problems. ;-)

    But it does occur to me that people here might be a bit more sympathetic. And it seems to me that if the poor kids in remote places can learn to use their OLPCs to "hack" the network around them, they could be a real service to their communities. The commercial folks aren't supplying their communities with service, and probably never will. Here in the US, the comm companies can't be bothered to supply decent service to remote areas, and never will unless those evil government regulators force them to.

    So maybe we need an open project to take tools like the OLPC, the EeePC, and others like them, and turn them into good "hacking" platforms. That way, people in poor and rural areas can support their own comm system.

    To me, this article just tells me how the media will spin it, to make such self-help efforts look criminal and subversive. But I can't even find decent diagnostic help for a wifi problem here in a Boston suburb from the makers of the equipment. Maybe it's time we get serious about finding ways to fix such problems ourselves.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by habys ( 322638 )
      If you use several terminal windows, you owe it to yourself to learn screen. It will make your life much easier.

    • While I've done this a lot over the past few years, this time the wifi went into its "fluctuating access" mode. The wifi signal strength, according to the Mac's little wifi icon, changed on a time scale of seconds from near full strength to various intermediate valued, to no access at all. I grabbed my OLPC, carried it out to the patio, and it reported a constant near-max signal level from the Airport.

      You've just encountered one of the big differences between a Mac and the XO-1. The Mac has an average wifi

  • I'm confused... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by VeNoM0619 ( 1058216 )
    I'm confused... we give them a computer and assume they shouldn't be able to do everything that a computer should, including hacking. Do people seriously see this as a bad thing? If anything, this is good, we gave them a computer that acts like a normal computer, so what about the hacking...
  • Computer runs software.

    Film at 11.
  • ...is about education...

    Sounds like a great educational opportunity, indeed!
  • If you could actually find one..

    It would be better to see this done on something like an E, at least that you can actually buy.

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