How to find a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site? (manas.tech)

Article summary

The author recounts a story of finding a lost phone in a no-cell-coverage camping site by creating a wifi network with the same name and password as the phone's home network, allowing them to locate the phone when it connected to the network. This method worked because the phone had wifi enabled, and the author was able to create a hotspot with the same credentials. The phone was found on one of the ATVs parked near the truck. The author notes that this method relies on the phone having wifi enabled and the ability to create a matching hotspot.

Main themes

• wifi networking
• phone location methods
• network security
• cloning wifi networks
• ultrawideband triangulation

What commenters say

• Some devices can locate each other via ultrawideband triangulation or Bluetooth, even without cellular connectivity. The security of wifi networks relies on encryption and authentication, but cloning a network by matching the SSID and password is possible. There is no built-in security feature to prevent a phone from connecting to a cloned wifi network. The concept of a cloned wifi network is not well-defined, as a wifi network is an abstract concept of access points using the same name and passphrase. Some argue that clients should be able to detect and respond to changes in the network, such as a different MAC address, while others think this would be an unnecessary complication. The use of certificates and public key infrastructure could help to secure wifi networks, but this is not commonly implemented. The ability to clone a wifi network can be used for malicious purposes, such as intercepting unencrypted traffic.
• themes": [