CAcalebm·May 28, 2024
I published an open-source tool several years ago which helps map out the wifi world: https://github.com/calebmadrigal/trackerjacker.
In Surveilling the masses with wi-fi-based positioning systemscalebmadrigal
trackerjacker
Python2018–2024
calebmadrigal / trackerjacker
trackerjacker
Like nmap for mapping wifi networks you're not connected to, plus device tracking
3Distinct people
6Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
2.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Like nmap for mapping wifi networks you're not connected to, plus device tracking
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year6 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-08-13 17:00:25 UTC to 2024-05-28 12:34:30 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
6 sourcesWell, instead of a teensy, the esp32 is sure a good bet.
But since you've got the Pi, the next logical step is to get an rtc upgrade and run chrony/openntpd and a backup dns cache. Why not? I mean its right there on the desk. Could add a quick binary clock for practicality.
Since you might now be dependent on the thing, its easy to add snmp for monitoring, hack in some rrdtool or whatever to graph your sit/stand time, maybe a serial connection to monitor your UPS power situation, and you get a free Pi-hole by now! Probably a little overkill to run wireguard on the thing, though.
But honestly, why stop there? Have it control some functional LED lighting[0] (Zack uses an ESP32 instead of the pi--must not care about clock drift. The biometric sensor is also a little expensive and uncomfortable looking.) with suntime[1] for a perfectly and co
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herently illuminated environment.
For the extremely paranoid, yet lazy and obsessive (who does that not describe?) you can grab an extra wifi dongle with raw monitoring mode to have some fun with trackerjacker[2]. Use an innovative static base station running map mode, so when an influx of unknown devices with increasing strength and/or known vehicle SSIDs or PAN beacons are detected, just go full Red Alert (using those very practical leds) and score a quick win by raising the desk and commanding your IoT lighting for a deft escape.
Maybe you can use this for the girlfriend too, since by now you've already got rrdtool or cacti or whatever graphing the desk height and trackerjacker output from her iPhone and Jeep Latitude hotspot, you could also use that capability to gain insight as to when it should reach out and trigger your coffee maker's ESP32, certainly while raising the desk.
[0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6n8XLmZ__I
[1] - https://github.com/SatAgro/suntime
[2] - https://github.com/calebmadrigal/trackerjacker https://reconshell.com/trackerjacker-maps-and-tracks-wifi-ne...
Found this in my bookmarks just yesterday, haven't experimented with it yet: https://github.com/calebmadrigal/trackerjacker
In German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC addressThat's an ideal use-case of trackerjacker. Another good one (that I'm meaning to write a better plugin for) is to alert on anomalous devices nearby. I have a draft of that plugin here: https://github.com/calebmadrigal/trackerjacker/blob/master/p.... It might also serve as a prototype for what you're trying to accomplish.
In Show HN: Trackerjacker – Map and track wifi networks you're not connected toGood point, I may add that. One thing to keep in mind though: you can create a simple plugin to keep as up-to-date on whatever data you care about as you like. Here's a simple example of a plugin: https://github.com/calebmadrigal/trackerjacker/blob/master/p...
Note that it's about as simple an interface as possible (e.g. no inheritance).
In Show HN: Trackerjacker – Map and track wifi networks you're not connected toShow HN: Trackerjacker – Map and track wifi networks you're not connected to
159 points · Open discussion