XPost: comp.mobile.android
From: andrews@spam.net
Andy Burns wrote on Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:45:49 +0000 :
> I would class wifi location as less precise than GPS, I just wondered if
> you had actually tried the apps which claim to spoof wifi?
We can endlessly debate which is more precise, particularly indoors versus
outdoors, so I don't want to get bogged down on that - namely because I
don't want *any* location lookups when I'm using an app that doesn't need
it such as the insect-lookup app that I used to find out what this bug is
I'm not talking about routing apps by the way, as they do need at least the
most course of lookups in order to route you. I'm talking about apps that
do not need your location at all - or which don't need precise location -
and yet - because they're using Google API's - they *require* it to work.
> Don't all the various location sources work via the fused location
> provider anyway?
Ever since Jeff Layman brought up fused location services a few years ago,
I've never understood what they are - so I can't answer that question.
However, most of my knowledge (and understanding) is empirical, where I
*do* understand what my eyes are telling me when I run a variety of tests.
The main test I run is the following:
1. I install & set up the Lexa mock-location app in Developer options.
2. In Lexa, I set my location to the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.
3. In Android "Location Settings" I turn "Location = On"
4. At this point, all other "Location Services" are not enabled
a. Google Location Accuracy = off
b. Google Location Sharing = off
c. Google Location History = does not exist
d. Wi-Fi scanning = off
e. Bluetooth scanning = off
f. Earthquake alerts = off
g. Emergency Location Service = off
In "App Permissions" no apps have "Location" allowed.
(yes, even Google Maps has "Don't Allow" for location access.
Also in "App Permissions" no apps have "Nearby devices permission".
This is my normal setup (since Lexa runs at boot), which is that no apps
have access to location, and even if they did, it's a spoofed location.
But now I want to *test* if my location is being spoofed, right?
I need an app that wants GPS but which doesn't force precise location.
Finding that app isn't as easy as you might think it is, simply because
most apps use GSF spyware which forces precise location even though the app
doesn't need it. But I just tried OSMAnd~ (version 4.5.1.0) which let me
keep "approximate location" and it thinks I'm on the Golden Gate Bridge.
But let's try a more pernicious app, such as Google Maps which won't work
unless I enable "Precise Location". If I fight with Google Maps, repeatedly
telling it to keep the "Approximate Location", eventually (after three or
so repeats), Google Mpas gives up trying and then it starts working, but it
thinks I'm on the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.
At this point, I've "fooled" Google Maps, right? Well, not really.
Sure, Google Maps thinks I'm on the Golden Gate Bridge because Google Maps
fought with me and lost the battle for me to enable Precise Location.
But now let's say I want to route with Google Maps by choosing a desired
destination. You can't "Choose start location" of "Your location" because
Google Maps will complain "Can't apply some route options. Try again".
What I can do is "Choose Start Location" by selecting "Choose on map" where
Google Maps zooms to the destination first, but I can hit the "Where am I"
button to get Google Maps to zoom back to the San Francisco Bay.
Now Google Maps will create directions from the "pin location" to the
destination (where the pin location is my spoofed location) but it won't
update it because "Precise Location Denied" keeps coming up in Maps.
So I give in and give Google Maps "Use precise location = on", and a funny
thing starts happening.
Google Maps thinks I'm in San Francisco, and then a few minutes later,
Google Maps realizes (presumably from my neighbors' Wi-Fi access points
perhaps - or maybe from cellular tower geolocation data) that I'm not.
So Google Maps gets confused and jumps back and forth between the two
locations every few seconds.
What does this tell me? I think it implies that Google Maps is using GPS to
think I'm in San Francisco, but it's using my dumb neighbors' Wi-Fi access
points to know I'm not. So it gets confused.
From that, I'm gonna guess that I'm spoofing the GPS, but not the WI-Fi
location (which is what I think it means to get "precise location" although
"precise location" could use cellular tower information for all I know.
What does it mean to allow Precise Location anyway?
Anyway, to speed things up, I set Lexa to move 10 meters every 10 ms, and
Google Maps keeps trying to re-route me as Lexa moves me from point to
point but not following the path that Google had set up for me to follow.
In order to prevent Google Maps from figuring out I'm in two very different
locations at the same time, all I really want to do is kill the Wi-Fi
access point data - by spoofing it to nonsensical information so Google
Maps can't use it so Google Maps has to rely on the GPS information alone.
The main question, I just realized, is not how to "spoof" the Wi-Fi access
point data (of nearby Access Points) but how to zero them out so that any
app that "wants" Wi-Fi access point data gets nonsensical data that it
can't make any sense of - so - it has to rely on the GPS data alone.
But how?
How do you make sure Wi-Fi access location data is zeroed out?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
