Since the release of the new upribox community image v0.5 in May we continued to improve our upribox software. The latest version of the upribox software now includes a zero-config privacy feature. If you have already installed the v0.5 community image on your Raspberry Pi, this feature is automatically installed (not later than 4 hours after a fresh install).
The upribox zero-config privacy feature bases on the bachelor thesis of Tobias Dam. Tobias’ software daemon is called “Apate” and written in Python. Apate automatically re-routes all connections between your devices and the Internet through the upribox. This means that you do not have to change the WiFi settings of your devices. Once you connect a upribox to your network, all devices in your existing WiFi network are protected. Our new feature relies on ARP spoofing a method commonly used for network-based security attacks. It is recommend to use this feature if your Internet connection is not faster than 75 MBit, because the Raspberry Pi currently only offers a 100MBit network connection.
For upcoming releases we plan to enable Apate by default.
Right now you have to manually activate Apate:
Why do we think the upribox zero-config privacy feature is important?
- Less effort to start using the upribox
Once devices are connected to a WiFi, people hesitate to change the default WiFi for another one. Connect the upribox to your existing WiFi router, all devices are monitored and no need to reconfigure your devices for the upribox WiFi. - Better WiFi connectivity
The Raspberry Pi 3 offers an onboard WiFi module, while for previous Raspberry Pi versions you have to use an USB WiFi dongle in order to create a hotspot. Both the onboard WiFi module as well as existing WiFi dongles, offer worse fidelity than current WiFi routers (no WiFI AC, only 2.4 GHz, less range, …). Therefor, by using upribox as a privacy router/filter instead as an alternative WiFi router you can supplement state-of-the-art WiFi routers with privacy features. This ultimately results in a super fast privacy-protected WiFi routers.