Kismet with GPS in Kali Linux Tutorial

August 4, 2014

I recently ran into a situation where I needed to use Kismet with GPS
support. This was extremely difficult to accomplish, not because the
installation is difficult (its actually fairly simple when you know the
steps) but because there was absolutely NO decent documentation on this.
Hopefully this will change that.

What You Need?

This header for this section should perhaps be “What I Used.”
Because I’ve only tested my only hardware, its the only thing I can say
for certain will work. I used the ALFA AWUS036NH external wireless
adapter, found here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YIFHJY?ref_=pe_527950_33920250

And I used the GlobalSat ND-100S USB GPS Dongle, found here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003WNHGAO/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_dp_1

How to Install in Kali???

First we need to install a few packages in Kali Linux to get this thing to work. First, the GPS daemon.

# sudo apt-get install gpsd

Then GPSd-clients package:

# sudo apt-get install gpsd-clients

Now, you can plug in your hardware. If you
are using a VM, make sure you pass it across. You can verify that the
GPS dongle is there by using the following command:

# lsusb

Then verify that your wireless adapter is there, and get the interface name.

# ifconfig

Next, make sure that your GPS adapter is showing up in the /dev/ directory. To do this, use the command:

# ls /dev/gps*

This should also help you identify the name. Once you have identified the path in /dev/, pass that as an argument to gpsd.

# gpsd /dev/gps[x]

Did it Work???

To verify that this worked, we obviously want to boot up Kismet.
Kinda the point…right? Once Kismet has been booted, use the
backtick/accent button ( ` ) to access the Kismet menu at the top.
Scroll right to the Windows menu, then select “GPS Details.”

Assuming you have signal, you should see the number of satellites
connected and the signal strength corresponding to each. In the example
provided below, I have signal from 4 different satellites.
Alternatively, you may see a message indicating that you have no
satellite signal. If this is the case…keep walking/driving around.
It’ll happen. Otherwise, if you are receiving a message that says no
GPS device is connected, time to scrub the whole process and start over
again.

Finally, you can verify that GPS data is being written to the output by
examining the contents. In the .nettxt file below, you can see that
their are coordinate values for minimum position, maximum position and
peak position.