Gettings PCAPs from Stingrays for $20 with Rayhunter
Cooper Quintin, Will Greenberg
BSidesSF 2026 · Day 1 · AMC Theatre 02
In an era of increasing digital surveillance, the talk "Getting PCAPs from Stingrays for $20 with Rayhunter" by Cooper Quintin and Will Greenberg from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) presented a groundbreaking, low-cost solution for detecting **cell site simulators**, commonly known as **Stingrays** or **IMSI catchers**. These devices are covert tools used by law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and even criminals to intercept mobile phone communications by impersonating legitimate cell towers. The EFF's work in this domain is driven by significant civil liberties concerns, particularly regarding dragnet surveillance and potential Fourth Amendment violations.
AI review
EFF delivers a technically grounded, civically important talk that solves a real problem elegantly: democratizing IMSI catcher detection with a $20 Qualcomm-based hotspot, Rust tooling, and a well-reasoned heuristic set. Lab-validated against commercial law enforcement hardware, field-tested across real-world deployments, and open-sourced — this is the kind of applied research that actually moves the needle for people who need it.