When on_departure popped the device from known_devices, rapid RTM_NEWNEIGH
events during ARP cache rebuild each triggered on_arrival as if the device
was brand new, flooding the Matrix room with 5-10+ duplicate ARRIVED alerts.
Fix: keep device in known_devices with departing=True flag. on_arrival
silently cancels pending departure timers and returns without alerting when
it sees this flag. Timer callback checks flag before sending the alert and
only pops the device when departure is confirmed after 15 minutes.
- Bug: device departs → timer starts, but last_departed_time not set yet
If device re-arrives before timer fires, timer never cancelled
Result: false DEPARTED alert sent after re-arrival debounce expires
- Fix: Cancel any pending departure timer immediately on re-arrival,
before checking last_departed_time
- Test: Added regression test that verifies timer is cancelled when
device re-arrives before 15-min debounce expires, preventing false alerts
- All 10 tests passing
- lookup_oui() now tries SQLite first (/opt/net_alerter/oui.db)
- Falls back to inline OUI_DICT if DB missing or query fails
- No network calls, local SQLite reads only
- Debug-level logging for failures (no output noise)
- Infrastructure IPs (gateway, self, broadcast) silently ignored in
on_arrival() and on_departure(); seeded at startup from 'ip route'
- 15-minute departure debounce: alert only fires if device is still
absent after 900s, eliminating ARP cache flush false positives
- 5-minute re-arrival suppression: ARRIVED alert skipped when device
returns within 5 min of a recorded departure (covers interface flap)
- DHCP renewal dedup: known device re-announcing within 30 min skips
ARRIVED alert
- Tests added for all four suppression paths (9 total, all passing)
- Replace broken OUI file lookup with inline dict of 200+ common vendors (works on Armbian)
- Fix hostname/IP duplication when reverse DNS fails (show IP once, not twice)
- Add format_arrival() and format_departure() helpers for consistent alert formatting
- Update on_arrival/on_departure to use new formatting functions
- Add comprehensive tests for hostname dedup and OUI lookup
Replace all sensor.* logger namespaces with __name__ (generic module
identifiers instead of discoverable 'sensor.*' prefixes).
Change hardcoded 'bb' API user to 'admin' in config and code defaults.
Change hardcoded relay_user 'bb' to 'operator' — prevents network
profiling from exposing tool identity via SSH config.
Fixes#457, #458, #459
- Removed get_local_subnets() and scan_subnet() — no longer needed
- Added read_arp_cache() to read kernel ARP table from /proc/net/arp
- Added fallback to 'ip neigh show' if /proc/net/arp unavailable
- Added lookup_oui() to query system /usr/share/hwdata/oui.txt for vendor names
- Removed subprocess nmap call and re import (no longer needed)
- run() now directly reads ARP cache instead of scanning subnets
- Zero active network traffic — purely passive monitoring
- Removed sudo requirement
Fixes interface auto-detection failures on Pi Zero 2W where wlan0 doesn't exist
at boot. Implementation:
- Added detect_interface_with_retry() function with 3x retry fallback chain
- Config-supplied interface preferred, then /proc/net/route, then UP interface
- Exponential backoff: 5s, 10s, 20s delays between retries
- Filters excluded prefixes: lo, tailscale*, wg*, tun*, docker*, veth*, br-*
- Used in Engine.__init__(), PacketCapture.start(), MacManager.start()
- Full test coverage: 10 tests for detection, backoff, filtering
Addresses issue where network stack initializes after boot and interfaces
become available after 5-10 second delay.
Parse nmap vendor name from MAC Address line (filtering out 'Unknown').
Fall back to socket.gethostbyaddr for IPs nmap didn't resolve a hostname
for. Alert label is now: 'hostname (vendor)' | 'hostname' | 'vendor' |
'unknown', in that priority order.
urllib's default Python-urllib user agent is flagged by Cloudflare Bot
Fight Mode (error 1010) when m.mealeyfamily.com homeserver sits behind
Cloudflare. Add a browser-like User-Agent to Matrix PUT/POST requests so
Cloudflare passes the traffic through.
- Remove 20-wifi.yaml netplan block (Bug 1): causes netplan to spawn its own wpa_supplicant instance, which claims ctrl_iface and blocks wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service. The per-interface systemd service is the correct approach.
- Add cleanup line to remove any pre-existing 20-wifi.yaml from the Armbian image.
- Patch 10-dhcp-all-interfaces.yaml to suppress default route on ethernet (Bug 2): without this, ethernet DHCP default route metric 100 beats WiFi metric 1024, routing internet traffic to ethernet which has no upstream. Causes Tailscale and firstboot to fail.
- Force IPv4 resolution in Tailscale curl (Bug 3): some homelab/ISP networks lack IPv6 internet routes. IPv6 DNS resolution for tailscale.com causes immediate curl failure on first boot.
- Remove wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service enablement: Netplan spawns its own
wpa_supplicant instance, enabling the @wlan0 unit creates a second one
that fights for the socket, causing WiFi instability and SSH drops
- Write /etc/nftables.conf to card at flash time: Armbian bookworm default
nftables policy drops all input; SSH was unreachable despite sshd running.
Ruleset allows established, loopback, ICMP, and TCP/22 only
Fixes DevTrack #317 and #295
- Set HOME/GOPATH/GOMODCACHE before go install kerbrute on arm64 to fix
'module cache not found' abort that prevented --enable-service from running
- Enable bigbrother-capture, bigbrother-watchdog, and bettercap.service
in --enable-service block (previously only bigbrother-core was enabled)
- Add services/bettercap.service: runs passive_recon.cap with net.recon +
net.sniff + events.stream instead of idle api.rest only
- bettercap.service depends on bigbrother-core to ensure engine is up first
Fixes DevTrack #311 and #312
- Remove generic wpa_supplicant.service symlink when wpa_supplicant@wlan0 is enabled — both services fight over wlan0 causing WiFi instability and SSH drops
- Add udev rule to disable WiFi power saving (aw859a drops connections under load with power save on)
- Drop set -e from firstboot script so a failing step does not kill the whole run
- Guard setup.sh call — skip gracefully if not present (dev/test scenario)
Fixes#295 and #296
Armbian minimal uses systemd-networkd+wpa_supplicant via Netplan, not NM.
Write Netplan YAML, wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf, and networkd .network file.
Enable wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service via symlink if template exists.
WiFi, SSH keys, root password, firstboot service were all being written to
the FAT32 boot partition (p1) instead of the ext4 rootfs (p2). Detect the
ext4 partition by filesystem type and mount that as MOUNT_POINT.
mktemp creates the file before ssh-keygen runs — keygen sees it exists
and prompts. Switch to mktemp -d so keygen writes a fresh file.
When run via sudo SUDO_USER is set but HOME=/root. Resolve the real
home via getent so the key lands in the operator's ~/.ssh, not root's.
echo calls in summary/final sections were missing -e flag so ANSI
escape codes printed literally instead of rendering.
Infisical SSH key storage was targeting a non-existent 'bigbrother'
folder, silently failing to store the private key. Removed folder
argument so keys store at root where creds CLI can retrieve them.
Matrix doesn't use a simple webhook URL — needs homeserver, room ID,
and bot token separately. Uses PUT /_matrix/client/v3/rooms/.../send
with Bearer token auth. Room ID is bash-encoded (! → %21, : → %3A)
to avoid Python dependency pre-setup. Also adds ntfy and plain
webhook as options under a typed alerter menu.
Device ID is now a MAC-format hex string (12 chars) using the same
OUI as the randomly selected device profile. If the device gets an
Amazon OUI for its MAC, the device ID starts with fc65de. Hostname,
MAC, and device ID all point to the same vendor — no inconsistency
for anyone watching the network.
bb- prefix is a tool fingerprint — visible in Infisical key names,
alerter payloads, and config files on the device. Default is now
a plain 10-char hex string with no identifying prefix.
Tailscale handles NAT traversal automatically via DERP relay — more
reliable than WireGuard for devices landing on unknown networks.
Add reminder to use reusable non-expiring keys for long-term drops.
Blind drops need some way to locate the device when no VPN is selected.
Alerter now reports public IP (via ipify) with fallback to local IP,
plus hostname — gives enough info to SSH directly on same-network drops.
Generates a dedicated tunnel keypair during setup, prints public key
for operator to pre-stage on server, writes private key to SD card.
On first boot: installs autossh, writes bb-tunnel.service with
correct RemoteForward and reconnect settings. Zero network traffic
until operator initiates connection through the tunnel port.
- Add prompt_default() helper: shows defaults, accepts Enter to use them
- WiFi: default=n (skip), keeps passphrase prompt loop
- Root password: auto-generate with openssl, show in summary if used, operator can override
- SSH key: default=1 (generate new)
- Device ID: auto-generate bb-<8-char-uuid>
- Boot mode: default=1 (passive)
- VPN: default=1 (none)
- Hostname: NEW section with auto-generated node-<6-char-uuid> default
- Alerter: default=n (disabled)
- Download: use curl -L (no -f), verify file exists and >50MB
- Config summary: show hostname, mask password (show auto-generated clearly)
- Apply config: write BB_HOSTNAME to /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts
- No eval with user input: use printf -v for variable assignment
Cobra