{"slug": "rayhunter", "name": "Rayhunter", "category": "security", "category_name": "Security and passwords", "description": "", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 5, "warners": 0, "score": 4.628, "rising": 2.35, "first": "2026-01-08", "latest": "2026-10-12", "why": "Rayhunter certainly is a good start if you want to detect the use of IMSI catchers.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Rayhunter certainly is a good start if you want to detect the use of IMSI catchers.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/efforg/rayhunter", "official_url": "https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Rayhunter", "rayhunter"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 801009152, "item_id": 50063072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50063072", "by": "user01203905", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rayhunter is a great tool", "excerpt": "Rayhunter is a great tool, but unfortunately, it is only a passive monitor for cellular state changes and not an active defense. Modern Stingrays / IMSI catchers support all standards up to 5G. They easily exploit 4G networks and 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) deployments. The only effective active defenses include (a) using a device locked strictly to 5G Standalone (SA) mode with SUCI (Subscription Concealed Identifier) en", "context": "", "use_case": "Passive cellular monitoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer"}, {"id": 800974416, "item_id": 50060901, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060901", "by": "buildsjets", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "and the Rayhunter software published by the EFF", "excerpt": "You can build an IMSI-catcher-catcher out of an Orbic RC400L cellular hotspot and the Rayhunter software published by the EFF. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying https://efforg.github.io/rayhunter/orbic.html", "context": "", "use_case": "Detect IMSI catchers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer"}, {"id": 800973392, "item_id": 50060837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060837", "by": "oger", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rayhunter certainly is a good start if you want to detect the use of IMSI catchers.", "excerpt": "Yes there absolutely are! The EFF has the Rayhunter project at https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter - it is basically an IMSI catcher catcher. You install it on a pocket router and it detects typical signatures that IMSI catchers use, for example telling your mobile to downgrade from LTE to 2G making it easy for them to tell your device to join THEIR network and read the IMSI / IMEI for your device and possibly route ", "context": "", "use_case": "detect IMSI catchers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer"}, {"id": 744734768, "item_id": 46545923, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545923", "by": "nickthegreek", "date": "2026-01-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I like to point people to EFF's Rayhunter.", "excerpt": "whenever this topic comes up, I like to point people to EFF's Rayhunter. https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter > Rayhunter is a project for detecting IMSI catchers, also known as cell-site simulators or stingrays. It was first designed to run on a cheap mobile hotspot called the Orbic RC400L, but thanks to community efforts, it can support some other devices as well. And https://bitchat.free/ > bitchat is a decentraliz", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["detect imsi catchers", "passive cellular monitoring"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50059446", "title": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46683833", "title": "There's a hidden Android setting that spots fake cell towers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46543420", "title": "ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 3}}, "quotes": [{"id": 801009152, "item_id": 50063072, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50063072", "by": "user01203905", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rayhunter is a great tool", "excerpt": "Rayhunter is a great tool, but unfortunately, it is only a passive monitor for cellular state changes and not an active defense. Modern Stingrays / IMSI catchers support all standards up to 5G. They easily exploit 4G networks and 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) deployments. The only effective active defenses include (a) using a device locked strictly to 5G Standalone (SA) mode with SUCI (Subscription Concealed Identifier) en", "context": "", "use_case": "Passive cellular monitoring", "switched_from": "", "story": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer"}, {"id": 800974416, "item_id": 50060901, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060901", "by": "buildsjets", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "and the Rayhunter software published by the EFF", "excerpt": "You can build an IMSI-catcher-catcher out of an Orbic RC400L cellular hotspot and the Rayhunter software published by the EFF. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying https://efforg.github.io/rayhunter/orbic.html", "context": "", "use_case": "Detect IMSI catchers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer"}, {"id": 800973392, "item_id": 50060837, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50060837", "by": "oger", "date": "2026-10-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Rayhunter certainly is a good start if you want to detect the use of IMSI catchers.", "excerpt": "Yes there absolutely are! The EFF has the Rayhunter project at https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter - it is basically an IMSI catcher catcher. You install it on a pocket router and it detects typical signatures that IMSI catchers use, for example telling your mobile to downgrade from LTE to 2G making it easy for them to tell your device to join THEIR network and read the IMSI / IMEI for your device and possibly route ", "context": "", "use_case": "detect IMSI catchers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Feds got warrants to use fake cell towers to hunt down Don Lemon's producer"}, {"id": 746960384, "item_id": 46685024, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46685024", "by": "FuriouslyAdrift", "date": "2026-01-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Reference in case anyone's interested: https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "There's a hidden Android setting that spots fake cell towers"}, {"id": 744734768, "item_id": 46545923, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46545923", "by": "nickthegreek", "date": "2026-01-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I like to point people to EFF's Rayhunter.", "excerpt": "whenever this topic comes up, I like to point people to EFF's Rayhunter. https://github.com/EFForg/rayhunter > Rayhunter is a project for detecting IMSI catchers, also known as cell-site simulators or stingrays. It was first designed to run on a cheap mobile hotspot called the Orbic RC400L, but thanks to community efforts, it can support some other devices as well. And https://bitchat.free/ > bitchat is a decentraliz", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "ICE's Tool to Monitor Phones in Neighborhoods"}]}