ASIMOV: a Fully Passive WiFi Device Tracking

Mobile devices expose information about their hardware and manufacturer while searching for available WiFi networks via a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol. Thus, to protect the users' privacy and prevent MAC address tracking, manufacturers typically provide anonymity through MAC randomization techniques by randomly and periodically modifying the MAC address. This paper presents the ASIMOV tracking approach, which shows through the correlation of randomized information concerning the displacement of devices in space-time dimensions that it is possible to gain insights into identifiable device information. The proposed system is entirely passive and uses a combined Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) value-based localization and the Information Elements (IE) transmitted in every IEEE 802.11 probe request frame.