Briar keeps Iran connected via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when the internet goes dark

134 pointsposted 7 hours ago
by us321
(briarproject.org)

48 Comments

zelphirkalt

15 minutes ago

I have Briar, but never had anyone to use it with. As an emergency text messaging tool, I guess it can be used, but not for any media transfer. The picture quality is abysmal. I also tried using it to sync some notes across devices, looking for a good use case of it all, but there was also some issue there. I believe once you created a "forum" you can no longer delete them. The desktop app is very slow. Sometimes had to wait for 10-20s for it to do something. I guess it is really just an emergency/offline text message tool.

SoulMan

an hour ago

What about Jack Dorsey's Bitchat . Could be useful in india (especially Kashmir) where govt shut down internet during protest

stanislavb

16 minutes ago

Bitchat seems like a good solution. It will be even more effective once Bluetooth 6 becomes more widespread in a year or two.

2Gkashmiri

15 minutes ago

Dude.

Back in 2014 when briar or something similar came up, we found the app.needed to signed in "online" first then it could be used offline.

There were apps used in 2019 but it wasnt enough.

The government "banned" 14 appps including element "because use by terrorists" meant anyone using element after the ban got a loud knock on the door by the stazi with 100-300 personnel, fully ready to engage in battle.

Have seen horror stories.

They used isp data to locate homes where element was used and then staked them out and made a big show of attacking at night.

Then the usual. Phones are confiscated and literal spyware installed.

dash2

7 minutes ago

Is this actually true? Is anyone in Iran using Briar?

electronsoup

4 hours ago

I'm curious about the iOS situation

DANmode

an hour ago

10% of devices or less.

bflesch

2 hours ago

Unfortunately, due to safety reasons Apple cannot allow you to leave the walled garden, it is only in your own best interest. All communication services on our iOS devices require at least one US-based NSA-integrated middleman. /s

bb88

22 minutes ago

Seriously though, given all the NSA has done: Could the NSA launch a "beach head" inside Apple?

thomascountz

4 hours ago

   Briar is available on Google Play for devices running Android.
What situation do you mean?

31337Logic

5 hours ago

Hooray! As a Rabin fan, I love Briar and so tremendously excited to be reading this. Thank you, all who are involved with this magnificent project!!

FridayoLeary

2 hours ago

I'm still unclear how the stated goal of the title is achieved. My first assumption reading the title that it works something like airtags, but that is obviously nonsense. unless you are standing right next to the guy you want to message, how exactly does it work?

jayd16

an hour ago

https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/

Looks like clients re-host posts to their friends in a p2p fashion.

FridayoLeary

an hour ago

Thanks. Basically it depends on c travelling to another town. Also taking the risk of being caught with the content on it's phone. It looks like a great app and every little helps but hardly a game changer, unless i'm underestimating how bad it is in Iran?

If it works via tor it's probably also slow, but that's a small price to pay for not relying on a central server for people with legitimate concerns or problems with connecting.

subscribed

3 hours ago

Perhaps Americans should start preparing with Meshtastic / Meshcore, just in case....... ..,..the Emperor seems hellbent on bringing martial law into effect.

codezero

3 hours ago

The military can very easily find and eliminate repeaters very quickly and almost certainly would.

torlok

3 hours ago

Then get more? Sounds like a fantastic way to waste military resources. I have no clue why this mythical US military might and efficiency idea persists after so many failed interventions.

subscribed

an hour ago

Here's a funny example of making it harder to find: https://youtu.be/W_F4rEaRduk?t=178

bb88

an hour ago

Triangulation is damn easy. If the US can put on bomb on a suspect satellite phone user back in the 2000's (and they did!), they can certainly send a bomb on that today.

Sat phones during the second gulf war (maybe even the first) became a liability. The transmission lit them up like a god damn beacon saying, "Bomb goes here!".

fragmede

7 minutes ago

Triangulation the math is fairly easy. Where exactly on the continental United States do you propose dropping ordinance, however? MOVE in 1985 was controversial even back then.

bb88

an hour ago

No, just blast the hell out of the ISM bands on which they operate. This seem certainly feasible for a military apparatus the size of the US.

ungreased0675

an hour ago

You must have missed the S-tier op that went down January 3rd.

kevin_thibedeau

an hour ago

The intervention part is an administrative problem the military isn't designed for. For the core mission of collecting intelligence, eliminating targets, and occupying land, the US has an unrivaled track record over the last 85 years.

kingkawn

2 hours ago

The interventions fail only after enormous slaughter, which people are understandably keen to not be subject to

anigbrowl

2 hours ago

As if compliance had such a great success rate.

subscribed

an hour ago

I don't think it's going to be military killing a Americans. As of now it more looks like federal government.

Nevertheless, sure, in the rural areas, but less so in the cities, reflections and bending of the waves make it much harder, and a single repeater with solar panel and battery could plausibly be made under $50.

bb88

an hour ago

A military won't be killing all Americans, just the ones it can label as "terrorists" to the people who elected them.

trhway

2 hours ago

Repeater coupled with [autonomous] drone to change [hard-to-get-to rooftop, treetop and the likes] location every 10 minutes like in a combat zone.

hrimfaxi

2 hours ago

Repeaters built into collars and put on feral cats.

monkaiju

2 hours ago

Is this a real thing???

trhway

2 hours ago

In Ukraine - pretty close.

vfclists

2 hours ago

Isn't stopping abuses of the power of the military the reason for the 2nd Amendment?

Why don't the people in Minnesota go open carry and let ICE agents think twice before drawing their weapons on people?

soulofmischief

2 hours ago

Renee Good was killed after dropping off her six-year-old child at school. I agree with you, but people like her have children and are not trying to die in the street just for looking at somebody the wrong way. And it's one thing to open carry, it's another thing to become a trained and confident marksmen.

And as someone who has had half a dozen police officers simultaneously pointing guns at my head, mistaking me for someone else in public, once you're in that situation, escalation is only going to lead to death. Out here, police shoot you if your hand goes anywhere near your waist.

bb88

an hour ago

>Isn't stopping abuses of the power of the military the reason for the 2nd Amendment?

It was for establishing well ordered militias. They could be used to help defend the country in a time of war.

> Why don't the people in Minnesota go open carry and let ICE agents think twice before drawing their weapons on people?

Most of the demonstrators believe that "the pen is mightier than the sword", and non-violence is the way to achieve political means. (Ghandi, MLK jr.)

When the peace-niks start amassing guns, that's when you have a tipping point in this country.

hrimfaxi

23 minutes ago

What's the definition of a well-ordered militia? A bunch of farmers that go shooting together?

bb88

19 minutes ago

A bunch of farmers that go shooting drunk. /s

Seriously though, everyone back in the 1700s realized that all Americans were American. I'm not sure that's true any more.

idiotsecant

an hour ago

Meshtastic is both extremely range limited and trivial to DDOS. It's a fun toy protocol but it's not resistant to nation state disruption at all.

lukeinator42

an hour ago

It's only line-of-sight, but isn't the range 10s-100s of kilometres in open areas? Some repeaters on hills/mountains etc. could connect large areas potentially.

fragmede

22 minutes ago

It's trivially jammable, as evidenced by the network not working at popular events such as Defcon with default firmware settings.

TacticalCoder

2 hours ago

The iranian regime is trying to do an internet blackout to hide the fact that they have killed anywhere from 2 000 to 12 000 civilians these last days.

We're talking about a country ruled by jihadists, who impose sharia law, who fund the muslim brotherhood (which is a terrorist organization) and who actively support islamic terrorists worldwide.

Where are the mass killings of civilians in the US?

What's your opinion on an islamic regime ruling by sharia who orders the slaughter of thousands of civilians?

monkaiju

2 hours ago

I looked a bit into meshtastic and was told that if a node was physically compromised then messages could be intercepted. That cant be right, right?

subscribed

an hour ago

From what I understand no, the relay node has no access to the messages.

If you compromise sending or receiving node then sure, of course.

bb88

an hour ago

Why bother? Just jam the fucking hell out of it. Most critical infrastructure is not on the ISM bands.

idiotsecant

an hour ago

There was a well known crypto weakness, CVE-2025-52464, that allowed man in the middle decryption of meshtastic traffic. It was fixed by a firmware patch that improved crypto discipline.