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EFF Rayhunter

An open-source cell-site simulator detector from EFF, running on cheap hotspot hardware to flag signs of fake cell towers nearby.

What Is Rayhunter?

Rayhunter is open-source software from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that turns an inexpensive mobile hotspot into a cell-site simulator detector. It watches the control traffic your phone's cellular modem exchanges with nearby towers and flags patterns consistent with a fake base station — commonly called an IMSI catcher or "Stingray" — attempting to intercept calls, texts, or location data. Same category of concern as the Flock camera detection covered on the OUI-SPY page, just aimed at cellular networks instead of Wi-Fi/BLE.

Rayhunter is built and maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Flashing & Setup

Rayhunter runs on a supported mobile hotspot — primarily the Orbic RC400L. Install a pre-built release (recommended) or build from source:

EFF Rayhunter build photo