Let wifi-password change automatically #860

vhDavid · 2021-04-08T17:02:38Z

vhDavid
Apr 8, 2021

Hi, I don't use RaspAP... yet... I am a volunteer in a visitor-center and am looking for wifi-hotspot software that has the ability to change the wifi-password automatically. The idea is to let our website generate a password at night with a chronjob and store it in a database. Next let the hotspot read it at boot (maybe a url in the config file instead of a password) and set it as wifi password and let another pi also read it at boot and display it on a screen. Another option is that the hotspot software generates a password at boot and let the other pi read it somehow at boot and display it. The first option would be the most secure because they guaranteed have the same password. Is that possible with RaspAP in any way? Maybe a mod I can do myself?

billz · 2021-04-08T18:59:42Z

billz
Apr 8, 2021
Maintainer

Interesting question. Here's one way to do it with bash.

This generates a strong random password, updates hostapd and restarts RaspAP.
The new passphrase is visible on the Hotspot > Security tab and also via the QR code.

8 replies

billz Apr 9, 2021
Maintainer

when the password-generating pi restarts - the displaying pi needs to reload or it displays the previous password

Can you ssh between the Pi's? Copy your ssh keys to the displaying pi with ssh-copy-id. Then extend the script to generate some html and ssh it over to the displaying pi:

msg="<html><body>The new passphrase is: ${PASSPHRASE}</body></html>"
echo "${msg}" | ssh [email protected] 'cat > notice.html'

vhDavid Apr 9, 2021
Author

I will try that when I find another pi to test at home. That pi is in our visitor center now only displaying a website with lots of info. Still hope an option like this gets implemented in the software. Thanks for all the info.

vhDavid Apr 11, 2021
Author

Hi Billz, just to let you know I managed to get it done by adapting your script and using the synology nas. Not by ssh because it seems only possible to ssh into that as root user. I now change the password with python and let both pi's read it on reboot from a map only shared to those pi's. Thanks again.

billz Apr 11, 2021
Maintainer

Glad to hear it. Have you considered documenting your setup? I think others could benefit from it.

vhDavid Apr 12, 2021
Author

Hope I did not forget anything and placing it here is ok... I'm pretty new here.

This is the used python script: People can choose which characters they want to include.

from random import randrange

karakters = "abcdefghijkmnpqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ23456789"
lengte = len(karakters)
paswoord = ""

for x in range(6):
    welk = randrange(lengte)
    paswoord += karakters[welk:welk+1]

f = open("/volume1/RaspberryPi/wifi_paswoord.txt", "w")
f.write(paswoord)
f.close()

The nas needs to support python. I schedule the scipt as root every day at 3AM.
The shared map 'RaspberryPi' has read-rights for the users for the 2 pi's.

In both pi's I added this line to the etc/fstab to be able to access the map on the nas:
//192.168.1.134/xxxx /home/pi/yyyy cifs credentials=/home/pi/.zzzz,iocharset=utf8,users,_netdev 0 0

The 2nd part is a map on the pi you need to make yourself where the remote map gets 'mapped' when it is mounted.

The credentials-file (.zzzz) contains following lines:
username=
password=

Then there is Billz script a bit adapted that is scheduled on boot with crontab.

#!/bin/bash

readonly HOSTAPD="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"
readonly PASSPHRASE=$(cat "/home/pi/yyyy/paswoord.txt")
echo "Your new passphrase is: ${PASSPHRASE}"

# update hostapd.conf wpa_passphrase
sudo sed -i "s/\(wpa_passphrase=\).*/\1${PASSPHRASE}/g" "$HOSTAPD" || { echo  "Unable to modify hostapd.conf" && exit;$

# restart RaspAP for change to take effect
sudo systemctl restart raspapd.service || { echo  "Unable to restart raspapd.service" && exit; }

On the 2nd pi 'PiPresents' is installed. It is a presentation-software for the raspberry pi that can display info from different sources together on 1 tv screen. More info on PiPresents

I noticed that 2nd pi needed an extra mount-command for the nas in the script that also auto-starts pipresents.
sudo mount –a

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Let wifi-password change automatically #860

vhDavid Apr 8, 2021

Replies: 1 comment · 8 replies

billz Apr 8, 2021 Maintainer

billz Apr 9, 2021 Maintainer

vhDavid Apr 9, 2021 Author

vhDavid Apr 11, 2021 Author

billz Apr 11, 2021 Maintainer

vhDavid Apr 12, 2021 Author

vhDavid
Apr 8, 2021

Replies: 1 comment 8 replies

billz
Apr 8, 2021
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vhDavid Apr 9, 2021
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vhDavid Apr 11, 2021
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billz Apr 11, 2021
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vhDavid Apr 12, 2021
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