Eventbus

Eventbus websocket

DESC

The Kismet eventbus is a push/publish system used inside Kismet where events are transmitted between Kismet components. The eventbus is a central system for almost all asynchronous events in Kismet.

Events are used to publish when devices are detected, human-readable status messages, datasource errors and state, alerts, and more.

The websocket eventbus API allows for push notification of selected events when they occur. The Kismet web UI uses the eventbus for populating the alerts widget, message panel, GPS location widget, and more.

Any tool monitoring Kismet should use the eventbus API.

Events are a string::object dictionary of values and content, and can contain simple text data, or complex complete objects like device records.

ROLES
readonly
ADDED
API added 2020-10
URI
/eventbus/events.ws
METHODS
WEBSOCKET UPGRADE
URI
PARAMETERS
user string

User to log in as; websockets do not support standard basic-auth, cookies, or other header-based login methods.

You must provide either user and password parameters, or an API token or login session token via the KISMET paraeter.

password string

Password associated with the login user.

You must provide either user and password parameters, or an API token or login session token via the KISMET parameter.

KISMET string

Kismet auth token or API key.

You must provide either user and password parameters, or an API token or login session token via the KISMET parameter.

API

The eventbus subscription API accepts JSON objects requesting a subscription topic and optional field simplification.

Currently consumers are limited to one subscription per topic; it is not possible for a single connection to subscribe to the same topic twice with different field selections. Multiple websocket connections from the same client may subscribe to the same topic with different field selections without restriction, however.

An eventbus JSON command contains:

SUBSCRIBE string

Topic to subscribe to (from the list below), case sensisitive. One of either SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE is required.

UNSUBSCRIBE string

Topic to unsubscribe from, case sensisitive. One of either SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE is required.

If the topic has not been subscribed to, this message will be ignored.

fields field simplification OPTIONAL

Kismet can reduce the amount of information being processed and returned by an API by simplifying the fields to only return the data needed by the caller.

You can read more about the field simplification API and how to use it here.

Either a SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE must be provided with each command.

Once subscribed to a topic, an eventbus receiver will be sent a websocket text message containing the JSON record for each event which matches that subscription, optionally simplified.

Eventbus topics

Eventbus topics may be dynamically expanded by plugins, external helper tools, and more. Some topics are used predominately as internal messaging mechanisms between components of Kismet, while others are generated at regular intervals specifically for consumption by external UI and monitoring systems.

Event topics include:

ALERT
  • Content

    JSON object containing a Kismet alert record

  • Generation

    Published whenever an alert is raised in the Kismet WIDS/Alert system

BATTERY
  • Content

    JSON object containing the battery presence, charge, and rate data, as per the system statistics API

  • Generation

    Published once per second by the Kismet server

DATASOURCE_PAUSED
  • Content

    JSON object containing a Kismet datasource record

  • Generation

    Published when a running datasource is paused

DATASOURCE_RESUMED
  • Content

    JSON object containing a Kismet datasource record

  • Generation

    Published when a paused datasource is resumed

DATASOURCE_ERROR
  • Content

    The UUID of a Kismet datasource

  • Generation

    Published when a datasource experiences an error

DATASOURCE_OPENED
  • Content

    The UUID of a Kismet datasource

  • Generation

    Published when a datasource is opened (or re-opened)

DATASOURCE_CLOSED
  • Content

    The UUID of a Kismet datasource

  • Generation

    Published when a datasource is closed

DOT11_ADVERTISED_SSID
  • Content

    Contains 2 keys, DOT11_NEW_SSID_BASEDEV and DOT11_ADVERTISED_SSID, which contain, respectively, the base Kismet device complete record, and the new SSID sub-record.

  • Generation

    Published when a new advertised (via beacons) SSID is discovered

DOT11_RESPONSE_SSID
  • Content

    Contains 2 keys, DOT11_NEW_SSID_BASEDEV and DOT11_RESPONSE_SSID, which contain, respectively, the base Kismet device complete record, and the new SSID sub-record.

  • Generation

    Published when an access point responds to a SSID for the first time (vie probe responses), per BSSID.

DOT11_PROBED_SSID
  • Content

    Contains 2 keys, DOT11_NEW_SSID_BASEDEV and DOT11_PROBED_SSID, which contain, respectively, the base Kismet device complete record, and the new SSID sub-record.

  • Generation

    Published when a device probes for a SSID the first time, per device MAC

DOT11_WPA_HANDSHAKE
  • Content

    Contains two keys, DOT11_WPA_HANDSHAKE_BASEDEV and DOT11_WPA_HANDSHAKE_DOT11, which contain, respectively, the base Kismet device and the 802.11-specific device sub-record.

  • Generation

    Published when a complete (or estimated to be complete) WPA handshake is captured

GPS_LOCATION
  • Content

    JSON object containing the current ‘best’ GPS location, as per the GPS location API

  • Generation

    Published once per second by the Kismet server

KISMETDB_LOG_OPEN
  • Content

    None

  • Generation

    Published when the kismetdb log is successfully opened

MESSAGE
  • Content

    JSON object containing a Kismet messagebus message (text, flags, and timestamp)

  • Generation

    Published when a new message is generated in Kismet

NEW_DATASOURCE
  • Content

    JSON object containing a Kismet datasource record

  • Generation

    Published when a new datasource is defined

PACKETCHAIN_STATS
  • Content

    JSON object containing the packet chain statistics RRDs, as per the packetchain stats API

  • Generation

    Published once per second by the Kismet server

TIMESTAMP
  • Content

    JSON object containing the second and usecond timestamp

  • Generation

    Published automatically once per second by the Kismet server

EXAMPLE

Constructing and connecting a websocket uses the standard Javascript websocket API:

var ws = new WebSocket('ws://host:2501/eventbus/events.ws?'
  'user=username&password=password');
ws.onmessage = function(msg) {
    var json = JSON.parse(msg.data);
    console.log(json);
}
ws.onopen = function(event) {
    var req = {
        "SUBSCRIBE": "TIMESTAMP"
    }
    ws.send(JSON.stringify(req));
}
NOTES

Kismet websckets will accept authentication as HTTP basic auth, Kismet session tokens, API keys, or HTTP URI-encoded GET paramaters of the user auth, session token, or API key.

Some tools (websocket) allow sending HTTP basic auth as part of the URI via http://user:pass@host:port/eventbus/events.ws, however modern browser implementations do not support this, and websockets must be constructed with GET URI paramters.

Websocket URIs must match the content type of the calling page. A https page must use wss and a http page must use ws. The Kismet UI detects and handles this automatically via Javascript.