OwnHaystack (Macless OpenHaystack + Owntracks)

This project is meant as a simpler alternative to Macless-Haystack, by focusing on its main competency: getting position reports from Apple's FindMy Network.

It doesn't include its own frontend, but is meant to be used in conjunction with an MQTT broker and OwnTracks. All this project does is collecting position reports, decrypting them and publishing them to an MQTT broker in a standardized format.

Setup

This is meant as a fully featured and easy jumping off point, by also including the setup for an MQTT broker, as well as the OwnTracks Recorder as a frontend.

0. Make sure Docker and Docker Compose (>=2.23.1) are installed on your system
1. Download the compose.yaml file
2. Replace ${APPLE_USERNAME} and ${APPLE_PASSWORD} with your login data
3. Setup the tags with their keys
   1. Depending on your hardware follow the instructions for ESP32, nrf5x, Bluefruit devices or Flipper Zero
   2. For every tag create a .priv_keys file in the ./data/keys folder containing one base64 enecoded private key per line. (Multiple lines are only needed if you are using rotating keys on the device.)
   3. The filename of the file will be used as the mqtt topic and name of the tag. E.g., flipper.priv_keys will result in its position reports to be posted to owntracks/haystack/flipper
4. Start the container in interactive mode with docker compose run --rm haystack
5. Enter your 2FA code when you are asked for it
6. Once you have sucessfully authenticated the 2FA, a auth.json file is created and you should be able to start the container normally
7. Goto http://localhost:8083/ to see the OwnTracks frontend with the captured location reports

Config

All of this projects features are configured through environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
APPLE_USERNAME	required	The email of your Apple ID
APPLE_PASSWORD	required	The password of your Apple ID
TRUSTED_DEVICE	False	Set to TRUE if a Trusted Device should be used for 2FA instad of SMS
ANISETTE_URL	dynamic public server	URL to an anisette server (including http/https)
MQTT_TOPIC_PREFIX	owntracks/haystack/	Where to post the location records
MQTT_SERVER	required	Hostname or IP of MQTT broker
MQTT_PORT	1883	MQTT port number
MQTT_USERNAME	no auth	MQTT username
MQTT_PASSWORD	no auth	MQTT password
MQTT_TLS	FALSE	Set to True if MQTT over TLS should be used
REFRESH_INTERVAL	5	Time in minutes between updating the locations from the FindMy network
AUTH_FILE	\data\auth.json in docker .\data\auth.json otherwise	Location of the auth file
KEY_FOLDER	\data\keys in docker .\data\keys otherwise	Location of the private key files

Previous Work

This project is based on: (Credits go to them for the hard work)

• FindMyFlipper
  • For most of the code connecting to Apple's servers and decrypting the reports
• Macless-Haystack
  • For the Firmewares and Key Generation
  • which in turn is also based on:
    • Openhaystack
    • Biemster's FindMy
    • Positive security's Find you
    • acalatrava's OpenHaystack-Fimware alternative