Prey 0.6.0

Prey is a free and easy to use application that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen.

Prey works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but it also is completely free.

Prey helps you locate your missing laptop by sending timed reports with a bunch of information of its whereabouts.

This includes the general status of the computer, a list of running programs and active connections, fully-detailed network and wifi information, a screenshot of the running desktop and — in case your laptop has an integrated webcam — a picture of the thief.

Besides, if by using Prey you can keep alive a tiny bit of hope that you’ll recover your computer, isn’t it already worth it?

NOTE: If you want to track more than 3 devices, you will need to UPGRADE.

Here are some key features of "Prey":

Wifi autoconnect:
· Prey checks if there’s an active internet connection to send the information. If not, it will attempt to connect to the nearest open wifi access point available. This gives you a better chance to locate the device.

Geo-location aware:
· Prey uses wifi hotspots to locate devices geographically. This not only includes lat/lng coordinates, but also an altitude indicator — yes, that means you can also know (aprox.) in which floor the computer is.

Lightweight:
· Yes, this is a feature. Prey is written in bash which means it has virtually no dependencies, only what it different modules need to work. This also means Prey is portable and should run in just about any computer.

Modular arquitecture:
· You can add, remove and configure the different parts of Prey as you wish. Prey is composed by modules, each one performing a specific task, so you can have it as you like.

Powerful report system:
· Get the list of current running programs, the recently modified files, active connections, running uptime, take a screenshot of the running desktop or even a picture of the guy who’s using the computer.

Messaging/alert system:
· You can alert the user he’s being chased at by sending messages which’ll appear on screen. You can also trigger alarms to make the message clear not only to him but also to whomever is nearby. Be careful with this one!

Module auto-installer:
· You don’t have to reinstall Prey to keep up with the latest and greatest modules. We keep a repository from where Prey will fetch what it needs to get the job done.

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Response encryption: Prey now supports 128 bit AES decryption for response bodies, which means that all data sent by the Control Panel will be encrypted with a salted secret key, rending theoretical man-in-the-middle attacks impossible. We’ll be deploying this gradually during the next days!
· We also added a check to prevent malitious code execution through config values in the response XML. (Issue #85)
· Better way of knowing if On-Demand is still active or not, using timestamps from the keepalive pings sent by the server. This should fix the issue that prevented some users from switching back to Interval mode.
· Lots of code cleanups, removed duplicate or unused stuff. We’re also switching backticks for $() calls, which is much easier to read.
· Small improvements to the auto update process.
· Initial support for Prey to be run as a non-root user. On Ubuntu we were able to run as a third user with some sudo permissions. Once we get it working on Mac we’ll switch over and not run Prey as roo...