Using NetworkManager (nmcli) to create an hotspot broadcasting an hidden SSID

as described in the subject I was wondering if I can hide the SSID of my freshly created hotspot by means of two simple nmcli commands :

Code:

nmcli device wifi hotspot ifname wlan0 con-name Hotspot ssid MySsid band bg channel 11 password 'mypassword'
nmcli con modify Hotspot ipv4.method shared ipv4.addresses 192.168.240.1/24
nmcli con up Hotspot

any pointers about that ? I still can't find the right option to add while creating the network...

Kind Regards

2 Answers

On recent versions of NetworkManager set wifi.hidden property.

Note that hidden networks don't increase security, but rather require the clients to actively scan for the network (by setting wifi.hidden on their side). That makes the client machine trackable by having rather unique scan requests, not only when you are in rangez but all the time (because NM Scans for the network wherever you are). See man nm-settings about that.

I see, the fact is that those commands seems to set this property by default...take a look at the configuration file :

[connection]
id=Hotspot
uuid=9f655aa4-6c63-4549-8da8-3ea1ab6112ec
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
permissions=
timestamp=1567000798
[wifi]
band=bg
channel=11
hidden=true
mac-address=00:00:00:00:00:00
mac-address-blacklist=
mode=ap
seen-bssids=00:00:00:00:00:00;
ssid=MYAP
[wifi-security]
group=ccmp;
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
pairwise=ccmp;
proto=rsn;
psk=mypass
[ipv4]
address1=192.168.240.1/24
dns-search=
method=shared
[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
method=ignore

the only modification I can think of after your suggestion is this one :

# creating the actual hotspot with SHARED address
nmcli device wifi hotspot ifname wlan0 con-name Hotspot ssid arty-$SSID_SUFFIX band bg channel 11 password 'arancino'
nmcli con modify Hotspot ipv4.method shared ipv4.addresses 192.168.240.1/24 802-11-wireless.hidden 'TRUE'
nmcli con up Hotspot

anyway, although supported by nm (my operating version is release v1.6), it doesn't seem to have any effect on the final result....any pointers ?

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