hostapd-api

Overview

hostapd-api is a read-only API that interfaces with hostapd to monitor associated devices on one or more access points.

Setup

Syslog Configuration

For hostapd-api to function, access points need to send logs to a syslog server. This syslog server should be configured to write logs as JSON lines to a file. A sample configuration for syslog-ng compatible with the linuxserver.io syslog-ng Docker image is provided in the example directory.

Docker Integration

Included in this repository is a docker-compose file to set up a syslog-ng container alongside a hostapd-api container. The root directory contains a Dockerfile that will work with this configuration.

Building

Docker Build

The primary method to build hostapd-api is using Docker:

docker build -t hostapd-api .

Cargo Build

To manually build the project outside of Docker, use cargo:

cargo build --release

Note: Rust must be installed for this method.

Running

Docker Usage

When running in Docker, mount the directory containing hostapd log files to /var/log/messages. Use -f (--file) to change the log file path and -l (--listen) to alter the server's listening address and port. The default is 0.0.0.0:5580.

API

The API features several endpoints:

• /: Returns a list of all devices.
• /mac/:mac: Returns information for a specific device by MAC address.
• /ap/:ap: Returns devices associated with a specific access point.
• /online: Returns a list of online devices.
• /offline: Returns a list of offline devices.

Example Responses

GET /

The root endpoint returns a list of all devices, including their MAC address, a list of access points they are associated with, and the last time they were observed, associated, and disassociated. The online field indicates whether the device is currently associated with an access point.

{
  "devices": [
    {
      "hardware_ethernet": "00:00:00:00:00:01",
      "access_points": [],
      "last_associated": null,
      "last_disassociated": null,
      "last_observed": null,
      "online": false
    },
    {
      "hardware_ethernet": "00:00:00:00:00:02",
      "access_points": ["bedroom-ap"],
      "last_associated": "2024-01-02T12:34:56Z",
      "last_disassociated": null,
      "last_observed": "2024-01-02T12:35:56Z",
      "online": true
    }
  ]

GET /ap/:ap

The /ap/:ap endpoint returns a list of devices associated with a specific access point. The response is the same as the root endpoint, but only includes devices associated with the specified access point.

GET /ap/bedroom-ap

{
  "devices": [
    {
      "hardware_ethernet": "00:00:00:00:00:02",
      "access_points": ["bedroom-ap"],
      "last_associated": "2024-01-02T12:34:56Z",
      "last_disassociated": null,
      "last_observed": "2024-01-02T12:35:56Z",
      "online": true
    }
  ]
}

GET /online

The /online endpoint returns a list of devices that are currently associated with an access point. The response is the same as the root endpoint, but only includes devices that are currently online.

There is also an /offline endpoint that returns a list of devices that are not currently associated with an access point.

GET /mac/:mac

The /mac/:mac endpoint returns information for a specific device by MAC address. The response is similar to the root endpoint, but the top level field is device instead of devices.

{
  "device": {
    "hardware_ethernet": "00:00:00:00:00:02",
    "access_points": ["bedroom-ap"],
    "last_associated": "2024-01-02T12:34:56Z",
    "last_disassociated": null,
    "last_observed": "2024-01-02T12:35:56Z",
    "online": true
  }
}

Integration with dhcpd-api

For enhanced functionality, hostapd-api can be combined with dhcpd-api, providing a full view of connected devices, their IP addresses, and hostnames.

Author

Dylan Hardison dylan@hardison.net

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.