WiFi QR Code Creation for Functional Decorations

I was recently playing around with the ability to create a WiFi QR Code, and I wanted to share how easy it is.

WiFi QR Code – Introduction

I was looking for some decoration ideas and I stumbled across a method to create a QR code for a wireless network.

I’d never done it before, but it seemed super straightforward. That said, I wanted to keep everything local, so I decided to use qrencode.

I’m still torn between 3D printed coasters and a print on the wall, so please chime in!

Libqrencode

Installing libqrencode is easy, as it is in the apt repositories.

root@kali:~# apt-get install qrencode
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libavahi-gobject0 libfolks-telepathy25 libgail-3-0 libgcab-1.0-0
  libgfortran4 libmission-control-plugins0 libtelepathy-glib0 magictree
  python-backports.ssl-match-hostname telepathy-mission-control-5
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libqrencode4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libqrencode4 qrencode
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 636 not upgraded.
Need to get 80.2 kB of archives.
After this operation, 170 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/kalilinux/kali kali-rolling/main i386 libqrencode4 i386 4.0.2-1 [40.0 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.linux.duke.edu/kalilinux/kali kali-rolling/main i386 qrencode i386 4.0.2-1 [40.2 kB]
Fetched 80.2 kB in 1s (93.6 kB/s)  
Selecting previously unselected package libqrencode4:i386.
(Reading database ... 361435 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libqrencode4_4.0.2-1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking libqrencode4:i386 (4.0.2-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package qrencode.
Preparing to unpack .../qrencode_4.0.2-1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking qrencode (4.0.2-1) ...
Setting up libqrencode4:i386 (4.0.2-1) ...
Setting up qrencode (4.0.2-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-6) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2) ...

Once I finished the install, I verified that I was able to run the qrencode command.

root@kali:~# qrencode
qrencode version 4.0.2
Copyright (C) 2006-2017 Kentaro Fukuchi
Usage: qrencode [OPTION]... [STRING]
Encode input data in a QR Code and save as a PNG or EPS image.

  -h           display this message.
  --help       display the usage of long options.
  -o FILENAME  write image to FILENAME. If '-' is specified, the result
               will be output to standard output. If -S is given, structured
               symbols are written to FILENAME-01.png, FILENAME-02.png, ...
               (suffix is removed from FILENAME, if specified)
  -r FILENAME  read input data from FILENAME.
  -s NUMBER    specify module size in dots (pixels). (default=3)
  -l {LMQH}    specify error correction level from L (lowest) to H (highest).
               (default=L)
  -v NUMBER    specify the minimum version of the symbol. (default=auto)
  -m NUMBER    specify the width of the margins. (default=4 (2 for Micro))
  -d NUMBER    specify the DPI of the generated PNG. (default=72)
  -t {PNG,PNG32,EPS,SVG,XPM,ANSI,ANSI256,ASCII,ASCIIi,UTF8,ANSIUTF8}
               specify the type of the generated image. (default=PNG)
  -S           make structured symbols. Version must be specified.
  -k           assume that the input text contains kanji (shift-jis).
  -c           encode lower-case alphabet characters in 8-bit mode. (default)
  -i           ignore case distinctions and use only upper-case characters.
  -8           encode entire data in 8-bit mode. -k, -c and -i will be ignored.
  -M           encode in a Micro QR Code.
  -V           display the version number and copyrights of the qrencode.
  [STRING]     input data. If it is not specified, data will be taken from
               standard input.

  Try "qrencode --help" for more options.

Creating the QR Code

With the library and application installed, it was time to create my (test) QR code!

To do this, I ran the qrencode command, with a type of SVG, an output file, and the input data for my test access-point. As you can see, the format is “WIFI:S:;T:;P:;H:;”.

root@kali:~# qrencode -t SVG -o wifi-test.svg "WIFI:S:TestSSID;T:WPA2;P:WpaKeyHere;;"

After I ran the command, I opened the file to verify that qrencode generated the image.

Testing the Code

With the code created, I used the QR & Barcode Scanner app on my Android device.

As you can see, the code scanned properly, and I was able to connect to the network!

WiFi QR Code – Conclusion

While this was easy enough, I think it will (eventually) make a fun decoration around my house!

This is also a good point for me to start modifying my wireless setup. I want to have a “guest” network, that this code would be perfect for, a personal network, and an IoT/device network. I may also setup RADIUS eventually, but that’s further down the line.

If you have suggestions for 3D printing these into coasters, then I’d love to hear them.