Every now and then something comes along that every geek out there craves. I was desperate for a Steam deck. We are currently following a Raspberry Pi refill bot that you can get for under $100 during Grand Pi. 2022 shortage.
But few devices capture the imagination of our friends in IT quite like the Flipper Zero. A hacking multi-tool shaped like a playful child’s toy and adorned with friendly dolphins. Packed with various sensors, chips, and antennas, Flipper allows you to prank all sorts of devices, from security gates to card readers.
Prank business has its drawbacks. The company that makes the gadget has had to deal with over $1.3 million in payments. withheld by PayPal Pending device shipment by US Customs —all of which give the device a certain prestige among the hacker set.
what is that?
To the uninitiated eye, the Flipper Zero looks like a toy. A small orange and white plastic device, a playful Tamagotchi-like dolphin appears on his orange monochrome 1.4-inch display. cute! But in reality, Flipper Zero is a multi-tool that covers many of your hacking needs. Think Leatherman or Swiss Army Knife. However, it is for communicating with electronic devices. You get a general sense of what Flipper Zero can do. To no one’s surprise, it’s open source and has successfully raised about $4.6 million on Kickstarter.
Aside from the stylish Y2K design, what really sets the tool apart from the rest is its flexibility. There are several tools. It can communicate with sub-1 GHz devices such as old garage doors, both low and high frequency RFID, NFC cards, infrared devices, and even Bluetooth. You may have seen viral videos of people using Flippers to remotely open charging ports to annoy Tesla owners a little, but the real power of Flippers lies in their versatility. Nearly all wireless devices are vulnerable in some way.
what can it do?
It’s best to answer this question one antenna at a time. A sub-1GHz transceiver allows you to interact with older devices such as garage doors, restaurant pagers, gates, gas station price labels, doorbells and more. A 125kHz antenna allows reading, duplicating and emulating older prox cards. Combined with the NFC module, it can read, write and emulate both low frequency and high frequency NFC devices like Tap cards. Also, an infrared transceiver allows you to learn infrared devices on the fly. Lost your air conditioner or soundbar remote while traveling? Not only can Flipper learn how to do it, but someone else may already know the code. I want to turn off the robot dog for comedic effect? Get angry.
Additionally, Flipper allows you to perform a BadUSB attack by connecting your device to your computer via USB and running an entire array of Ducky Scripts. If you already know about USB Rubber Ducky, this one might be familiar too. With a little less malice he could use it to store a U2F key and do two factor authentication. It’s also not limited to small screen use. You can also connect your phone to the flipper via Bluetooth and control it with this very handy app. There is also a microSD card slot for storing data.
All that matters is the flipper No WiFi outside the gateHowever, since the device has quick access to GPIO pins, you can add a WiFi Devboard or ESP8266 to your device for a variety of fun projects such as penetration testing, deauthentication, probing, and more.
Aside from the basic functionality of the device, The Flipper has a robust and vibrant community that supports it. There are tons of resources online, and people are always finding fun new ways to use their devices, apparently allowing them to run weird versions of his DOOM. And Tetris! And Flappy Bird! Can be used to emulate Skylanders and amiibo! Somehow, if you come across a working payphone, you can do some good old-fashioned phone freaking. Also, since the project is open source, nothing prevents you from installing your own firmware (many people do).
How much of a threat?
This is where the cargo enters the area where customs holds it.
Flipper Zero is a very powerful tool and can be used maliciously, but it can also be used with Pwnagotchi, various ESP 8266 boards, or simply phones.
As always, it’s important to note that the usefulness or danger of a tool is often determined by the person using it. There are tools out there to create chaos, but it takes planning and determination. Individuals have to choose whether to copy keycards, fiddle with gas station pricing, or let someone’s computer subscribe to your YouTube channel. Also, the greatest usefulness of most hacking tools is usually to test your own security rather than attack others.
At the same time, some people just want to fiddle with their wireless signal. He knows more than one person who happily bought a Flipper Zero but uses it primarily for things like turning on the air conditioner. Flipper Zero alone wouldn’t make a bunch of his IT guys a Watch Dogs hero. A small percentage of people use it to duplicate condo keys and just annoy other slightly ignorant Tesla owners.
Can I use it myself?
absolutely. The app is pretty straightforward, the interface is easy to use, and there are more robust scripts added daily that you can find if you know how to search GitHub. We also have a healthy forum (shocking in these times!) and a robust and friendly Discord server you can join if you need help with a project.
Of course, if you can get it. Or a raspberry pi. Anyway, good luck in the near future.
