Originally published at: Flipper Zero is a multitool for geeks | Boing Boing
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Sold out.
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I don’t know anything about these systems the product can be used with; could you maybe explain what kind of stuff you personally were going to do with it? it sounds interesting
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The description(s) read like I might use it as ersatz/backup for two or three RFID thingies I use at work.
And just play around with some of the other features like the IR bit.
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I finally received mine after funding the Kickstarter campaign last year. It’s a fun tool. So far I’ve turned off the annoying TV in the waiting at a doctor’s office, opened the charge port cover on a random Tesla (from a moving car), and used the frequency analyzer on a variety of car key fobs (no success opening any of those cars).
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I’m a total sucker for these kinds of projects on kickstarter. RF hacking? Shut up and take my money!
So naturally I backed this the day I saw it.
So far, though, I’ve only managed to open and close my blinds. I’ve not managed to get the frequency analyzer to show me much of anything. I haven’t tried the car fob yet. And now my dolphin is sulking because it’s been locked in my bag for the last three weeks.
(The last part is more than a little annoying because it’s a tool, not a tamigotchi. My oscilloscope doesn’t whine if it sits ignored on the bench for a month.)
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Is there a way to get to a shell or other programming interface?
I’m sure that the buttons and joystick interface is clever, but sooner or later, I’d want to use it for automated data collection with various conditions.
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It looks like a really interesting hobbyist hacking platform and the price isn’t too bad if it actually does everything it claims to. I’m also surprised it doesn’t do JTAG or SWD. Seems like a pretty glaring omission although I’d guess it could be made to do so with its GPIO pins. I’m also not really a fan of how the GPIO is socketed instead of having pins.
In the past when I’ve done RF hacking I’ve had a whole bunch of different little dongles and peripherals to do what I want. One for sniffing, one for transmitting, a JTAG or serial device for debugging, etc. Having everything in one little device is definitely interesting.
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The lack of JTAG on the flipper is somewhat by design, it seems. The wifi dev board that they offer ships with a black magic firmware to allow that sort of debugging. While the devboard can be used independently of the flipper, it can also be powered (and communicate) via the flipper gpis.
On the flipper side of thing, the software is moving fast, but it’s far from feature complete. The dev team is fairly small, it feels like they are using this sort of early recipient / limited availability window to hammer out the core basics before addressing some of the loftier rf hacking/pentesting abilities.
At the end of the day, IMO, it’s a fun little tool, but to get the most out of it you need to either be patient or have the desire/ability to write your own C code for it. I don’t think it serves as a good replacement for something like a hackrf or a proxmark, but then again neither of those is as discrete (or cute) as the flipper. Also, the battery life is incredible.
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There is a CLI shell available, although that is currently somewhat limited. Given that this is really designed (in my opinion) for portability, I don’t think it serves a long running data collection use all that well.
From a programmability perspective, the firmware is open. There isn’t a decent documentation set around it yet, but there are a few example applications and it’s all fairly straightforward.
The community has a couple of popular complete firmware forks out there, and people are adding/porting code to the flipper firmware pretty quickly.
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Nobody here has anything to do with the production of this product. Beschizza just thought it was cool and so gave it a writeup. The indented text on a grey background is quoted from their copy.
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Haw! The fact that you said “create a good product" makes me not able to be confident about your abilities to tell the difference between the review of a product and the marketing of a product.
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Maybe you simply aren’t the target audience? This product is clearly something intended for use by a hacker, tinkerer, and hobbyist audience rather than something for serious professional use.
And that’s ok.
Not everybody has the means, skill, or need to spend thousands of dollars on Keysight, Siglent, or other such professional-level equipment.
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And I’m sure they were thrilled to have such a nice and well adjusted boss.
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Give another two-three word term for “receiving/transmitting radio signals using common protocols” that conveys meaning to neophytes and experts alike.
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No easily available shell.
It doesn’t seem like it’s intended to be an automated anything. It’s more like an “everyday carry” that lives in your pocket, allowing you to do recon when you encounter something interesting, like a wireless remote control, a one-touch button, IR, etc.
Also, it has a total of perhaps 750 KB of available RAM to run apps. They’re shaving every byte they can to keep the system viable. It’s not like you could run Kismet to track all the nearby WiFi on it.
It’s a fun toy, there’ve packed a lot into its small case, and made it work surprisingly well with a six-button interface. But if you want more utility, you’ll probably have to tape a HackRF to a RasPi or something like that. The Flipper isn’t going to expand like you might be hoping.
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Or the ability to walk around with all the aforementioned gear attached to their key ring.
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As an old timey assembler coder, that sounds like plenty. 
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Indeed. I’m intrigued by this hardware not as a serious analysis tool, but as something convenient that I can use for light-duty experimentation and such. It may not be as capable as something like a HackRF or other such hardware, but the price seems right for what you get. It’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on.
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