Hacker “Tamagotchi” Flipper Zero hits Kickstarter today. It was required to raise 60,000 dollars to start production of the devices, and those who predicted failure of the project were clearly wrong. The fact is that the required amount was collected in a matter of minutes after the start of the campaign, and the $99 devices were instantly sold out.
Currenty, the project has already raised about $450,000. According to the campaign’s roadmap, this means the devices will be available in a new color and equipped with Bluetooth. The next target is $700,000 to help equip the Flipper Zero with NFC.
“A device similar to a Tamagotchi is intended for pentesters, hackers (in the original sense of the word) and other enthusiasts”, – say founders of the hacker startup.
The main idea behind this open source device was to combine different hardware solutions for penetration testers together. As a result, Flipper Zero boasts the following features.
Radio module based on TI CC1101. It supports transmission and reception of signals in the range 300-928 MHz. This operating range is used by many access control devices and systems, including garage door remotes, barriers, IoT sensors, and so on. As a result, Flipper Zero can emulate a wide variety of remotes and store their memory.
In the device is built-in decoder for popular remote control algorithms such as Keeloq and others. As a result, the user can examine an unknown radio communication system to find out which protocol is hidden “under the hood”.
The infrared transmitter can send signals to any TVs, air conditioners, stereos, and so on. Flipper contains a built-in library of common commands such as turn on/off, change volume or adjust temperature. Also, the IR receiver can intercept signals and store them in memory.
The 125 kHz RFID antenna is able to read EM-4100 and HID Prox cards, store them in memory and emulate them directly from the menu.
Device also has built-in panel for reading iButton keys (DS1990A), also known as TouchMemory or Dallas. This quite old technology is still widely used all over the world. It is based on the 1-Wire protocol and has no authentication, so Flipper can easily read keys, store their IDs in memory, write IDs to empty keys, and emulate the key itself.
Flipper can act as a fully functional U2F dongle that is compatible with any U2F-enabled service including Google, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, LastPass, Amazon AWS, and more.
GPIO pins with which you can turn Flipper into USB -> UART/I2C/SPI converter. Or connect peripherals to it, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
The USB Type-C port can be used for firmware upgrades, virtual serial port deployment, and HID input device emulation. That is, in essence, Flipper can act like a Rubber Ducky and be used for attacks like BadUSB.
“At the same time, Flipper does not fit into the description of a special means or device for secret information collection. The device does not have the ability to record audiovisual information, it is not masked as household items. The factory firmware will not have jamming, brute-force and other potentially harmful functions”, – tell its creators.
The fundraising campaign for Flipper Zero will continue for another 29 days, with device shipments expected in February 2021. At the same time, Pavel Zhovner recently wrote that the fate of the Flipper One version directly depends on the success of this campaign: he promised that if the required amount is collected, work on the One version will continue.
Since the set goals have already been fulfilled (and will obviously be exceeded), we can safely congratulate the creator of the hacker Tamagotchi with his victory and start waiting for Flipper One.
Let me remind you that at the same time, hackers are attacking the services of Garmin, a popular manufacturer of wearable electronics (but not Tamagotchi).
I want one ASAP.