Cool hardware for hacking

[Kirk]

Do you guys know of any cool hardware used for hacking? I just bought a wifi pineapple and a rubber ducky. Should get them today. What else is out there? I enjoy seeing what people build and what it can do.

[Broken Angel]

I know this will not help you with Hacking but the best Cool hardware I cam across is Raspberry Pi

http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/what-is-a-raspberry-pi/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know a friend of mine can do magic with it... If you need it I can hook you up with that guy and you can know how to play with it in better ways...

[Kirk]

I've been looking at the raspberry pi for a while now. The Arduino looks interesting also. One of my next projects is a cell phone frequency jammer. I found the pcb layout I can download. Then send it to a company to have all the pathways either etched or silk screened on. I solder the prices on and wire it. I'm just seeing what all is out there.

I have found the instructions for Bluetooth gun. That thing looked super cool, except I don't know how to get into Bluetooth yet.

I have converted a dish network satellite dish into a high gain wireless-N antenna.

Trying to find a few other projects I can attempt.

[lilrofl]

I guess it depends on what you mean by hacking. I have a POST card, which is technically a diagnostic tool, but it's pretty cool.

I feel obligated to mention that building a cell phone jammer is really illegal; however, sharing how to build them and offering schematics is not Ada did one up a few years back called the wave bubble which isn't too complicated. It also might get you into making a surface mount soldering rig... very neat.

As a school project I build a true random number generator. Again, I wouldn't call that hacking hardware exactly, but it is a pretty inexpensive project which can be pretty effectively paired with a rasberrypi or arduino and can be used to supply entropy into your OS for encryption or to generate one time pads for perfect encryption.

[bad_brain]

is already building a cellphone jammer illegal? or is it like with the radar jammers where "posession is legal as long as you use it as paperweight"?

[Kirk]

paper weight. its illegal to use one. the reason being is because the cellular signal is considered owned by the cell phone company. so by jamming the signal it is considered theft. you are not allowing a customer, who has paid for the use of that cellular signal, to use it. kinda like stealing a rental car. you didnt steal it from the driver but the company.

there is a gray area for large corporations in using them to protect either intellectual property or hardware; like an MRI machine. cops and military use them all the time. especially the military when they think there is a terrorist with a cell phone control. flip a switch and no more explosion.

i have heard the argument of using one in your own home. i own the home and what goes on im my home should be my business kinda thing. the argument makes sense however they dont realize that if you invite someone into your house and rob him at gun point its still robbery. same thing with the jammer.

this isnt something that the cops are going to be kicking in my door over though. i may still get into a little mischief but im done committing crimes. if you understand my difference there.

you can buy them off the internet. they have tons of them. GPS jammers also. I just think it would be fun to fuck with my neighbors a little bit once in a while.

kirk

[lilrofl]

Jamming equipment is managed by the FCC in the United States, I'll put a link to the FAQ below.

The TL,DR of it is that operating any device that transmits energy for the purpose of interfering with devices governed by the FCC is illegal. That includes all radio frequency jammers which can affect cell phones, wifi, and GPS; although, operating implies that 'paper weight' status is fine

http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/jammerenfo ... jamfaq.pdf

As an aside, there was a project which fell into a loop hole of not jamming, but overriding GPS signal data with false location data. This allowed a person to fool the GPS device of anyone in the 'bubble' into thinking it was located at a different GPS location.

[Broken Angel]

I feel obligated to mention that building a cell phone jammer is really illegal; however, sharing how to build them and offering schematics is not

Well in India it sure is not Illegal for 2 reason:

1. No one actually knows on how to make em and
2. No one fucking cares

on the foot note I would like to add that SHIFT TO INDIA lol... tons of things are Illegal and yet they thrive like nothing else is better than them lol

its like

Also I would love to learn on how to make a Cell Phone Frequency Jammer... Mind sharing the KNOWLEDGE with me for only LEARNING Purposes and nothing more...

[floodhound2]

Here is my take on Hardware hacking, and remember when it gets confusing, stop take a breath and recall Floodhounds words - there are only 3 parts in electronics. conductor, insulator and semiconductors.

Tools needed - a good brain or a half ass brain and motivation!

1. electronics background will help ten fold.
2. firmware programming helps another ten fold.
3. PCB manufacturing processes helps more than I can state here.
4. Identifying electronics packaging types (i.e. 1206 SMD resistors vs. 0402)
5. fine line soldering using a soldering gun and oven is almost a must now a days. Reflow etc.
6. oscilloscope - logic analyzer - spectrum analyzer - Digital volt meter all help too.

I recommend taking a second hand computer motherboard and a 10x (also know as a jewelers loop). Look over all the parts on the PCB and start learning how these parts work. Write them down and google these. Take the BIOS as an important thing that one should learn to hack. Frankly this is where some fun takes place, be careful as one could fry an amateur designed or improperly build motherboard, but typically there is a ton of memory left over. I remember when memory was very very expensive so programmers were very skilled during those early days.

You may come to realize as I did that a lot of devices have worms, keyloggers, data logging loops of code inside these IC's. In other words many IC's (integrated circuits) have embedded memory that one could exploit. I bet a motherboard these days has up to 10 IC's that contain firmware one could rewrite over. Even some switching voltage regulators can be programmed. Another thing I discovered was that some of these ICs weren't even being used by the motherboard (router or switch too)- take the FTDI IC that contained tons of memory that engineers dont use or RS232 port for another example - not used these days by a lot of people so the code could get wild in there undetected for the most part. Almost all mother boards have a clock/calendar IC that has memory, I could rant about this for hours I just dont know if I am confusing the issue or not. But that memory is all a guy needs to work a little data gathering or to produce a fine worm on a cisco switch

It will take a lot of creativity to do some of these task, typically, rewriting a piece of firmware requires a third party hardware (device) and a compiler (costly). What that means is one would need to solder small wires to the correct pins on the target IC and thus allowing a connection to the 3rd party hardware programmer in turn connecting it to a computer running the compiler.

There are other ways to hack hardware too. Changing a capacitor for example may increase a voltage somewhere else. Like a low pass filter for a mic on a cell phone, change it a lot and perhaps it may change your voice.

some key things to know are "digital" and "analog" are separate things and one should never connect an analog voltage to a digital voltage unless you know for sure the part works that way. Typically analog voltages are quickly converted to a digital by the way of filters etc.

As experience grows you begin to look at PCB's (printed circuit boards) like art. You begin to question the engineer/s asking why did they put that there etc. Some are ingenious and inspiring.

The advantage of learning to hack electronic hardware is that hacking computers becomes simpler. You begin to understand and see a much bigger picture.

A good place to look up parts.

http://www.digikey.com
http://www.alliedelec.com/
http://www.mouser.com
http://www.jameco.com


Anyone can PM me for more information but I warn you that I am always busy so please be patient.

Hope this helps.