Author Archives: Brian Benchoff

The First Evil Maid-Proof Computer

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It doesn’t matter how many bits your password has, how proven your encryption is, or how many TrueCrypt volumes are on your computer. If someone wants data off your device, they can get it if they have physical access to your device. This is the ‘evil maid’ security scenario, named after hotel maids on the payroll of a three-letter agency. If someone has physical access to a laptop – even for an hour or two – the data on that laptop can be considered compromised. Until now, there has been no counter to this Evil Maid scenario, and for good …read more

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How To Detect And Find Rogue Cell Towers

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Software defined radios are getting better and better all the time. The balaclava-wearing hackers know it, too. From what we saw at HOPE in New York a few weeks ago, we’re just months away from being able to put a femtocell in a desktop computer for under $3,000. In less than a year, evil, bad hackers could be tapping into your cell phone or reading your text message from the comfort of a van parked across the street. You should be scared, even though police departments everywhere and every government agency already has this capability.

These rogue cell sites have …read more

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Pwning With Sewing Needles

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If you don’t have root, you don’t own a device, despite what hundreds of Internet of Things manufacturers would tell you. Being able to access and write to that embedded Linux system in your new flashy gadget is what you need to truly own a device, and unfortunately this is a relatively uncommon feature. At this year’s DEF CON, [Brad Dixon] unveiled a technique that pwns a device using only a sewing needle, multimeter probe, or a paperclip. No, it won’t work on every device, and the devices this technique will work with are poorly designed. That doesn’t mean it …read more

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The Terrible Security Of Bluetooth Locks

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Bluetooth devices are everywhere these days, and nothing compromises your opsec more than a bevy of smartphones, smart watches, fitbits, strange electronic conference badges, and other electronic ephemera we adorn ourselves with to make us better people, happier, and more productive members of society.

Bluetooth isn’t limited to wearables, either; deadbolts, garage door openers, and security systems are shipping with Bluetooth modules. Manufacturers of physical security paraphernalia are wont to add the Internet of Things label to their packaging, it seems. Although these devices should be designed with security in mind, most aren’t, making the state of Bluetooth smart locks …read more

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Hackaday Prize Entry: A WiFi Swiss Army Knife

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WiFi is all around us, but if you want to work with this ubiquitous networking protocol, you’ll need to pull out a laptop or smartphone like a caveman. [Daniel] has a better idea. It’ s a simple, compact tool for cracking WiFi passwords or sending deauth packets to everyone at the local Starbucks. It’s an ESP Swiss Army Knife, and a great entry for the Hackaday Prize.

As you would expect, this WiFI Swiss Army Knife is powered by the ESP8266 and features a tiny OLED display and a bunch of buttons for the UI. With this, [Daniel] is able …read more

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Hackaday Links: August 7, 2016

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The Starship Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C, or D) recently got a makeover. It was donated to the Smithsonian, and the workers at the Air and Space Museum took it apart and put it back together. Why? It’s the 50th anniversary of TOS. Hopefully the new show will be using some practical effects.

After years of trying, we’ve finally attained max buzzword. Here’s a pentesting hacker quadcopter drone, “a hacker’s laptop that can fly.” Why would anyone do this? Because, “You need to be close to the wireless signal to be able to read it. [Danger Drone] removes that barrier of …read more

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DEF CON: BSODomizing In High Definition

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A few years ago, [Kingpin] a.k.a. [Joe Grand] (A judge for the 2014 Hackaday Prize) designed the most beautiful electronic prank ever. The BSODomizer is a simple device with a pass-through connection for a VGA display and an infrared receiver. Plug the BSODomizer into an unsuspecting coworker’s monitor, press a button on a remote, and watch Microsoft’s blue screen of death appear. It’s brilliant, devious, and actually a pretty simple device if you pick the right microcontroller.

The original BSODomizer is getting a little long in the tooth. VGA is finally dead. The Propeller chip used to generate the video …read more

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Hackaday Prize Entry: Diagnosing Concussions

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Athletes of every age receive a lot of blows to the head. After a few years of this and a lot of concussions, symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s can appear. For his Hackaday Prize entry, [Mihir] wanted to build a simple device that could be given to high school coaches that would diagnose concussions. He came up with HeadsUp, a device so simple even a high school gym teacher could use it.

The origins of HeadsUp began as an augmented reality device, but after realizing that was a difficult project, pivoted to something a bit easier and even more useful. HeadsUp …read more

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DEF CON’s X86 Badge

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This year’s DEF CON badge is electronic, and there was much celebrating. This year’s DEF CON badge has an x86 processor, and there was much confusion.

The badge this year, and every year, was designed by [1057], and is built around an x86 processor. Specifically, this badge features an Intel Quark D2000 microcontroller, a microcontroller running at 32MHz, with 32kB of Flash and 8kB of RAM. Yes, an x86 badge, but I think an AT motherboard badge would better fulfill that requirement.

As far as buttons, sensors, peripherals, and LEDs go, this badge is exceptionally minimal. There are eight buttons, …read more

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Raspberry Pi 3 Gets USB, Ethernet Boot

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The Raspberry Pi is a great computer, even if it doesn’t have SATA. For those of us who have lost a few SD cards to the inevitable corruption that comes from not shutting a Pi down properly, here’s something for you: USB Mass Storage Booting for the Raspberry Pi 3.

For the Raspberry Pi 1, 2, Compute Module, and Zero, there are two boot modes – SD boot, and USB Device boot, with USB Device boot only found on the Compute Module. [Gordon] over at the Raspberry Pi foundation spent a lot of time working on the Broadcom 2837 used …read more

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