28 September, 2023

Flipper Zero: A Hardware Hacking Multitool Webcast

Flipper Zero: A Hardware Hacking Multitool Webcast
Travis Phillips
Author: Travis Phillips
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The Flipper Zero is known as a hacking multitool.  It can cover a range of hacking from sub-ghz radios, to NFC and door tags, USB attacks, and hardware attacks.   Back in August, we did a webcast that provided a high level overview of what Flipper Zero can do.  It was more of a sampler of rapid-fire examples.  We are excited to announce that we are continuing this series with its next installment in October that will focus on the hardware hacking examples in more depth. 

Some of the topics you can look forward to include the following

USB to UART Bridge:
The Flipper Zero can serve as a USB to UART bridge.  If you aren’t familiar with UART, we will cover that topic during the webcast.  We have also written some blogs on the topic here.  During the webcast, we cover how to find UART interfaces, how to wire the Flipper Zero to them, and how to connect them using software clients such as Screen or PuTTY.

SPI Flash Programmer
Our upcoming webcast will provide an example of how the Flipper Zero can be used as a SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) flash programmer that will allow you to read, write, erase, and verify the contents stored on an SPI flash chip.  Aside from dumping firmware, we will also provide some examples of where you might encounter SPI flash and how it can help outside of security applications.

AVR Programmer:
The ATmega and ATtiny family of microcontrollers are quite popular today.  The rise of Arduino, which was powered by these microcontrollers, coupled with low cost of these microcontrollers make them attractive for use in projects and products.  These chips contain flash for the code they run.  The Flipper Zero can be used as a ISP (In-System Programmer) for these microcontrollers to read and write to their flash and EEPROM regions using tools such as Avrdude.  We will be covering the enumeration of a device, wiring it up, and using the Flipper Zero to dump firmware from a hardware CTF challenge board.

SWD/JTAG Debugger:
On top of being a programmer, the Flipper Zero can help with hard hacking and debugging!  The Flipper Zero supports being a hardware device for use with OpenOCD (Open On-Chip Debugger) for SWD (Serial Wire Debug) and JTAG (Joint Test Action Group).  On top of working with OpenOCD for debugging, the Flipper Zero can also be used standalone with scripted action on SWD.  During this webcast, we will provide an example of using the Flipper Zero for SWD on an STM32 Blue Pill board to demonstrate how this can be used to dump firmware or even live debug a firmware using GDB!

Register for the Webcast
With the webcast date approaching, we encourage all tech enthusiasts, hackers, and curious minds to join us for this session. Gain first hand knowledge about Flipper Zero's capabilities and learn how it can elevate your hardware hacking skills. Register now to secure your spot and take a step towards interacting directly with hardware.

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