Introduction to the Flipper Zero
My experiences with the Flipper Zero When the Flipper Zero was trending and Canada tried to ban them, had to get one for myself. I am very much an amateur in radio signals, bad USB and NFC/RFID stuff, but I do find them interesting.
The Flipper Zero features a tamagotchi-like pet Dolphin that you keep happy by using the device. Some of the first things I did:
- install 3rd party firmware
- listen to random Sub-GHz signals
- record and replay my car key's signal
- scan every NFC card I had
- emulate RFID and NFC cards
- play bluetooth spam
- play tetris on it
One of my friends lives in a place where if you were to visit them, they would need to come outside and walk some time to open a gate for you. I tried to clone my friend's RFID key but it didn't work. The Flipper couldn't even scan it. I tried NFC mode and everything, but to no avail. It probably used some unsupported protocol or another frequency. What a bummer!
I have successfully cloned and emulated one of my other keys with it. It can work nicely as a backup if I lock myself out and have the Flipper in my backpack. Scanning credit/debit cards gives only limited information. You may see nothing or you may see some past transaction information. Emulating these cards is virtually impossible (fingers crossed) unless you somehow crack the card's encryption, which to my understanding it quite strong.
My gym card had some encryption that the Flipper was able to crack automatically in a few minutes, and I was able to emulate it. It's a "MIFARE Classic 4K" something.
A big mystery for me has been the signals that I find in the Sub-GHz frequency analyzer. The analyzer listens to all the Sub-GHz frequencies it can and lists the frequencies that have the most activity. I have it open when writing this and it just found some pulses on 925MHz. When I go outside it finds quite a lot of activity, but it isn't able to decode it I guess.. this is where my knowledge is getting thin. It is fun to theorize what is the source of these and what information they carry. There seems to be more activity near bus stops in the Helsinki-Vantaa area. Parking lots have a lot of 434MHz, which seems to be what car keys use.
The Bluetooth spam feature for Android and iOS spams stuff like headphone pairing setups. It's surprisingly effective, not something you should use in a crowded area. I have used it as a party trick with my friends.
The GPIO pins or General Purpose Input Output pins are what really unlocks the potential of this device, because it adds so many different possibilities. You can create your own sensors and software for the device. There is also a first party wifi card that attaches to the GPIO pins and lets you scan and attack wifi networks. Sadly, I have not used the pins yet.
I think this device was bound to happen and does plenty of good for tinkerers, newbies and people with more experience. For me the device opened a hands on access to a new field of tech to study and explore. This is definitely something I'll come back to later when I get more into tinkering with physical electronics.
Lastly, it has tetris and minesweeper installed. I had plenty of fun with them.