The Canadian government plans to ban the Flipper Zero and similar devices after tagging them as tools thieves can use to steal cars.
Lmao how are they gonna word that bill? Sorry guys, if you play with electronics youβre a hacker!
βFlipper Zero canβt be used to hijack any car, specifically the ones produced after the 1990s, since their security systems have rolling codes,β Flipper Devices COO Alex Kulagin told BleepingComputer.
"Also, itβd require actively blocking the signal from the owner to catch the original signal, which Flipper Zeroβs hardware is incapable of doing.
Just politicians trying to appear to be doing something so they can keep their jobs.
Yes, but even if the base model hardware is incapable of doing something, someone savvy enough could modify it. Itβs the same logic they use to ban AR-15s in some states in the US. By default, all civilian ARs are built to fire in semi-auto only, BUT, a knowledgeable individual can make it fire in full auto if they drill a hole in the lower receiver in just the right spot.
Edit: Okay, Iβm getting roasted for pointing out that no system is 100% secure against malicious actors? Perhaps youβre missing my point that I disagree with banning Flipper Zero and fully believe itβs Canadian politicians looking like theyβre doing something, regardless of whether or not it will actually work.
Good point in general, but, what theyβre specifically talking about here (rolling codes), perhaps what they should have said is that no one can (feasibly) do it, not just that their hardware isnβt capable.
Edit: Oh, for the blocking signal, that part might be functionality that could be added, I see what I think youβre saying there. Still, that would be a step towards it, but it would still require serious hardware to crack a private key, as I understand.
So many reposts in this communityβ¦
I saw this on Mastodon the other day and started digging into it. Seems like a really cool project although the chip they used appears inferior to the ESP32? I found a few similar projects based on the ESP32 but they seem to be limited to wifi/bluetooth captures only with the possibility of other options if you swap out the firmware. This makes me question why the ESP32 with 4MB of flash cannot do much more than the Flipper Zero with its 1MB of flash and a CPU that runs at 1/3 the speed (or less) and only a single core? Anyone have some ideas, and/or have seen other open projects based on the ESP32 that do all and more that the Flipper Zero can do?
Youβre comparing a microcontroller to a purpose built device. Its apples and oranges.
There are add ons to the flipper that incoporate an esp running maurader firmware for wifi tools
Yeah I saw there was the add-on board for wifi testing, but it seemed like this plugs in externally and isnβt a normal part of the toolkit? So if the Flipper itself isnβt performing the wifi test then I guess I donβt see why the ESP32 couldnβt just add in everything else the Flipper does? All the other hardware I saw, for IR, NFC, RFID, and one-wire connectionsβ¦ that could all easily also be added to the ESP32 with pins to spare, so what am I missing?
β¦the same reason you donβt see Sony releasing every PS5 with a dev board. Of course you can extend the ESP32 or whatever microcontroller to do anything the Flipper can. Thatβs obvious. Go search around on GitHub there are thousands of projects you can do with the ESP32 that will have the FBI making a personal visit to your house. The whole point of the Flipper is itβs turnkey and makes it easy for people that are less skilled or donβt have the patience to do all that.
Probably just a matter of writing the right firmware and building the right hardware. I donβt think anything is stopping you from doing that.
The problem with microcontrollers is that code isnβt easily portable, so this device is stuck with its hardware.
The ESP32s are nice chips, but the STM32s are also really nice to work with and will work fine for this task. Changing to an ESP32 wouldnβt make any real difference to the user so the choice is moot really.
Iβve designed products around both CPUs and theyβre both pretty nice. The STM32 has somewhat better documentation, has cleaner low power modes and is a bit simpler when delving into the nitty gritty details. The ESP is more powerful and has some nice if complex features but I donβt like its low power handling as much.
Overall I think Iβd choose the STM32 for this task since itβs a little easier to make small, battery powered devices with it.
From the limited reading Iβve done on the subject, it seemed like a lot of power in the Flipper was based around wireless testing (both wifi and bluetooth) although I also saw a number of things based around other bands. I guess Iβm just not following why this was considered an add-on when the ESP32 has all that stuff built in already (and you can certainly shut down the radios to save power when youβre not using them)? Plus it also includes native support for other popular busses like I2C, I2S, and CAN so it seems like it could be useful for sniffing out whatβs attached to a lot of different types of connections. Maybe Iβm just straying outside the realm of basic pentesting, the idea just caught my attention about how handy it might be to have a small device that could work with a lot of different types of electronics.
The STM32WB55 in the flipper has a versatile wireless peripheral built in which can be used to implement various protocols including Bluetooth, zigbee, etc⦠Support for I2C, I2S and CAN is pretty standard stuff - the ESP32 is nothing special in these respects.
Maybe they chose the STM32WB55 because its wireless support is more flexible than the ESP32 and allows them to implement a wider variety of protocols? Or possibly just better documented, giving them the chance to do things they canβt on the ESP32? I havenβt compared the inner workings of the two chipsβ wireless support so I canβt say for sure.
I bet that car thieves also wear shoes, do something about it!
