Michael Ossmann, one of the developers of the amazing and affordable HackRF SDR transceiver, is releasing a tutorial series on using GNU Radio. “This ongoing video series will be a complete course in Software Defined Radio (SDR). In this course, you’ll build flexible SDR applications using GNU Radio through exercises that will help you learn […]
Author Archives: the machinegeek
DEFCON 22: WarKitteh – cat on the warprowl
Why do the wardriving yourself when your cat can do it for you? Gene Bransfield gave this presentation at the recent DEFCON 22 conference, describing his efforts to use domestic pets wearing WiFi sniffer/GPS logging gear to essentially warprowl for WiFi hotspots. There’s also DoSdog, a standard pooch wearing a backpack concealing a Hak5 Pineapple, […]
Electromagnetic Field camp August 29-31, 2014
The 2014 Electromagnetic Field camp is set for August 29-31, 2014. This annual gathering will be held in Bletchley, UK, and feature a camping festival with a power grid and high-speed internet access; a temporary village of geeks, crafters, and technology enthusiasts that’s lit up by night, and buzzing with activity during the day. Previous […]
DEFCON 22 badge source code
Parallax has released the zip file containing the SPIN source code for the Parallax Propeller based DEFCON 22 badge. As noted in a previous post, the links to the schematics are also available on the Parallax website.
Video: Using superpowers for hardware reverse engineering
Prior to delivering a presentation at today’s DEFCON, hardware hacking guru Joe Grand gave this talk at BSidesLV held August 5-6, 2014 in Las Vegas. Joe describes, “[s]uperpowers, normally used by superheroes in the battle of good versus evil, are also accessible to engineers and hackers in equipment used for failure analysis and verification of […]
DEFCON badge update
Parallax has announced the details on the DEFCON 22 badge. “The badge is based around the Propeller P8X32A 32-bit Multicore Microcontroller. The circuit consists of a Propeller (microcontroller, EEPROM, clock), an infrared LED and receiver for badge-to-badge communication, a bank of eight LEDs for visual feedback, four button touch pads and a USB circuit for […]
DEFCON 22 badge revealed
DEFCON badge master Ryan Clarke has revealed the design for this upcoming weekend’s DEFCON 22 conference credentials. “The badge features a circuit board and several LEDs. Buried within it, however, are crypto-puzzles, electronic Easter eggs, and a backstory about things that aren’t what they seem. The underlying theme riffs on John Carpenter’s 1988 sci-fi cult […]
Linux Foundation offers free online course
Jerry Cooperstein, PhD, Training Program Director at The Linux Foundation has announced the opening of their free online course, Introduction to Linux (Course number LFS101x). The course is self-paced and should take between 40-60 hours to complete. We’d love to hear how you’re enjoying the course and we’d love to hear when you complete it! […]
At HOPE, EFF releases code for Open Wireless router
At last weekend’s HOPE Conference in New York City, the EFF released the code for their experimental hacker alpha wireless router software specifically designed to support secure, shareable Open Wireless networks. We are offering this hacker alpha release to engage enthusiastic technical users who would like to help us test, develop, improve, and harden the […]
ASTROGUN R-Pi based asteroid game
Avishay has developed the ASTROGUN, a Raspberry Pi based asteroid shooting gun and video display system. He originally designed the project along with Maayan Dreamer for the Jerusalem Mini Maker Faire, held last June. The game is pretty simple – the player stands and has to shoot Asteroids that are coming towards him from any […]
Reverse engineering a wireless soil moisture sensor
Ray Wang at Rayshobby has been working on reverse engineering a wireless soil moisture sensor. He writes, “At the Maker Faire this year I got lots of questions about soil moisture, which I knew little about. Recently I started learning about how to build my own soil sensor, and came across this cheap 433MHz wirelss […]
Hand powered USB charger from hacked IKEA flashlight
Werner sends this handy hack he found at IKEAHackers. Giovanni Gentile devised this simple hack which mods an IKEA Ljusa hand powered flashlight into a USB charger. “The procedure was simple, it was enough to eliminate some resistors and use a capacitor sufficient to handle the charge given by the Ljusa’s dynamo. I set the […]
Interfacing the STM32VLDISCOVERY with Semtech’s SX1272RF1BAS module
Milen Pavlov with Netblocks wrote this post on connecting a STM32VLDISCOVERY with Semtech’s SX1272RF1BAS module (LoRa sx1272 transceiver.) This module incorporates the LoRa spread spectrum modem which is advertised as achieving significantly longer range than existing systems based on FSK or OOK modulation. It operates using low power in the ISM bands. Milen’s article includes […]
Tutorials: GNU Radio for beginners
GNURadio.org has been revamping their website, updating information on the latest release. As part of this process Marcus has posted a new seven part tutorial series on GNU Radio. “Our task is to build a beginner-level tutorial, which will then live on the static part of the web site. Someone put it as an “online […]
Defcon 21 video: Hardware hacking with MCUs
At last years Defcon conference in Las Vegas, NV, hardware hackers Joe Grand, Mark ‘Smtty’ Smith, LosT, RenderMan and FirmWarez discussed their experiences in using various microcontrollers. Interesting stuff, particularly If you’re just getting started with electronics and are trying to navigate the sea of available microcontrollers, microprocessors, and modules.
Garage door signal hacking using RTL-SDR and TI Chronos watch
Students Ido Livneh and Gil Freidlin from Tel Aviv University have been experimenting with garage door opener signals using the TI Chronos watch and RTL-SDR dongle. Their technique involves using the SDR along with HDSDR software to acquire and record the signal, which is then analyzed using Python based tools and encoded for loading onto […]
NSA XKeyscore tool targets Linux users
Apparently the US NSA believes that users of Linux in general, and readers of online ezine Linux Journal in particluar are extremists. According to this article on the NDR.de Panorama blog, internet users whose searches contained terms related to the TAILs (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) software program or Linux Journal had their internet traffic […]
Video: Retrocomputing and machines that made the Net
CircleCitycon 2014 was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in June, 2014. Pete Friedman gave this presentation on the Unix and Unix-like systems that formed the early internet, and how they can provide interesting historical and technical perspectives for the modern hacker.
Linux security tip: moving your /boot partition to removable media
Today threats to your data can come from many quadrants. It’s not enough to protect against malicious online attacks; there’s the very real threat of government confiscating and examining the electronic devices carried by international travelers, and even planting spyware. In this post from “The Doctor”, we’re shown one way to mitigate this threat, which […]
ThrAxis DIY CNC mill
Eric has posted details on his build of a CNC mill from scratch. The ThrAxis (Three-Axis) is a vertical milling machine made mostly from materials from hardware stores. The spindle is a Harbor Freight rotary tool and the motors and controllers are surplus and eBay finds. We made it during lots of late evenings using […]