The Canadian government plans to ban the Flipper Zero and similar devices after tagging them as tools thieves can use to steal cars.

  • atx_aquarian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    130·
    6 months ago

    “Flipper Zero can’t be used to hijack any car, specifically the ones produced after the 1990s, since their security systems have rolling codes,” Flipper Devices COO Alex Kulagin told BleepingComputer.

    "Also, it’d require actively blocking the signal from the owner to catch the original signal, which Flipper Zero’s hardware is incapable of doing.

    Just politicians trying to appear to be doing something so they can keep their jobs.

    • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      6 months ago

      Yes, but even if the base model hardware is incapable of doing something, someone savvy enough could modify it. It’s 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.

  • ryannathans@aussie.zoneEnglish
    44·
    6 months ago

    Lmao how are they gonna word that bill? Sorry guys, if you play with electronics you’re a hacker!

  • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    6 months ago

    Lol. You better just ban all programmable boards then, because the Flipper doesn’t have any special proprietary or differential tech in it. It’s just a clever collection of already existing hardware and software. Someone will just make another immediately. Idiots.

    • Hobo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      6 months ago

      I don’t disagree with your point, but the flipper zero for sure lowers the bar of entry. Before the flipper came out the, “You must be this tall to ride” required some pretty good knowledge of microcontrollers, hardware peripherals, and software engineering. The people that had that sort of knowledge tended to actually have paying jobs, which is like the biggest factor in not being a street criminal.

      The flipper made the barrier of entry at about the level of being able to operate a TV remote which any dipshit can do. However, the fact that the flipper exists at all means that the cat is out of the bag. As you said, someone else is just going to come along and release a similar product. You can’t just ban the flipper and expect it to have any impact. My concern is they will decided to make certain code illegal, which gets really stupid.

      • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        11·
        6 months ago

        Bar for entry wasn’t really that high to begin with. There were already a collection of tools that did the same thing, and could be had for a couple thousand bucks. Yeah, a price point 1/10th the older option is more accessible, but it’s not like criminals are hurting for money just because they are criminals.

    • umbrella@lemmy.mlEnglish
      19·
      6 months ago

      hell yea holy shit, i must have read this same headline at least 10 times now

  • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
    63·
    6 months ago

    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?

    • carzian@lemmy.mlEnglish
      22·
      6 months ago

      You’re 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

      • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
        27·
        6 months ago

        Yeah I saw there was the add-on board for wifi testing, but it seemed like this plugs in externally and isn’t a normal part of the toolkit? So if the Flipper itself isn’t performing the wifi test then I guess I don’t see why the ESP32 couldn’t just add in everything else the Flipper does? All the other hardware I saw, for IR, NFC, RFID, and one-wire connections… that could all easily also be added to the ESP32 with pins to spare, so what am I missing?

        • sleepmode@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          6 months ago

          …the same reason you don’t 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. That’s 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 it’s turnkey and makes it easy for people that are less skilled or don’t have the patience to do all that.

          • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            Gotcha. Yeah I have plenty of experience with getting circuit boards made and even working with SMD parts (actually working on some boards right now) so I tend to forget that not everybody just has this stuff lying around. Maybe the hardware is the limitation preventing a lot of ESP-based clones of flipper from being available out there.

    • stoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      Meshtastic commes to mind, it allows you to set up an offgrid communications network that can mesh with other devices and allow you to send messages through the netork.

    • zik@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      The ESP32s are nice chips, but the STM32s are also really nice to work with and work fine for this task. Changing to an ESP32 wouldn’t make any real difference to the user so the choice is moot really.

    • anlumo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      6 months ago

      Probably just a matter of writing the right firmware and building the right hardware. I don’t think anything is stopping you from doing that.

      The problem with microcontrollers is that code isn’t easily portable, so this device is stuck with its hardware.

      • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        Yeah I wasn’t too concerned about the hardware side of things, I was just curious about finding software because I don’t really know anything about pentesting. Guess I’ll keep looking around.

    • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      6 months ago

      I’m definitely getting one. Canada is overreacting as most cars use rolling codes, but I have a shitty old aftermarket system and it should be possible to either A) Use it to unlock my car outright or B) program my car to accept it as a second remote. My car locks itself while running if you close the door, with this, I could (hopefully) heat up my car in the AM before driving to work, then just use this to unlock it! And if my fob’s batts die it’s less inconvenient until I can get the stupid AAAA batt or whatever it takes. Also gonna test my mom’s garage door and use it if I can, and find out if my RFID blocking wallet works, and who knows! Might fuck around with some RFID too, gonna check my pet’s tags, they might tell me my cat’s temps!