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Inside the Underground Trade of ‘Flipper Zero’ Tech to Break into Cars (www.404media.co)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The tech used here is the popular Flipper Zero, an ethical hacker’s swiss army knife, capable of all sorts of things such as WiFi attacks or emulating NFC tags. Now, 404 Media has found an underground trade where much shadier hackers sell extra software and patches for the Flipper Zero to unlock all manner of cars, including models popular in the U.S. The hackers say the tool can be used against Ford, Audi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, and several other brands, including sometimes dozens of specific vehicle models, with no easy fix from car manufacturers.

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[–] 40 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I use it at work to clone a customer's proximity card when I work in their building so they don't have to leave me theirs to get around. The one legitimate use I found.

I guess being able to trigger the customer service announcement without having to find a button in a store is nice.

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  • [–] 62 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    That's ... not a legitimate use.

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  • [–] 42 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    That's probably debatable, if they have permission. They probably shouldn't have been given permission, but that's a separate issue

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  • [–] 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Ideally, there should be a visitor card available to be used, with its clearances configured as appropriate for the visitor in question. Having a person hand over their own card (and PIN, if applicable) isn't a great idea either, but it's far better than copying that card, with or without permission (probably without, if we're being honest).

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Oh, absolutely. It's not something which should be encouraged, and against a well designed modern system it probably isn't possible (there must be some challenge-response type NFC systems on the market).

    I'm just saying it isn't unambiguously "illegitimate"

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago

    I usually do it when we take over a customer's access control system and we have half their doors on the new system and half in the old still and are migrating them over. I'm an electronic security tech, this is what I do for a living.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (4 children)

    le·git·i·mate adjective /ləˈjidəmət/

    1. conforming to the law or to rules.

    "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" - Aleister Crowley

    seems legit to me…

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    If you're using Crowley to support what's legitimate, you're gonna have problems.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    that’s the only thing i use from him…

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago*

    That's the definition of a legitimate use.

    Cloning keycards temporarily with permission (until new ones are made.) Breaking into your own or a friend's car because the keys were left inside (until you get the keys back)

    Cloning a TV remote just to lower the volume to a sane degree and turn it off (until they get a new TV, remote or find the old one).

    Legitimate is a anything that you're allowed to do. It's a simple process to test legitimacy:

    Did someone ask you if you can help?

    If yes, did you tell them what you'd do?

    If yes, did they agree?

    And once you did whatever it was they agreed to, did you keep your ability to do the same thing in the aim of doing something they didn't consent to (once you cloned their car key, do you plan on stealing the car? Or once you cloned their remote, do you have an insatiable urge to fuck with them by abusing the remote?)

    If you answer "yes" to all except the last one, the use is legitimate in 99.9% of cases.

    The only reason this may be considered a non-legitimate use would be if you attached the exclusive economic right of making repairs or new keys to the OEM, which isn't how a sane world works.

    And besides, tools like the Flipper truly are hacking tools. Today hacking has a bad rep, and the word used to mean more like hack something together.

    Imagine Bob who is a DIY type of guy. His TV starts falling apart because the plastic casing broke. Bob takes some duct tape and glues the casing together. As the TV stand is also a bit wonky, he takes some screws as well just to be safe. He doesn't plan on keeping it for too long, just until he can find a fitting replacement that's not too expensive. Most likely, he's bound to keep it until the next Black Friday.

    Bob just successfully hacked something up to keep his TV from falling apart.

    That's the origin of the word "hacking". "To hack up" got shortened by attaching a new meaning to the verb, without bothering with the entire phrase, and making it relate only to electronic/digital hacking. So the TV example isn't hacking, but it is hacking up. It means "to make some temporary fix until a proper one isn't found".

    Today, hacking has been conflated with exploiting and breaking digital locks, which is not what the original phrase meant.

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