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JP Dias
JP Dias

Posted on • Originally published at jpdias.me on

Hardware Hacking and Research Toolbox Inventory

Inspired by the blogpost My Red Team assessment hardware by David Sopas this post describes hardware tools that I have in my inventory, their purpose as well as the features/firmwares/tricks that motivated me to buy them. This is not intended to be an exhaustively detailed list, but I will try to give some rational and use-cases for each of the tools, as well as categorize them.

Do it yourself projects (partially or completely) will be marked as such with the tag [DIY]. URLs provided are either to the repositories, official websites, technical references, or online sellers. If you find any URL broken please contact me, otherwise you can still find the tools by searching the name of them with any search engine.

None of the links to online stores are sponsored in any way and should only be used as a reference.

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other radios

  1. [DIY] Wardriver.uk by Joseph Hewitt

  2. [DIY] io433 by kripthor

  3. Zsun wifi card reader

  4. GL-MT300N-V2 Mini Smart Router

  5. [DIY] Throwing Star LAN Tap

  6. TP-Link TL-WN722N V2.0

  7. RTL8812au-based dual-band AC1200 WiFi adapter

  8. Nooelec NESDR SMArTee v2

Device inspection (debug tools and programmers)

  1. FT232 USB for TTL Serial Adapter for 3.3V and 5V

  2. USBASP 2.0 based on ATmega8A

  3. Dongle ST-LINK V2 STM8 STM32

  4. YS-IRTM 5V NEC Infrared UART transceiver

  5. ELM327 V1.5 OBD2 Bluetooth Scanner and Diagnostic Tool

  6. CH341A USB Programmer with Adapters

  7. USB Logic Analyzer 24MHz 8 Channels

  8. [DIY] Logic probe

  9. UNI-T UT139C Multimeter

Smart cards

  1. SIM card converter to Smartcard IC

  2. PN532 NFC RFID IC Card Reader Module 13.56MHz with USB Port

  3. Generic Magstripe Reader

Generic boards

  1. Raspberry Pi Zero W with USB A add-on

  2. nRF52840 Dongle

  3. M5Stack Core

  4. DigiSpark Attiny85

  5. Micro:bit

  6. Wemos D1 mini / ESP8266, Raspberry Pi Pico, Arduino Nano

Screwdrivers, Lockpick and others

  1. Mi x Wiha Precision Screwdriver (manual)

  2. 4-Way Multi-Functional Utilities Key

  3. Generic Lockpick set with Practice locks

  4. Multi-tool

Random

  1. 1Life usb:hub 3 with RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

  2. Rii Wireless Mini X1 with Touchpad - 2.4GHz - QWERTY

  3. [DIY] Small IC Test Clips, Pogo pin clamps and PCB Workstation with Needle-Probes

  4. Generic USB Multimeter

  5. Large assortment of cables and adapters

  6. Generic USB LED lamp (useful for low-light situation)

  7. Assortment of USB Pens

  8. Powerbank (at least 10000mAh)

  9. Laptop

  10. Backpack and bags

Footnotes

  1. Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks as well as cell towers, usually from a moving vehicle, using a laptop or smartphone., Wikipedia

  2. Monitor mode, or RFMON (Radio Frequency MONitor) mode, allows a computer with a wireless network interface controller (WNIC) to monitor all traffic received on a wireless channel. Unlike promiscuous mode, which is also used for packet sniffing, monitor mode allows packets to be captured without having to associate with an access point or ad hoc network first., Wikipedia 2

  3. USB device has an in-built firmware feature that allows itself to be disguised as a human interface device (USB HID), such as a keyboard, and thus inject payloads via keystrokes. 2

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