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Comment by rocqua | Hacker News Reader

> you could've done the same with any other SDR, not just the Flipper Zero.

The specialness of the flipper zero is not that it can do more than any other SDR. The specialness is how easy it is to use. The question is what you can do in that 'easy mode'.

That, in the easy mode, you can do this kind of realistic and meaningful damage is noteworthy. Because this potential is brought to the masses. It probably won't be the start of widespread SDR-based cyber-crime, but that brings it one step closer. That is why I consider this noteworthy news about the flipper zero specifically.

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> The specialness is how easy it is to use.

Citation needed.

Since the advent of cheap SDRs and TI CC1100 devkits it's been a case of "grab code off Github and go do shenanigans". The only specialness here is that it's battery powered, but even previously you could have been running a laptop and HackRF in your backpack.

It used to be grab code, laptop and backpack... a modest barrier to enty.

Now any jamoke can dl a firmware and conceal this in a pocket and go wild. That's "easy to use."

For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

Wrong thread?

It's the top comment from Dropbox's announcement thread on HN, 15 or so years ago. It has become meta-commentary both about HN's cynicism, and that you don't need to do something novel to create a new product category, it's enough if you just make it a lot more convenient than anything before.

This reads like the infamous Dropbox comment, with the Flipper Zero you don't even need to grab code off GitHub, you just have to open a menu and press some buttons.

The flipper zero doesn't require anything near as scary to a layman as downloading code of github, and tgen trying to run it based off a readme.md that was poorly written and aimed at people who know how to code. People who don't realize that a # instead of a $ means the prompt means you need root, who have no idea what a shebang on a script is, etc. For them 'just run some code of github' will be a hell of how does bash/sudo/apt/pip/make/chmod work?

The flipper zero has a screen and buttons, and a defined way to upload new 'attacks' on to it, aswell as a simple way to run those. To normal people that lowers the barrier sooo much.

That said, it’s also important to demand device makers build better protections into their software (like rate limiting) in the same way they do for the hardware. Otherwise it leaves the door open for legislature trying to ban screwdrivers (tools)

Absolutely not. It should obey the law and nothing more. We do not need to be saved from ourself. Let stupid run.

Stupid does run… the govt, and they will make stupid laws against devices unless there is a level of self imposed responsibility.

You mean, the meter should have stopped switching on until cooled, instead of frying? That might make sense.

Trying to outlaw adversarial devices will not work though.

The Flipper Zero is already banned in Brazil by Anatel (the Brazilian equivalent to the USA FCC): https://www.techtudo.com.br/noticias/2023/03/anatel-barra-fl...

I hate these types of arguments, as they boil down to "I'm afraid of what you'll do with $nice_thing.

I don't want to live in a world of max pessimum.

I'm not arguing the flipper shouldn't exist. This kind of potential ruin will be required to get manufacturers to wake up to the risk of bad radio security.

I was arguing that this real-life example of impact is actually important for showing the impact of bad radio security, by putting dangerous tools in the hands of the masses.

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