RSS Parrot

I'm Building a Secure USB Drive That Hides Itself

https://rootkitlabs.com/2026/06/22/I'm-Building-a-Secure-USB-Drive/

Published: June 22, 2026 00:00

This article was written by a human, for humans. Many places don’t respect privacy laws, in certain situations you may be forced to unencrypt your media, or worse, assumed to be guilty. A Veracrypt hidden volume is useful in the former situation, but not…

Pick Your Payload - What Open-source Security Hardware Should we Build Next?

https://rootkitlabs.com/2025/06/04/whats-next/

Published: June 4, 2025 00:00

Everything we do is for educational and ethical purposes only. I build open source hardware that I want, but I won’t work on hardware nobody else wants. If people aren’t fired up, I can’t get excited, so my projects only take off when there’s real…

5 Strategies to Sink your Hardware Startup

https://rootkitlabs.com/2023/07/08/5-Strategies-to-Sink-your-Hardware-Startup/

Published: July 8, 2023 00:00

This isn’t a dropshipping success story, a lucrative exit, or a guide. This is a silly story documenting our failed hardware startup. It’s embarrassing to fail, so we seldom hear these stories, but I’m going to tell you one, here goes. Fresh out of college…

Kicad Vault - A Component Management System

https://rootkitlabs.com/2023/05/24/kicad-vault/

Published: May 24, 2023 00:00

This post is not sponsored or affiliated with KiCad or Digikey. Back when I worked for a hardware startup, rather than making my own, we used Altium. Altium is a PCB design suite that is loved and hated by thousands. It’s not cheap, and if you need a…

I Built a Self-Destructing USB Drive Part 3

https://rootkitlabs.com/2023/02/06/I-Built-a-Self-Destructing-USB-Drive-Part-3/

Published: February 6, 2023 00:00

I’m building an open-source USB drive with a hidden obfuscation If you plug the device in normally, it will appear blank, but if you quickly plug it in three times in a row, you will be able to read and write data. We built Ovrdrive for journalists working…

I'm Building a Self-Destructing USB Drive Part 2

https://rootkitlabs.com/2022/08/31/I-m-Building-a-Self-Destructing-USB-Drive-Part-2/

Published: August 31, 2022 00:00

I’m building an open-source USB drive with a hidden obfuscation If you plug the device in normally, it will appear blank, but if you quickly plug it in three times in a row, you will be able to read and write data. We built Ovrdrive for journalists working…

I'm Building a Self-Destructing USB Drive

https://rootkitlabs.com/2022/07/29/I-m-Building-a-Self-Destructing-USB-Drive/

Published: July 29, 2022 14:02

Device for Sale Now! Because we all know the best way to keep your data safe is by blowing it up, right? Well, for most of us, the real answer lies with encryption. But consider this: there are certain countries where it is dangerous to be a journalist.…

Shit Happens when you Fork Naked

https://rootkitlabs.com/2022/06/21/Shit-Happens-when-you-Fork-Naked/

Published: June 21, 2022 10:38

If you develop software, a fork isn’t just a utensil. It indicates a divergence in a codebase. Code gets forked for several reasons, different opinions, access rights, making a pull request into the upstream repository, etc. There is the correct way to…

Flashing the RP2040 with a Jlink and OpenOCD

https://rootkitlabs.com/2022/03/08/Flashing-the-RP2040-with-a-Jlink-and-OpenOCD/

Published: March 8, 2022 09:42

Raspberry Pi Pico is a tiny, fast, and versatile board built using RP2040, a brand new microcontroller chip designed by Raspberry Pi in the UK. — Raspberry Pi People I picked up a Pico for a couple of bucks to try it out. In a time of extreme scarcity and…

Upcycling laptop memory for single-board computers?

https://rootkitlabs.com/2022/01/23/Upcycling-laptop-memory-for-single-board-computers/

Published: January 23, 2022 14:59

A few weeks ago, I headed to my local computer shop in search of affordable RAM. Due to the chip shortage, I have had to become creative lately in how I source parts for prototyping. My idea was to buy older DDR3 laptop RAM, remove the chips, and then…

I put a WiFi router into a phone charger (Final Post)

https://rootkitlabs.com/2021/10/25/I-put-a-WiFi-router-into-a-phone-charger-Final-Post/

Published: October 25, 2021 17:40

Up Until Now The WifiWart is a powerful embedded Linux WiFi security device hiding inside a phone charger. It is akin to the WiFi Pineapple without looking malicious. Over the length of the project, I’ve had plenty of comments telling me to buy a…

Bluetooth WarDriving with the nRF52

https://rootkitlabs.com/2021/10/15/Bluetooth-WarDriving-with-the-nRF52/

Published: October 15, 2021 10:47

The nRF52 is a very popular Bluetooth chip that has taken over most of the wireless embedded space. The system-on-chip (SoC) houses an ARM Cortex M4 and 2.4Ghz radio to implement various wireless protocols. In this tutorial, I want to walk through setting…

I'm not putting a WiFi router into a phone charger (Part 3)

https://rootkitlabs.com/2021/09/22/I'm-not-putting-a-WiFi-router-into-a-phone-charger-Part-3/

Published: September 22, 2021 12:19

There are two classes of problems in the world: stupid and interesting. Building a fusion reactor is an interesting problem, while a thorn in your finger is a stupid problem. Typically you don’t like working on stupid problems. You want them gone. A job…

I'm putting a WiFi router into a wall charger (Part 2)

https://rootkitlabs.com/2021/07/19/I'm-putting-a-WiFi-router-into-a-wall-charger-Part-2/

Published: July 19, 2021 13:37

This post will outline the bringup of Linux on a PCB I developed from scratch. You can read more about the hardware design in the earlier posts linked above. I’ll talk about driver bringup, system characterization, testing, and software development. By the…

I'm putting a WiFi router into a wall charger (Part 1)

https://rootkitlabs.com/2021/06/15/I'm-putting-a-WiFi-router-into-a-wall-charger-Part-1/

Published: June 15, 2021 15:35

This project is effectively “building a computer from scratch”; RAM, disk, USB and a processor. Our computer will be running a full-fledged operating system capable of installing programs, managing a network stack, playing games and even browsing the…

I'm putting a WiFi router into a wall charger (Part 0)

https://rootkitlabs.com/2021/04/28/I'm-putting-a-WiFi-router-into-a-wall-charger-Part-0/

Published: April 28, 2021 18:41

This is the first part of a blog about putting a wifi router into a phone charger. Join us on Discord here. Check out the Github. WiFi Pineapples are well-known tools in the security community. For those unfamiliar, Pineapples are purpose-built routers to…