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Hardware Hacking Build Hardware

Hardware Hacking Guide — Citizen Engineer 100

Posted by Soulskill from the so-i-rewired-it dept.
Solderingfool writes "MAKE Magazine's Phil Torrone and open source hardware hacker Ladyada from Adafruit Industries have a new video series called 'Citizen Engineer.' In the first video they show how a SIM card works, then build a SIM card reader which could be used to clone a SIM card. They also show how to use an old payphone as a regular home phone, later with coins, and for their final hack — how to 'Redbox' it. They released all the projects as open source, and the video is well produced."
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Hardware Hacking Guide — Citizen Engineer More

Hardware Hacking Guide — Citizen Engineer

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  • How long will it take for the FBI to ride? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by VincenzoRomano ( 881055 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @11:32AM (#24358839) Homepage Journal
    I understand that they are just exploiting holes in design and implementation of telco stuff (SIMs, payphones, telco billing system),
    Maybe the fact that a hole is there doesn't mean you can expoit it.
    And, finally, does FBI understand it?

    • Re:How long will it take for the FBI to ride? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Shaitan Apistos ( 1104613 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @11:34AM (#24358853)

      Maybe the fact that a hole is there doesn't mean you can exploit it.

      I've seen a lot of videos on the internet that suggest there's no such thing as a hole you can't exploit.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by VoyagerRadio ( 669156 )
      FBI, Schmeff-Bee-Aii. I hope they get Woz on their series, doing his thing: phone hacking or whatever. The stuff he used to do, back in the day, applied to today's phone technology. VoIP spoofing? (Somebody help me out here: what was the hack that Woz is known for -- the phone hack, that is?)
      • Oh, and I'm not referring to the Danger Hiptop...Woz is known to have had experience with other phone hacks...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zerkon ( 838861 )
        I think what you are referring to is Woz's involvement Phone Phreaking with Captain Crunch (aka John Draper)

        It isn't on Woz's WP article, but I'm pretty sure there were some mentions of it in his book (iWoz I think it was called)
        • That's right, phone phreaking, that was it. Heard about that years ago; IIRC it was on a TechTV show which Woz guest hosted. Either that or some interview with Woz. But yes, phreaking yes by God, that was it!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tsen ( 1333435 )
        Phreaking, though he was just an enthusiast (albeit a famous one), not a real phreaking pioneer. His Blue Box is on display, in the Smithsonian, I think. Wiki here: Phreaking [wikipedia.org]

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by negRo_slim ( 636783 )

      And, finally, does FBI understand it?

      To the issues of 2600 at the book store in the mall, to the anarchist's cookbook and to the old text file archives of yore this information has been around for as long as we've wanted to learn it. Sure the FBI (or some other organization) might puff up with hubris but I doubt it and in fact I think it's high time we start seeing more things like this. And I think this place [hackaday.com] is a good start...

    • Hole what hole? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheLink ( 130905 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @12:02PM (#24359105) Journal
      Why would it be wrong for me to backup my own SIM?

      • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Backing up your own SIM is perfectly legal, these are your data after all. Cracking your SIM to extract or modify operator keys is something else: since the card belongs to your operator you are not supposed to crack it open.

        Anyway, cracking a smartcard is a very difficult and costly operation. Smartcard manufacturers took special care of making these tamper-resistant, so that the cost of extraction outweighs the gains by a very large factor. Without specialized hardware and complete specs from the manufact

        • The card belongs to the operator? Really? When I gave T-Mobile $5 and they gave me a SIM, they were actually... what? Renting it to me?

    • Re:How long will it take for the FBI to ride? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Manip ( 656104 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @12:03PM (#24359129)

      The video contains no holes in SIMs, Payphones, or the telco billing system.

      Did you even watch it?

      She had to rewire the phone in order to get a red box to work because modern phones keep the microphone unpowered before you pay.

      A SIM reader isn't illegal or even really a black hat thing to do.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Mike McTernan ( 260224 )

        Well they did brute force the secret key (Ki [wikipedia.org]) from their SIM using the reader they build, but as they said, newer SIMs will detect the high number of requests and self-destruct. Additionally this was a 5V SIM reader, and many modern SIMs are 3V in anycase.

        The only thing that worried me in the video was the quality of the soldering!

        Mike

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by 0100010001010011 ( 652467 )

      I know RTFA is a bit hard, but did you even see what they were doing?

      "Modify a retired payphone so it can be used as a home telephone and for VoIP (Skype). Then learn how to modify the hacked payphone so it accepts quarters - and lastly, use a Redbox to make "free" phone calls from the modified coin-accepting payphone."

      So they first show you how to use a retired home phone for personal use. Then how to set it up to accept coins (you own the phone). Then how to redbox the phone you own.

      At the bottom they sho

  • SMI reader kit is for sale (Score:5, Informative)

    by echucker ( 570962 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @11:35AM (#24358865) Homepage
    On their sister site - http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=27 [adafruit.com]
    $17 seems pretty reasonable to me.

  • Payphones? Redboxes? (Score:5, Funny)

    by strelitsa ( 724743 ) * on Sunday July 27, 2008 @11:39AM (#24358905) Journal
    1981 called - it wants its meme back.
    • really, it seems to be about making a payphone yourself and then hacking it. Quite of useless. In any case the video halts for me after a minute or so, maybe a server overload? Or crappy video flash format.

      • Re:Payphones? Redboxes? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by jeiler ( 1106393 ) <go.bugger.offNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday July 27, 2008 @12:04PM (#24359133) Journal
        Hacking in its purest form is not necessarily about being "useful," but about being interesting--an interesting hack may have no intrinsic utility whatsoever, but allows a person who is curious to do something that is new ... to them, at least.
        • Fair cop. I hack and restore old tube-type radios myself.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 )
          Funny, back when I was redboxing fortress fones, we did it for one reason: because we had to. We would have mercilessly ridiculed any dilettante who said he was building a redbox just for the knowledge. What knowledge is there to be had by following instructions off some text phile you d/l'd off some pirate BBS, anyway?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Narpak ( 961733 )
            One way to archive practical experience is to practice.

            Say I like to draw, if I want to get better at it I have to draw a lot. One way to get better is to get instructions; books, articles, videos and so on. By following instructions downloaded from the net, or listed in a book, you learn how to do it.

            So without any great knowledge about this particular subject I can still see the benefit for someone interested in the field to thinker and tweak to increase their knowledge.

    • "1981 called - it wants its meme back."

      1985 called - it wants its jokes back.

  • Why video? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by heptapod ( 243146 ) <heptapod@gmail.com> on Sunday July 27, 2008 @12:12PM (#24359189) Journal

    Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn.
    I can easily skim an article and review a diagram much quicker than watching a video. Text also provides an easier point of reference than fast forwarding and rewinding a video to find a pertinent bit of information.
    When it comes to online media the best innovation is no innovation at all.

    • Re:Why video? (Score:5, Funny)

      by ZeroExistenZ ( 721849 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @12:20PM (#24359253)

      Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn.

      It's geekporn. A geeky girl, soldering, throwing together electronics and showing you her enthousiasm for hacking and electronics? This *IS* porn.

      Why do you think there aren't as much reactions?

      • Re:Why video? (Score:5, Funny)

        by syousef ( 465911 ) on Sunday July 27, 2008 @03:52PM (#24360987) Journal

        It's geekporn. A geeky girl, soldering, throwing together electronics and showing you her enthousiasm for hacking and electronics? This *IS* porn.

        Dude! That was terrible porn. I mean she used Windows! Windows for crying out loud!!! And did you see her solder joints? They were messy and horrible! No way that reader's going to go the distance!

      • It's geekporn. A geeky girl, soldering, throwing together electronics and showing you her enthousiasm for hacking and electronics? This *IS* porn.

        Hear, Hear.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Chemisor ( 97276 )

      > Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn.

      Not necessarily. Personally, I found the video quite educational. I've never seen someone assemble a circuit board before, having learned to do it from a book, and I have learned a few things by watching her do it.

      • For me it was more of an affirmation. My first thought was: "hey, that looks exactly like a lot of my quickie projects!"

        It is interesting to encounter someone who has similar traits to your own.

        In Latin class several of us had to translate some sentences on the chalkboard. When I sat back down at my desk and looked up I noticed that I couldn't tell where my (incredibly bad) handwriting stopped and the handwriting of a girl I had a crush on began. It was kind of spooky.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Narpak ( 961733 )

      Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn.

      If a video is without interest it don't get watched; thus it only consumes space and not bandwidth as such. If it gets watched it uses bandwidth; but then if it gets watched it's obviously of interest to someone.

    • Online video is a waste of time and bandwidth unless it's porn. I can easily skim an article and review a diagram much quicker than watching a video. Text also provides an easier point of reference than fast forwarding and rewinding a video to find a pertinent bit of information. When it comes to online media the best innovation is no innovation at all.

      Sounds like somebody is upset that they still have dial-up.

  • I watched the entire (HD) video and I was all set to see the last part where she has the old payphone release the coin after a call is complete.

      "Time to try it out..." at 23:40 the HD video ends but the non-HD version continues on for another seven minutes.

      Other than that it's great, I've always been a fan of Ladyada since seeing her cellphone jammer project.

    • this is now fixed, vimeo tells me that their videos sometimes do that if the sound is 48khz, so we changed it to 44khz and it's fine now, plays to the end, thanks for catching that.

  • Could skip all this "build your own" stuff (ok, read it thoroughly) and buy one of those chinese-made SIM card duplicators for about 20 bucks. Or a USB reader for even less.
    Because, you know, you don't always have to build stuff :)

    • Re:And those who are lazy (Score:4, Insightful)

      by KGIII ( 973947 ) <uninvolved@outlook.com> on Sunday July 27, 2008 @10:38PM (#24363913) Journal

      Oh man but the beautiful thing about having done it yourself is that you've done it yourself and learned a lot in the process. What you made might not be perfect but it is your creation.

      I have made many things from wood and they exist in houses around the area, some even across the country. (Some stuff went to Germany but I don't think I had much to do with that project.)

      I had a 2000 Ford Explorer Sport that turned the lights on automatically. That got totalled (no I wasn't driving it). I got a 2001 model of the same vehicle but the mirror didn't have the sensor. Dash drilling and several weeks later (figuring on a failed attempt too and wondering how I'd cover the hole I'd drilled prematurely) and the sensor is embedded in the dash *with a timer even* so that it works properly and doesn't just randomly turn the lights on when the vehicle goes under a shadow. (It was tougher than I had anticipated and my mishaps were plentiful.)

      Either way, it is something you did. Something only you did. Even if you go the directions from a site (I probably should have but didn't find one) the result is still your work and you will have learned so much from just having done so and (I think) will appreciate it so much more.

  • Anyone else dial the numbers in the "last 10 phone calls"? One is from here in Atlanta!

    2186813390 (80?)
    4046296500
    8003444539
    6464653692

  • When they had an article about adding a PID controller to the heater on a home espresso machine. The so-called geek who wired it in used an off-the-shelf IC that did the whole thing for you, and admitted that he had no idea what it was or how it worked, just that it did.

    Um, thats what Walmart shoppers do. Geeks and engineers UNDERSTAND things, how else do you think anything gets made? "Make" degenerated into the Mythbusters level after the first year.

    • I suppose you make your own RAM, know exactly how every one of the 500 million transistors on your CPU is wired, and bake your own bread?

      It's perfectly acceptable to simply accept that an IC does what it's specced to do without knowing why. Comparing it to a Wal-Mart shopper is asinine.

      • I suppose you make your own RAM, know exactly how every one of the 500 million transistors on your CPU is wired, and bake your own bread?

        Of course. He also built the powersupplies for all his tech toys, and refuses to use NAND IC's* (instead wiring his own.) He can even give the circuit diagram for his computer and trace all the voltage and current in it.

        *For every single lab course I've ever had, we always used IC's for logic. I'm not sure you can buy a single nand gate, unless it's an educational kit for kids or something.

        I just had to wire up an amp for a lab, and it's not something I plan to do again unless absolutely necessary 'cause th

    • Surely you need some understanding of a control theory to use a PID? Otherwise you'll end up with weird over/under shoots. Not that it matters for coffee, but still.. What did he do? Just use the reference circuit from the datasheet?

  • All that stuff has been easily learned by anyone with the ability to READ for a long time now. What's the big deal?

    Now some lazy ass can sit on his couch and be entertained by the THOUGHT of actually hacking on something by some folks on the pretty flashy LCD panel across the room.

    Wanna hack? Build a workbench, turn the TV off, and grab a good book. [amazon.com]

  • to get a used cheap nokia phone off ebay ($6.99), a nokia serial cable and just write software to access the sim contents? i.e. reusing an old phone as a sim reader?

    though novel and educational, I don't see the reason for the effort when I can use existing h/w.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ladyada ( 850297 )
      accessing a SIM thru a cell phone is almost always done at the application layer...you can read and write SMS's but you can't 'undelete' or see low-stuff information like the the last-accessed cell tower location

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