Too free, hackers turned virtual chicken raising machines, toys of the 90s into wifi hacking devices for entertainment

Simone Margaritelli, a security researcher and companion, is a hacker with the nickname hexwaxwing who wants to turn hack wifi passwords into a cool entertainment. So they decided to turn Tamagotchi, the virtual chicken breeding device that caused a fever in the '90s into a wifi bomb called Pwnagotchi.

Pwnagotchi - a tool to hack wifi from toys of the 90s

The software for Pwnagotchi, now publicly available on September 19, allows hackers to use it, and it can edit and add plugins to it.

Too free, hackers turned virtual chicken raising machines, toys of the 90s into wifi hacking devices for entertainment Picture 1

The duo equipped Pwnagotchi with a type of machine learning technique called "deep inforcement learning", which enabled it to detect surrounding Wi-Fi networks and optimize the timing of data collection. information leaked from the 4-way handshake process in the Wifi network. Depending on the location, on a busy street or in the office, Pwnagotchi has different ways of collecting information.

To run the software, you'll need the following: a Raspberry Pi Zero W circuit, a MicroSD card of at least 8GB, an external battery and a 2-inch e-paper screen if you want to see a cute face with many different expressions. The total cost for them is about 60USD, at the time of this writing.

Too free, hackers turned virtual chicken raising machines, toys of the 90s into wifi hacking devices for entertainment Picture 2

Pwnagotchi is an entertaining game for hackers

For hexwaxwing, the most notable highlight of the project is the expressive face. Therefore, the screen is very important.

Hexwaxwing said that smiling face is a special attraction that made many people pay attention to Pwnagotchi. Many hackers are not really interested in data collection or cracking the handshake process of Wifi but just enjoy the idea of ​​a Tamagotchi for hackers and exploit it for entertainment.

For those who are interested in hacking, Pwnagotchi is a great learning tool. This tool has been restricted from causing any denial of service attack on the device to which it collects information. The technology underneath it is completely legal.

Too free, hackers turned virtual chicken raising machines, toys of the 90s into wifi hacking devices for entertainment Picture 3

Margaritelli said the tool's goal is as an educational project for users to learn and entertain with it and motivate vendors to adopt safer Wi-Fi (802.11w) technologies.

1. Chinese hackers use fingerprints on glass to crack smartphones
2. Victims hacked hackers' servers when they were caught paying ransom, rescuing thousands of other victims