Weaponizing the BBC Micro:Bit
From BruCON 2017
In 2015, BBC sponsored Micro:Bit was launched and offered to one million students in the United Kingdom to teach them how to code. This device is affordable and have a lot of features and can be programmed in Python rather than C++ like the Arduino. When we discovered this initiative in 2016, we quickly thought it was possible to turn this tiny device into some kind of super-duper portable wireless attack tool, as it is based on a well-known 2.4GHz RF chip produced by Nordic Semiconductor.
It took us a few months to hack into the Micro:Bit firmware and turn it into a powerful wireless attack tool able to sniff keystrokes from wireless keyboards or to hijack and take complete control of quadcopters during flight. We also developed many tools allowing security researchers to interact with proprietary 2.4GHz protocols, such as an improved sniffer inspired by the mousejack tools designed by Bastille. Source code of our custom firmware and related tools are opensource.
The Micro:Bit will become a nifty platform to create portable RF attack tools and ease the life of security researchers dealing with 2.4GHz protocols !