Introduction This blog is part of the “IoT Security” series. If you haven’t read the previous blogs (parts 1 - 8) in the series, I urge you to go through them first unless you are already fa

Introduction This blog is part of the “IoT Security” series. If you haven’t read the previous blogs (parts 1 - 7) in the series, I urge you to go through them first unless you are already fa

ZigBee Security 101 This blog is part of the “IoT Security” Series. If you haven’t read the previous blogs (parts 1 - 5) in the series, I urge you to go through them first unless you are alr

ZigBee Protocol 101 This blog is part of the “IoT Security” Series. If you haven’t read the previous blogs (part 1- 4) in the series, I urge you to go through them first unless you are alrea

Welcome to the 2nd post in Radio Hacking series. I hope you have gone through the 1st part. If not please check Part-1. Also, I hope you have installed GQRX on your PC/LAPTOP. Let’s start. What we will learn – In this post, we will learn how to use GQRX along with RTL-SDR. We will be using RTL-SDR to receive FM signal for listening  a song. Tools – We will use RTL-SDR and GQRX. Please install GQRX on your PC/LAPTOP. What is RTL-SDR – RTL-SDR is a cheap USB dongle which can be used for “RECEIVING” Radio Signal. In our case, it will capture the FM signal. It’s price is around $20. RTL-SDR is also referred as RTL2832U, DVB-T SDR, RTL dongle or the “$20 Software Defined Radio”. There are many other software defined radios better than the RTL-SDR, but they all come at a higher price. RTL-SDR looks like this –

In this blog series, we will be learning about Radio Frequency (henceforth RF) theory, various modulation techniques and how to analyze them. Since the topic is huge, we will cover RF basics and theory in this part. Also, instead of using technical terms and definition, I will be using simple words to make you understand any topic/concept easily. Why we should study RF ?? – Internet of things – IoT, we all have heard this term right?? The popularity of IoT and all the devices getting connected wirelessly is imminent in today’s life. The majority of these devices will communicate with each other wirelessly using radio protocols ( frequency range ~ 3 kHz to 300 GHz). IoT devices use different Radio protocols such as ZigBee, RFID, Bluetooth etc. for communication. If we go back in time, many vulnerabilities have been found and exploited in IoT devices using some sort of radio communication. So, for pentesting IoT devices we need to have a strong foundation of various radio protocols, how they communicate and different modulation schemes they use for communication.  Thus, analyzing radio communication is of utmost importance from a security point of view and cannot be taken for granted. So let’s start.