Master the Airwaves with This Multi-Tool

For pentesting — and all sorts of other wireless horseplay — there are lots of portable gadgets you can now buy off the shelf, from the Flipper Zero to the HackKey, that will meet your needs. But sometimes, it is better to build the device yourself. Then you know exactly what goes into it, and you can customize it to your heart’s content. And more often than not, this approach will also save you some cash.

If you are in need of some inspiration for your own wireless multi-tool build, then you might be interested in what Huy Vector recently came up with. It is an inexpensive portable hacking gadget that's easy to build, featuring a unique, minimalistic design that showcases your hardware hacking skills — and your mastery of all things wireless.

At the center of the design is an ELEGOO 2.8-inch, 240×320 touchscreen display. This board comes equipped with an ESP32 microcontroller, so it is essentially an all-in-one computer. But to make it portable and well-suited for use as a wireless multi-tool, it still needed some work. So, Vector shaped some 3 mm brass rods and used them to make a frame for the device.

Next, a pair of 3.7V 14500 rechargeable batteries were soldered to the frame. They were wired to a battery charging module so that the device can be recharged via USB, and a switch was inserted into the circuit to turn it on and off. Glass fuse holders were soldered to the side of the frame to hold a stylus, which comes in handy when working with the touchscreen display. Finally, a mini antenna was added to the build.

That was it for the hardware, but the microcontroller needed to be programmed with some firmware to be of any use. Vector chose to use the popular ESP32 Marauder firmware, which allows the user to perform a variety of tasks, such as sniffing packets, scanning for nearby Bluetooth devices, and executing deauthentication attacks to test network resilience. Because the firmware is compatible with the ESP32's integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, it worked right out of the box.

For some tips on building your own portable hacking gadget, check out the video below.