ProxGrind's Redesigned ChameleonMini Rev. G RFID Reader and Simulator Launches Crowdfunding Campaign

Upgraded design based on the original Kasper & Oswold Rev. G is joined by a more compact, power-sipping variant.

Gareth Halfacree
4 years agoSecurity / Communication

The RFID Research Group of Sneak Technology has launched a crowdfunding campaign for the ChameleonMini Rev. G by ProxGrind and ChameleonTiny RFID emulators and readers, originally designed by Kasper & Oswald and aimed at penetration testers and security analysts.

"ChameleonMini is a versatile tool for practical NFC and RFID security analysis, compliance and penetration tests, and various end-user applications. The freely programmable platform can create perfect clones of various existing commercial smartcards, including cryptographic functions and the Unique Identifier (UID)," Sneak Technology explains of the board's purpose. "It can be employed to assess security aspects in RFID and NFC environments in different attack scenarios, such as replay or relay attacks, state restoration attacks, sniffing of NFC communication, or functional tests of RFID equipment.

"A convenient, human-readable command set allows to configure its behaviour and update the settings and content of up to eight internally stored, virtualized contactless cards. During battery-powered stand-alone operation, the integrated buttons and LEDs enable user interaction and feedback."

The ChameleonMini design isn't original to Sneak Technology — nor even ProxGrind, who is responsible for the variant for which crowdfunding is sought: the original ChameleonMini came from Kasper & Oswald, as did updates up to and including the official ChameleonMini Rev. G.

ProxGrind's Rev. G variant, however, is claimed to offer advantages over the official version: the removal of a blind spot for card simulation, increased reading distance at 5-6cm for tags and 3-4cm for keyfobs, reduced read current at 65mA to 170mA, support for Bluetooth Low Energy NRF52832, a low-power sleep mode with RF and button wakeup, a replaceable antenna, an an Android application.

ProxGrind is also responsible for the ChameleonTiny, a Rev. G variant which has a slightly reduced range, a fixed antenna, and no BLE support in exchange for a reduction in read current to 60mA and a smaller device footprint.

Following ProxGrind's successful Kickstarter campaign for the Proxmark3 Rdv 4.0, which fulfilled its commitments to backers last year, the ChameleonMini Rev. G by ProxGrind has landed on Indiegogo with rewards starting at $50 for the ChameleonTiny and $79 for the full ChameleonMini Rev. G. More information is available on the Indiegogo campaign page and on the project's GitHub repository.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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