Photo by Valentina Curini on Unsplash

Mobile hacking tool

Small but Deadly

Article from ADMIN 86/2025

By Holger Reibold

The Flipper Zero mobile hacking tool, a highly portable device that looks like a kiddy toy at first glance, can check a wide range of wireless connections for vulnerabilities. We take a look at potential applications in pentesting scenarios.

The story of Flipper Zero began in 2019 when Alex Kulagin and Pavel Zhovner set about raising funds for their business idea on Kickstarter. The rest is more or less history. Ever since Flipper Zero went viral on Tiktok as a "Tamagotchi for hackers," there was no holding it back. The media have repeatedly associated Flipper Zero with the same potential applications: replicating electronic cash (EC) or credit card data and unlocking cars and hotel rooms. Smartphones can also be unlocked in a matter of seconds. Of course, these are just the applications that make a splash in the media.

These capabilities have also given rise to criticism. In Canada, the device was banned for a time because of its capabilities. The government has since lifted the ban, stating that its use is only permitted by "legitimate actors." The reason for the ban was the possibility of discovering security vulnerabilities in vehicles. The Flipper manufacturer came out on top, however, with the support of the "stop the absurd ban" petition at Change.org [1], arguing that government institutions should focus on forcing vehicle car manufacturers to eliminate security flaws rather than banning the tool that detects them. Amazon had also temporarily stopped selling Flipper Zero. In Brazil, the devices were even confiscated on the grounds that their wireless interfaces did not have official clearance.

None of this fuss has done Flipper Zero any harm; on the contrary, these seemingly helpless attempts to ban hacking tools have helped the Flipper developers attract massive media attention. At the same time, state actors often overlook the fact that even beginners can learn hacking techniques relatively easily with freely available tools such as Kali Linux.