Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit

ESP32 Bit Pirate, a Hardware Hacking Tool with WebCLI That Speaks Every Protocol

https://github.com/geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate
131geotp | | 40 | HN
loading story #48414713
loading story #48411958
geotp | parent | next
ESP32 Bit Pirate is an open-source firmware that transforms compatible devices into versatile multi-protocol hacking tools, inspired by the original Bus Pirate.

It can sniff, send, script, and interact with digital protocols such as I2C, UART, SPI, and 1-Wire through either a Serial CLI or a Web CLI. It also supports wireless technologies including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Sub-GHz, and RFID.

Install the firmware in one click with the ESP32 Bit Pirate Web Flasher. The Wiki provides detailed guides for every mode and command, while ESP32 Bit Pirate Scripts offers a collection of ready-to-use examples and utilities.

For additional hardware capabilities, the ESP32 Bus Expander adds extra radio interfaces, while the ESP32 Bit Pirate Dock provides compatibility with original Bus Pirate adapters and accessories.

officialchicken | parent | next
I have an old v3.6 from Dangerous Prototypes that I still frequently use and works fine with a coding assistant over serial terminal for doing some wire-level debugging of firmware. I am definitely not interested in paying the Pi tax for a new one just to get improved scripting. The roughly $100 BP v6 price point means looking into a other analyzers is required. How does this ESP firmware really compare - can anyone who's used both say what's different other than wireless?
geotp | parent
The two projects have fairly different directions, even though they overlap on most core wired protocol features.

The original Bus Pirate relies heavily on a more complex bytecode-style syntax for many lowlevel operations. The ESP32 version replaces most of that with simple, explicit commands that perform the same tasks through a more straightforward workflow

The ESP32 version also avoids flag heavy commands and uses interactive shells where appropriate. Its main additional strength is radio support not present on the original Bus Pirate, including WiFi, RFID/NFC, SubGHz, NRF24, FM, infrared, and Bluetooth.

It can also be controlled through the Web CLI from any phone, tablet, or device with a web browser, using integrated AI assistant to help with hardware task.

So it is not simply a cheaper Bus Pirate v6 clone

loading story #48410266
officialchicken | root | parent
Due to this obviously AI-generated response (thus codebase) - I'll pass.
geotp | root | parent
I’m French and my English isn’t very good, so please excuse me for using a translator. Feel free to take a look at the codebase
loading story #48410389
loading story #48414631
loading story #48411134
loading story #48413704
jwr | parent | next
This looks great! The Bus Pirate was quite a good tool. For hardware hacking there is also Glasgow Interface Explorer, which I've been using recently with AI with much success.

The main difference is that Glasgow has an FPGA on-board, and you (or AI) can create applets for custom protocols and serious high-speed hacking.

loading story #48413938
loading story #48412261
throwa356262 | parent | next
@geotp

Any reason why C1 is not supported?

geotp | parent
What do you mean by C1? Do you mean the ESP32-C3 or C5? If so, they are not supported mainly for performance and hardware capability reasons
loading story #48410347
ktzar | parent | next
compatible with Cardputer?
geotp | parent
Yes, it is compatible with both Cardputer models and many other devices, including the $5 ESP32S3 clone
marcosscriven | parent | next
I’m curious about how you used LLMs here?

Also, to what extent you designed this vs the LLM copying it?

My concern is all these vibe coded projects with huge readmes and fake GitHub stars are essentially just copying the work of others, and don’t really do anything new.

throwa356262 | parent | next
You can see in the git commit log how it has progressed slowly over a period of one year to get here.

So at least it is not a weekend vibe coded AI slop.

marcosscriven | root | parent
Not sure 600,000 commits by one person in a year, most concentrated in a few months over the year, counts as “slowly”.
geotp | root | parent
Where do you see 600k commits? Are you talking about 600k lines of code? If so, the project includes libraries in the `lib` folder, notably a large screen library called `tft_espi` which must be 500k lines on its own (which has since been removed, that's why you see -500k lines)

I know the codebase inside and out, feel free to ask

geotp | parent
I’m not sure I fully understand the question.

The implementation is entirely new and was built specifically for this project, it is not copied from another project. LLMs were used as development tools, but the architecture, feature selection, integration, testing, and overall direction were designed and validated by contributors and me.

voidUpdate | parent
Wow, it speaks EVERY protocol? That's pretty impressive. I'll need to flash one of these so I can read CYCLADES data transmissions, whatever protocol those parallel port security keys use and LORAWAN. Does it also read any random protocol I just invented myself, out of the box?
geotp | parent | next
Yes, it includes scripting and raw GPIO/bit-banging features, so you can read essentially any custom protocol yourself, including one you invented five minutes ago
voidUpdate | root | parent | next
Probably needs an asterisk after "speaks ALL protocols" to say "you will need to write the protocol handlers yourself, this does not speak all protocols out of the box".

Speaking of which, I wrote a program that can crack any encryption every designed. It just executes a python file in the same folder, you have to write the cracker yourself

loading story #48411841
loading story #48411905