Nel contesto della proliferazione di truffe online, la Romania ha assistito a una truffa particolarmente su larga scala mascherata da promozione di McDonald’s. Più di 10.000 persone sono state attirate in una truffa che inizialmente si presentava come un’offerta allettante: un hamburger, patatine fritte e bibite per soli 10 lei, l’equivalente di circa due dollari.

Su Instagram e Facebook, i truffatori hanno lanciato una serie di annunci pubblicitari per conto di un marchio inesistente, McDelight România. Con il pretesto di partecipare a una “tripla promozione”, agli utenti è stato chiesto di compilare un breve sondaggio e di partecipare a un semplice gioco. A tutti è stata promessa la possibilità di vincere un premio e, sorprendentemente, tutti hanno vinto.

A questo punto, le potenziali vittime si sono sentite come se avessero fatto jackpot, come confermato da immagini in stile McDonald’s e da recensioni apparentemente autentiche da parte dei “clienti”.

Il passo successivo era compilare un modulo con i dati personali, inclusa una carta di credito, presumibilmente per pagare una cifra simbolica. Tuttavia, le condizioni, scritte in caratteri minuscoli, nascondevano la vera essenza della truffa: un abbonamento con addebito automatico di 63,42 euro ogni due settimane. Questa somma iniziò a essere addebitata regolarmente sulle carte delle vittime, e il pranzo da due dollari pubblicizzato è rimasto presto un’illusione irrealizzabile.

Gli specialisti di Bitdefender hanno rivelato i dettagli del piano, sottolineando che la campagna fraudolenta è iniziata il 17 luglio e continua a guadagnare terreno. Secondo i loro dati, ci sono almeno sei varianti di tali annunci in rotazione su Meta e il piano stesso si è già diffuso oltre la Romania: azioni simili sono state registrate in Ungheria e nei Paesi Bassi.

La piattaforma fasulla non solo sfrutta elementi visivi che ispirano fiducia, ma gioca anche attivamente sui sentimenti di urgenza e scarsità, creando l’illusione di un’offerta limitata. Tali tattiche la rendono particolarmente pericolosa sui social media, dove l’attenzione degli utenti è discontinua e il comportamento è spesso impulsivo.

Bitdefender sottolinea: nessuna vera azienda addebiterà più di 60 euro ogni 14 giorni in cambio di un hamburger gratuito. Qualsiasi “promozione” con pagamento anticipato richiede una valutazione critica. Si consiglia agli utenti di non inserire i dati di pagamento su siti sospetti, di studiare attentamente i termini e le condizioni e di segnalare annunci fraudolenti al supporto di Meta. Se cadete in una trappola, contattate immediatamente la vostra banca per annullare gli addebiti non autorizzati.

L’incidente evidenzia ancora una volta quanto facilmente una pubblicità visivamente accurata possa trasformarsi in un costoso inganno, soprattutto se le clausole scritte in piccolo non vengono lette in tempo.

Ed inoltre evidenza quanto sia facile avviare una campagna di Advertising a nome di una grande azienda, superando le difese informatiche gestite dalle intelligenze artificiali, in questo caso di Meta.

L'articolo McDonald’s Scam! 10.000 persone attirate da Instagram e Facebook con una falsa promo proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Secondo quanto riportato dal Knownsec 404 Advanced Threat Intelligence Team, di recente è stata osservata un’intensa attività di attacco legata al trojan Silver Fox, che imita strumenti diffusi come Google Translate. Questi attacchi, risalenti al 2024, prevedono che, al clic dell’utente su qualsiasi punto della pagina, compaia un messaggio relativo a una versione obsoleta di Flash, seguito da un reindirizzamento verso una pagina di download predisposta dagli aggressori.

Se l’utente scarica ed esegue il file, il sistema viene compromesso attraverso l’esecuzione di payload successivi.

Negli ultimi anni, diversi gruppi di hacker hanno distribuito il trojan Silver Fox utilizzando varie tecniche: dalla falsificazione di pagine di download di strumenti comuni, all’ottimizzazione SEO, fino alla creazione di copie di siti di istituzioni nazionali. Queste strategie hanno contribuito a compromettere sempre più l’ambiente di download dell’internet cinese.

Il gruppo Silver Fox è attivo almeno dal 2022, diffondendo i trojan tramite canali come e-mail, siti di phishing e software di messaggistica istantanea. In seguito alla diffusione del codice sorgente di trojan per il controllo remoto, come Winos 4.0, questa gang si è trasformata da singola organizzazione in una vera e propria famiglia di malware, riprogettata anche da altri gruppi criminali e persino da organizzazioni APT.

Un’analisi tecnica ha permesso di individuare diversi siti web di phishing usati per distribuire Silver Fox, tra cui copie fasulle di Google Translate, di un convertitore di valuta e persino del sito ufficiale di download di WPS. In questi siti, gli aggressori hanno inserito script di reindirizzamento direttamente nel codice sorgente, così da portare le vittime su pagine dannose.

Tra i pacchetti di installazione dannosi scoperti ci sono file MSI ed EXE che rilasciano il trojan Winos. Nel caso dei file MSI, l’esecuzione carica il file aicustact.dll per lanciare ulteriori componenti, mentre update.bat avvia sia il programma legittimo che il payload malevolo. Successivamente, javaw.exe scrive Microsoftdata.exe nel registro per garantirne la persistenza. Quest’ultimo, scritto in Golang, legge ed esegue un file Xps.dtd, che contiene shellcode destinato a caricare un modulo PE chiamato RexRat4.0.3, la cui componente centrale rimane winos.

Il trojan winos, che appartiene alla famiglia Silver Fox, dispone di numerose funzioni: può catturare schermate, registrare ciò che viene digitato sulla tastiera e ottenere dati dagli appunti. Oltre a questi, sono stati scoperti ulteriori programmi contraffatti usati per diffondere il malware, come pacchetti fake di Easy Translation, Youdao Translate, browser Bit e Letsvpn.

Negli ultimi anni, Silver Fox si è evoluto in un malware modulare e basato su strumenti, utilizzato e modificato anche da gruppi APT come Golden Eye Dog. Gli aggressori puntano soprattutto a migliorare le tecniche anti-rilevamento, come l’offuscamento del codice o la falsificazione delle firme, per rendere più efficace la diffusione. Questo aumenta i rischi per gli utenti che scaricano software da fonti non ufficiali, inducendoli con pop-up o siti clone.

Gli esperti, hanno riportato che Silver Fox rappresenta una seria minaccia per la sicurezza informatica in Cina. Per difendersi, si consiglia di mantenere alta l’attenzione su link, allegati e pacchetti provenienti da fonti sconosciute, scaricare software solo da siti ufficiali o app store affidabili e aggiornare costantemente sistemi operativi e antivirus. Solo così è possibile ridurre concretamente il rischio di infezioni.

L'articolo Analisi della Campagna di Attacco con il Trojan Silver Fox che imita Google Translate proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

A fine giugno una nota compare sul sito web istituzionale del Consorzio di Bonifica Adige Po: Non passano che pochi giorni -il 3 luglio, per l’esattezza- perché sia pubblicata una nuova news che avvisa di un attacco ransomware subito dall’Ente, di cui però è degno di nota lo stile comunicativo adottato.

“Viviamo in un’epoca in cui anche le infrastrutture più tradizionali devono affrontare sfide digitali. Nei giorni scorsi, i nostri sistemi informatici amministrativi e gestionali hanno subito un attacco esterno.” – inizia la nota – “Vogliamo dirlo in modo chiaro e senza ambiguità: questo evento non ha mai messo a rischio la nostra operatività sul campo ed il presidio del territorio. Abbiamo reagito subito attuando i protocolli di emergenza, collaborando con esperti di sicurezza informatica.“

Ma il vero “tocco di classe” sta qui, nel ribaltare comunicativamente una situazione di crisi in una opportunità: “Per noi questa non è solo una crisi da gestire. È un’occasione per dimostrare il nostro impegno alla trasparenza e alla responsabilità sociale.“

L’attacco è stato successivamente rivendicato, in data 10 luglio 2025, dalla ransomware gang Qilin attraverso il loro DLS, pubblicando a testimonianza dell’esfiltrazione dei dati alcuni documenti contenenti informazioni riservate e dati personali. Al momento non risultano note né date di scadenza del conto alla rovescia prima della pubblicazione integrale né la quantità dei dati esfiltrati dai sistemi dell’Ente colpito.

Tuttavia, un comunicato del Consorzio di Bonifica di pochi giorni dopo, il 7 luglio 2025, comunica agli utenti il progressivo ritorno all’operatività.

Mentre scriviamo, in data 31 luglio 2025, l’Ente ha pubblicato un nuovo comunicato destinato agli interessati, che conferma sia la rivendicazione della gang cybercriminale Qilin che la pubblicazione di qualche documento. Nella comunicazione vengono forniti alcuni dettagli e consigli agli utenti interessati in merito ai possibili rischi conseguenti all’attacco.

Anche in quest’ultima comunicazione lo stile ricalca l’approccio iniziale, attraverso un approccio orientato al rassicurare l’utenza e mantenere la fiducia nell’Istituzione: “Questa vicenda è per noi molto seria e rappresenta un attacco non solo al Consorzio, ma alla comunità che serviamo. Per questo motivo ci impegniamo a continuare a comunicare in modo trasparente e puntuale sull’evoluzione della situazione, garantendo il massimo sforzo per ridurre ogni possibile impatto sugli interessati e rafforzare la sicurezza informatica dei nostri sistemi. il Consorzio, se lo riterrà opportuno, metterà a disposizione un canale di contatto dedicato. Difendere il territorio oggi significa anche affrontare con responsabilità e competenza le sfide digitali. E noi siamo pronti a farlo.“

Come o già evidenziato, trovo questo approccio comunicativo interessante e degno di nota, perché assolutamente non scontato quando parliamo di Enti pubblici.

Ci sarà anche modo di capire come reagirà il Garante della Privacy, se e quando ci sarà il provvedimento conseguente, ma sicuramente l’adozione di uno stile comunicativo chiaro aiuta nel far comprendere la situazione agli interessati e, potenzialmente, mitigare eventuali sanzioni.

L'articolo Attacco ransomware al Consorzio di Bonifica Adige Po. Una interessante Strategia di Comunicazione proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

Darktrace ha registrato un attacco mirato a un’azienda chimica americana, in cui gli aggressori hanno sfruttato una vulnerabilità critica nella piattaforma SAP NetWeaver. La minaccia, registrata come CVE-2025-31324, consisteva in un errore nel meccanismo di caricamento dei file che consentiva agli aggressori di eseguire codice arbitrario sul server senza autenticazione. Sebbene SAP abbia rilasciato un aggiornamento ad aprile, l’incidente si è verificato in un momento in cui la correzione non era ancora stata installata.

L’attacco si è sviluppato nell’arco di tre giorni. I primi segnali sono stati un’attività simile a una scansione di ricognizione di dispositivi accessibili a Internet, presumibilmente dotati di SAP NetWeaver. In seguito si è scoperto che gli aggressori avevano sfruttato la vulnerabilità per scaricare un file eseguibile dannoso in formato ELF, corrispondente a una famiglia di malware chiamata Auto-Color.

Questo malware è stato descritto per la prima volta nel febbraio 2025 dall’Unità 42 di Palo Alto Networks. All’epoca, attaccava università e istituzioni governative in Nord America e Asia. Auto-Color opera come un trojan di accesso remoto, dando agli aggressori il pieno controllo sugli host Linux infetti. Le sue funzionalità includono l’esecuzione di shell, la creazione e l’esecuzione di file, la manipolazione delle impostazioni proxy di sistema, la gestione del carico, la raccolta di informazioni di sistema e la capacità di autodistruggersi completamente a comando.

Una delle caratteristiche principali di Auto-Color è il suo comportamento volto a nascondere la propria attività. Se non viene stabilita una connessione al server di comando e controllo, il malware rallenta il suo comportamento o addirittura interrompe del tutto la sua attività, imitando un file innocuo. Questo gli consente di eludere i sistemi di rilevamento delle minacce e di destare meno sospetti nella fase iniziale di penetrazione.

Durante l’incidente di aprile, Auto-Color non è riuscito a stabilire una connessione permanente con l’infrastruttura C&C esterna, ma anche in questo stato ha mostrato un comportamento complesso, dimostrando una profonda comprensione della logica interna di Linux e cautela nelle sue azioni. Secondo gli analisti, gli autori di questo malware hanno deliberatamente ridotto al minimo i rischi di rilevamento disabilitando le funzioni attive in caso di connessione non riuscita al server C&C.

L’attacco e lo sfruttamento della vulnerabilità Zero-Day in SAP NetWeaver evidenziano il crescente interesse degli aggressori per le piattaforme aziendali. Non è la prima volta che un software commerciale ampiamente utilizzato diventa un punto di accesso per un attacco mirato a più fasi. L’incidente dimostra anche la rapidità con cui i gruppi reagiscono dopo la pubblicazione delle patch: sono trascorsi solo pochi giorni tra il rilascio dell’aggiornamento e l’utilizzo dell’exploit.

L'articolo Il malware Auto-Color distribuito grazie ad una vulnerabilità di SAP NetWeaver proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.

The RP2350 MCU in A4 stepping.
When Raspberry Pi’s new RP2350 MCU was released in 2024, it had a slight issue in that its GPIO pins would leak a significant amount of current when a pin is configured as input with the input buffer enabled. Known as erratum 9 (E9), it has now been addressed per the July 29 Product Change Note from Raspberry Pi for the A4 stepping along with a host of other hardware and software issues.

Although the PCN is for stepping A4, it covers both steppings A3 and A4, with the hardware fixes in A3 and only software (bootrom) fixes present in A4, as confirmed by the updated RP2350 datasheet. It tells us that A3 was an internal development stepping, ergo we should only be seeing the A4 stepping in the wild alongside the original defective A2 stepping.

When we first reported on the E9 bug it was still quite unclear what this issue was about, but nearly a month later it was officially defined as an input mode current leakage issue due to an internal pull-up that was too weak. This silicon-level issue has now finally been addressed in the A3 and thus new public A4 stepping.

Although we still have to see whether this is the end of the E9 saga, this should at least offer a way forward to those who wish to use the RP2350 MCU, but who were balking at the workarounds required for E9 such as external pull-downs.

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/raspbe…

With us chafing at time zones and daylight saving time (DST) these days, it can be easy to forget how much more confusing things were in the late 19th century. Back then few areas had synchronized their clocks to something like Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or other standards like London time or Paris time, with everyone instead running on local time determined by as solar time. This created a massive headache for the railways, as they somehow had to make their time schedules work across what were effectively hundreds of tiny time zones while ensuring that passengers got on their train on time.

In a recent video [The Tim Traveller] explains how the creation of so-called Railway time sort-of solved this in France. As railroads massively expanded across the world by the 1850s and travel times dropped rapidly, this concept of Railway time was introduced from the US to Europe to India, creating effectively a railway-specific time zone synchronized to e.g. London time in the UK and Paris time in France. In addition to this, French railways also set the clocks inside the stations to run five minutes behind, to give travelers even more of a chance to get to their train on time when stuck in a long goodbye.

By 1911, across Europe GMT was adopted as the central time base, and the French five minute delay was eliminated as French travelers and trains were now running perfectly on time. If one wishes to experience what rail travel in the 1880s was like, travelers are invited to travel with Deutsche Bahn, who add a random delay to each actual arrival and departure time so that time becomes very relative indeed.

youtube.com/embed/PELruSTO3qI?…

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/railwa…

Frequency! It’s an important thing to measure, which is why [Jacques Pelletier] built a frequency counter some time ago. The four-function unit is humble, capable, and also an entry into our 2025 One Hertz Challenge!

The build began “a long while ago when electronic parts were still available in local stores,” notes Jacques, dating the project somewhat. The manner of construction, too, is thoroughly old-school. The project case and the sweet red digits are both classic, but so is what’s inside. The counter is based around 4553 BCD counter chips and 4511 decoder ICs. Laced together, the logic both counts frequency in binary-coded decimal and then converts that into the right set of signals to drive the 7-segment displays. Sample time is either 1 Hz or 0.1 Hz, which is derived from an 8MHz oscillator. It can act as a frequency meter, period meter, chronometer, or a basic counter. The whole build is all raw logic chips, there are no microprocessors or microcontrollers involved.

It just goes to show, you can build plenty of useful things without relying on code and RAM and all that nonsense. You just need some CMOS chips and a bucket of smarts to get the job done!

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/2025-o…

When film all came in rolls, it was fairly easy to play with the frame of the image. Companies like Hasselblad (and many others) made camera backs that would expose longer strips of 35 mm film to create stunning panoramic images in one single shot. [snappiness] wanted to bring that style of camera into the digital age, and ended up with a 2-in-1 Sony-based frankencamera.

Sensors just aren’t readily available in the wide aspect ratio [snappiness] was looking for, and even if they were, bare sensors are hugely expensive compared to consumer cameras. Lacking the budget for high-res scientific CMOS, [snappiness] did what any of us would do, and hacked two Sony A7ii full-frame mirrorless cameras together to get a combined 24x72mm sensor frame.

Conceptually, the hack is really very simple: a 3D print acts like a T-fitting, with the two cameras held parallel off the arms of the T and the lens making the shaft. Inside, the only optics are a pair of mirrors serving as a beam splitter. Each camera sees half the FOV of the lens in its corresponding mirror, which means the images can be stitched together later to make the double-wide pictures [snappiness] is after.

Of course both cameras must be triggered at the same time, but with what looks like a headphone splitter and an aftermarket remote shutter button, that part works perfectly. The optics, not so much– as always with conceptually simple projects, the devil is in the details, and here it’s the mirror alignment where you’ll find Old Nick. [snappiness] made no provision for adjustments, so everything needed to be designed and built with very stringent tolerances. Somewhere along the way, those tolerances were exceeded; as a result, the two cameras don’t share a focal plane.

That means half the composite image will always be out of focus, or that the main lens needs to be refocused and two snaps taken, rather defeating the point the frankencamera. If [snappiness] attempts a version two, perhaps an adjustment mechanism to focus each sensor would be in order. Still, even if it didn’t work perfectly, he’s proven that the idea is sound, and we can’t imagine many people will see this and argue it isn’t a hack.

The world of film did make all of this easier, perhaps– we’ve seen large-format film cameras out of lego, and a panorama made from four full rolls of 35 mm film. If you know of any other great photography hacks– film or digital– don’t hesitate to send us a tip.

youtube.com/embed/60tAma9SN-4?…

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/double…

Sometimes, there are too many choices in this world. My benchtop function generator can output a sine, square, or saw wave anywhere from 0.01 Hz up to 60 MHz? Way too many choices. At least, that’s what we suspect [Phil Weasel] was thinking when he built this Analog 1 Hz Sinewave Generator.

A KiCad rendering of [Phil]’s design[Phil]’s AWG (which in this case stands for Anything as long as it’s a 1 Hz sine Wave Generator) has another unique feature — it’s built (almost) entirely with op-amps. A lot of op-amps (37, by our count of the initial schematic he posted). His design is similar to a Phased Locked Loop (PLL) and boils down to a triangle wave oscillator. While a 1 Hz triangle wave would absolutely satisfy judges of the One Hertz Challenge, [Phil] had set out to make a sine wave. Using a feedback loop and some shaping/smoothing tricks (and more op-amps), he rounded off the sharp peaks into a nice smooth sine wave.

Sometimes we make things much more complicated than we need to, just to see if we can. This is one of those times. Are there much simpler ways to generate a sine wave? Yes — but not exclusively using op-amps! This entry brings stiff competition to the “Ridiculous” category of the 2025 One Hertz Challenge.

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/2025-o…

A universal feature of traveling Europe as a Hackaday scribe is that when you sit in a hackerspace in another country and proclaim how nice a place it all is, the denizens will respond pessimistically with how dreadful their country really is. My stock response is to say “Hold my beer” and recount the antics of British politicians, but the truth is, the grass is always greener on the other side.

There’s one thing here in dear old Blighty that has me especially concerned at the moment though, and perhaps it’s time to talk about it here. The Online Safety Act has just come into force and is the UK government’s attempt to deal with what they perceive as the nasties on the Internet, and while some of its aspirations may be honourable, its effects are turning out to be a little chilling.

As might be expected, the Act requires providers to ensure their services are free of illegal material, and it creates some new offences surrounding sharing images without consent, and online stalking. Where the concern lies for me is in the requirement for age verification to ensure kids don’t see anything the government things they shouldn’t, which is being enforced through online ID verification. There are many reasons why this is of concern, but I’ll name the three at the top of my list.

As always, Ali has you covered.
As anyone who has helped their non technical friends secure their networks will tell you, nothing boosts technical expertise more than presenting a 13-year-old with an online restriction. It’s already been shown how a tech-savvy kid can use an AI generated fake ID to watch online smut, and I am thus certain that the Act just won’t work. Kids will trade ways to get round it just like they traded floppies full of dodgy JPGs in the playground back in the ’90s.

The scope of the Act extends way beyond merely the porn sites you might expect, so your average Brit is going to find themselves uploading their drivers’ licence or passport an awful lot. The probability of a data breach involving all that valuable data will approach one, and all those identities will be compromised. Making more laws won’t stop this happening, after all the very definition of a criminal is a person with a disregard for the law.

And finally, that broad scope is catching all manner of inoffensive and blameless online communities who don’t have the resources to put the age verification and other measures in place. Your classic car forum, a support group for people with mental health problems, even possibly Wikipedia. Of course it’s important to protect children from inappropriate content, but killing the British internet for everyone else shouldn’t be a side effect.

This issue is likely to rumble on for a while in the UK, as at the time of writing a petition for its reform stands around 350k signatures. Thus a further parliamentary debate seems very likely, and no doubt we’ll see a few of our overlords wriggling a little to avoid the inevitable repercussions. You can sign it if you’re a Brit, and meanwhile if you’d like to restore access to the internet that the rest of the world sees, you can join the hordes of Brits running to acquire VPN access.

Palace of Westminster header image: Diliff, CC BY-SA 2.5.

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/when-o…

Sometimes, we’re faced with what should be simple household tasks that we choose to make more difficult. Sure, you could buy a clock, hang it on your wall, and move on with your day, or could spend a week or two building the perfect one. [Nejc Koncan] was in one such situation recently when he needed some new overhead lighting. He wanted hexagonal lights — and since none of the off-the-shelf solutions met his exacting requirements, he built his own.

Unlike most of the cycling RGB hexagonal lighting solutions available on the market, [Nejc] wanted elegant white outlines that he could control via HomeAssistant. After some careful design and quite a bit of trial-and-error, he ended up with a highly modular and very professional-looking installation. The hexagons are constructed from LED strips set into aluminum extrusions, with junction PCBs at each intersection. To complete the look, all of the strips and wiring are hidden by diffusers that slot into the extrusions — and of course, the whole thing is open source.

We see lots of lighting projects here at Hackaday, and even other hexagonal lights — but this might just be one of the most refined. Sometimes it’s worth the extra effort to build a totally over-engineered custom solution.

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/hexago…

It should come as no surprise that the hacker community has embraced the Meshtastic project. It’s got a little bit of everything we hold dear: high quality open source software, fantastic documentation, a roll-your-own hardware ethos, and just a dash of counterculture. An off-grid communications network cobbled together from cheap parts, some of which being strategically hidden within the urban sprawl by rogue operators, certainly sounds like the sort of thing you’d read about it in a William Gibson novel.

But while the DIY nature of Meshtastic is one of its most endearing features for folks like us, it can also be seen as one of its weak spots. Right now, the guidance for those looking to get started is to pick a compatible microcontroller development board, 3D print a case for it, screw on an antenna from AliExpress, flash your creation with the latest firmware, and then spend some quality time with the documentation and configuration tools to actually get it on the air. No great challenge for the average Hackaday reader, but a big ask for the weekend adventurer that’s just looking for a way to keep in touch with their friends while camping.

Quality hardware that offers a turn-key experience will be critical to elevating Meshtastic from a hobbyist’s pastime to something that could actually be fielded for applications such as search and rescue. Plus, let’s be honest, even those of us who like to put together our own gadgets can appreciate a more consumer-oriented piece of hardware from time to time. Especially if that hardware happens to be open source and designed to empower the user rather than hold them back.

Enter the Hacker Pager from exploitee.rs. As the name implies, it’s still very much a device intended for hackers — a piece of hardware designed for the halls of DEF CON rather than trekking through the wilderness. But it’s also an important step towards a new generation of Meshtastic hardware that meets the high standard of quality set by the software itself.

All in One, One For All

Before diving into the device itself, it would be helpful to take a moment to explain how users typically interact with Meshtastic, and what makes the Hacker Pager different.
Connecting an Android phone to Meshtastic via a Heltec V3
Generally speaking, there are two types of Meshtastic devices: stationary nodes placed on rooftops and other vantage points to provide the infrastructure, and mobile nodes that a person would carry with them that allows access the network. This isn’t strictly accurate as each mobile device can also relay messages and contribute to the overall mesh network, but for the purposes of this discussion that’s not really an important distinction.

The mobile nodes are essentially radio modems that connect to your smartphone. You might have one strapped to your backpack, or mounted to the roof of your car. An app on your phone allows you to use the radio to tap into the Meshtastic network, and provides (among other features) an SMS-like interface for sending and receiving messages. This can be a little ungainly if you’re physically plugged into the mobile node, but Bluetooth is also an option.

Now, what makes the Hacker Pager different is that it not only works as gateway device to provide access to the Meshtastic network to a tethered smartphone, but it can also be used as a stand-alone communicator. This approach is truly the best of both worlds, as you get all the functionality of the smartphone application, while also giving you the freedom to subtract the phone from the equation entirely.

hackaday.com/wp-content/upload…

The Hacker Pager isn’t the first Meshtastic device to provide this capability, but at the time of this writing, it’s still one of only a handful of options that offer it. It is however the first one to come in the classic pager form factor, which brings with it a certain nostalgic appeal. The unique layout and interface of the Hacker Pager does come at a cost though; at least for now, it can’t run the mainline Meshtastic firmware and has its own independent fork. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

Built By Hackers, For Hackers

I mentioned earlier that the Hacker Pager isn’t designed for a rugged environment, but that doesn’t mean it’s a wimp, either. It’s built like a brick, which I mean in the most positive way possible. But more than that, it’s built how a hacker would build it. Laser-cut acrylic panels, 3D printed body and buttons, you can still see how each component could be produced by a well-equipped home gamer should they need or want to.

That’s something we often see get inadvertently overlooked by open source hardware projects, and I’m happy to see that it seems to have remained a guiding principle for the Hacker Pager. It’s no mean feat either — we always release the design files for our annual Supercon badge, but that’s not to say they’ve always been easy to recreate for the hacker who couldn’t make it out to Pasadena. It’s not that we ever intentionally design the badge to be hard to replicate, it can just get away from you sometimes.
Bodge wire not included on production units. Probably.
While going with a larger footprint for some of the components would have made DIY rework a little easier, there’s nothing about the Hacker Pager that would keep you from either building one yourself or using it as a basis for another design. That includes the license, as the hardware side of the project is available under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2.

I could easily see the Hacker Pager becoming another Beepy — an OSHW project that resonates so strongly with the community that it inspires a whole line of clones.

A New Way to Mesh

The firmware for the Hacker Pager is forked from the upstream Meshtastic project, and as such, the device is fully compatible with all the infrastructure that’s already out there. Similarly, when used in conjunction with the official Meshtastic smartphone application, you’ll have all the features and functions you’re used to. But when you use the Hacker Pager on its own, it’s unlike any other Meshtastic device out there.

That’s largely due to the fact that the retro-inspired hardware of the Hacker Pager demands a different sort of user interface than any of the existing Meshtastic devices. The menu system makes excellent use of the vibrant 192×64 pixel monochrome LCD, and banging out messages using the on-screen keyboard and directional buttons is a breeze. Users from the younger generations may need some time to adapt, but for those of a certain age, it feels like home.

hackaday.com/wp-content/upload…

One of my favorite features doesn’t even kick in until you’ve put the Hacker Pager down for a bit. Once the device has hit the user-defined idle timeout, the screen backlight turns off and the screen shifts over to an ambient clock display that also shows critical status information such as battery level, number of nodes in the area, and a new message indicator.

It’s also got the features you’d expect from a modernized pager. You can be notified of incoming messages by the classic audible alert or vibration, naturally. But there’s also 36 addressable RGB LEDs and a dozen UV LEDs that are more than happy to put on a light show each time something hits your inbox.

More Than Idle Talk

Honestly, if everything I’ve just covered was all the Hacker Pager could do, I’d still have come away impressed. But the team at exploitee.rs took things a step further by adding in several tools that should prove useful for anyone who’s into hacking around on Meshtastic or other flavors of LoRa.

The Packet Capture mode (and matching Wireshark plugin) lets you explore the actual communication protocols at work, and the Spectrum Analyzer will visualize anything broadcasting between 850 to 950 MHz and optionally export the results. While there’s no official word on additional tools, it’s not hard to imagine how either exploitee.rs or the community could expand on these capabilities on the future with new functions such as a WiFi or Bluetooth scanner.

Joining the Pager Revolution

If you want your own Hacker Pager, it will set you back $200 for the standard Green/Black model shown here, or $250 for the Special Edition colors (Pink/Black, Orange/Black). Unfortunately, they’re currently out of stock.

We made every effort to time the release of this article to coincide with availability of the Hacker Pager, but folks have been chomping at the bit to pick one up since they were first unveiled last year, and demand was simply too great. Sorry about that.

But don’t worry, you haven’t missed your chance. We’re told that units will be available at DEF CON 33 next week if you’re making the trip out to Vegas, and if not, you can put your email down to be notified when the next batch of Hacker Pagers will be ready to go.

In the meantime, you can read up on the promise of the Meshtastic project and maybe even setup your first node.

hackaday.com/2025/07/31/hands-…