Intro to Software Defined Radio, presented at NDSU CyberSecurity Conference 2017 #NDCSC17

1. Software Defined Radio 101
Mike Saunders @hardwaterhacker

2. About Mike
• Started IT in 1998
• Security since 2007
• Avid ice fisherman

4. http://nickolaylamm.com/

5. Signals Around Us
• Cell phones (900/1,800/1,900 MHz)
• Wifi (2.4 & 5 GHz)
• Bluetooth (2.4 GHz)
• Zigbee (2.4 GHz)
• Broadcast TV (54 - 900 MHz)
• Pagers (35/43/152/157/163/454/462/929
MHz)
• ADSB (978/1090 MHz)
• AIS (162 MHz)
• HAM radio (varied)
• Police & military comms (varied)
• Satellite comms (varied)
• Cordless phones (1.7/27/43-50/900 MHz,
1.9/2.4/5.8 GHz)
• Radar (varied)
• Car remotes (315 / 433 MHz)
• Garage door openers (310/315/390 MHz)
• TV remotes (varied)
• Wireless presenter remotes (varied)
• Etc. etc. etc.

8. What is SDR?
• Radios used to be implemented in hardware
• Software Defined Radio - software tunes receiver
hardware to desired frequency
• Additional software can decode transmission to reveal
data
• Signals can be transmitted with certain hardware

9. What You Need
• Hardware
• rtl, HackRF One, Ubertooth One, Yardstick,
Funcube, etc.
• Antenna
• Software
• GNU Radio, SDR#, GQRX, etc.

10. Getting Started - Hardware
• Generic RTL2832U / R820T
• ≈ $15
• 25 - 1700 MHz
• RX only

11. Getting Started - Hardware
• Generic RTL2832U / R820T
• Aluminum case limits noise
• ≈ $25
• 25 - 1700 MHz
• RX only

12. Getting Started - Hardware
• HackRF One
• ≈ $330
• 10 MHz - 6GHz
• TX & RX
• 20M samples/second

14. Getting Started - Software
• Windows
• SDR#, HDSDR, SDR-RADIO.COM
• Mac & Linux
• GNU Radio, GQRX, Linrad
• Android
• SDR Touch, Wavesink Plus, RFAnalyzer

15. Getting Started - SDR#
• SDR# - www.airspy.com
• Quick start guide - http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-
quick-start-guide/

17. Getting Started - Tuning
• http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/coverage/station_listing
.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFXMbr1dgng

19. Getting Started - FM Radio

20. Common Problems
• Don’t forget to install Zadig driver with generic RTL
• Some USB 3.0 ports don’t work well
• Issues with USB passthrough in VMs
• Frequency drift due to temperature differences (non-
TCXO chipset)

21. SDR# Common Problems
• Slower processors = dropped samples, choppy audio
• Even an issue in VMs on more powerful hardware
• HDSDR is harder to use, but less overhead

22. SDR# Common Problems

24. ID an unknown signal
• Spend time sweeping through frequencies
• Search for known frequencies at radioreference.com
• Look up signal waterfall on sigidwiki.com

25. • Signal @ 152.480 Mhz

26. radioreference.com

27. FCC License Search

28. Search Results

29. Review Frequencies

30. Review Registration

31. Check SigIDWiki
Captured sample waterfall SigIDWiki Reference

32. Legal Disclaimer
• I am not a lawyer, this may or may not be illegal
• Research and decide for yourself
• 18 U.S.C § 2511
• 18 U.S.C § 2510

33. Decoding Pages
• Walk through:
• http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-pocsag-pager-decoding/
• You need:
• SDR#
• VBCable
• http://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm
• PDW
• http://www.discriminator.nl/pdw/index-en.html

34. More Common Problems

35. More Common Problems

36. PHI/PII Galore

37. Houston, we have a problem

38. Now *That’s* Interesting

39. Look! Free Voicemail!

40. Next Steps
• Garage door hacking - http://samy.pl/opensesame/
• Ding Dong Ditch - http://samy.pl/dingdong/
• Decode a signal using GNU Radio

41. Wrap Up
• Get started cheap
• All kinds of signals to listen to and analyze
• Be responsible with what you find
• Report issues

42. Resources
• http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/
• http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/
• http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Database
• http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchAdv
anced.jsp
• Noise Floor - @0xabad1dea -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N1C3WB8c0o

43. Resources
• https://www.trendmicro.de/cloud-content/us/pdfs/security-
intelligence/white-papers/wp-leaking-beeps-healthcare.pdf
• https://www.trendmicro.de/cloud-content/us/pdfs/security-
intelligence/white-papers/wp_leaking-beeps-industrial.pdf
• http://www.fieldxp.com/ - Book series on SDR & GNURadio
• https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-14/materials/us-14-
Picod-Bringing-Software-Defined-Radio-To-The-
Penetration-Testing-Community.pdf

44. Resources
• http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/Gu
ided_Tutorial_Introduction

45. Questions?
• mike@hardwatersecurity.com
• https://hardwatersec.blogspot.com
• @hardwaterhacker