Evil Crow RF: An Open Source CC1101 Based Device for Pentesting

The CC1101 is a popular RF silicon chip as it can handle many common digital modulation modes such as OOK/ASK, FSK, GFSK, and MSK within it's hardware. It is not a software defined radio, but rather a hardware radio that can be easily software controlled. Over the years we've seen the CC1101 and it's cousin the CC1111 with embedded microcontroller used in several pentesting/RF reverse engineering tools such as the Flipper Zero, Yard Stick One and PandwaRF.

There is now a new open source CC1101 implementation called the "Evil Crow RF". This hardware marries two CC1101 modules with an ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth microcontroller. It is capable of operating in the 300 MHz - 348 MHz, 387 MHz - 464 MHz and 779 MHz - 928 MHz bands. As it has two CC1101 modules it can receive or transmit on two different frequencies at the same time. 

The firmware running on the ESP32 allows you to control the device via a simple web interface. Currently built in are interfaces for receiving, transmitting and brute forcing.

The device hardware is completely is open source so anyone can build it, however the creators are selling a ready to use version on Aliexpress, however at the time of this post it appears to be out of stock.

Over on Twitter creator @JoelSernaMoreno has uploaded a short video of it working.

The Evil Crow RF Open Source CC1101 Based Radio
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philmcallen

A week ago I found an alternative (to the one in the original Git repository) case for the Evil Crow RF, but can’t remember where. Anyone can help me out?

D

I missed it again 🙁 Will there be more?

Joel

Yes, be patient. The manufacturer is making more devices 🙂

BooX

Amazing job 👍 Can’t wait till they are available for purchase again 🙂

RobRich

The project needs a mascot. 😉

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McJimmy

Not for sale at AliExpress anymore!

Joel

Evil Crow RF is out of stock now. Check back in a few days 😀

McJimmy

AliExpress does not say ‘Out of Stock Now’ it says “Sorry, this item is no longer available!”

Joel

Hi!

Don’t worry about this. When I access the aliexpress purchase link it tells me out of stock

I advised the manufacturer of this when the stock ran out, they will make more devices in the next few days

The manufacturer is April Brother, it is a small Chinese company and can not tackle so much work in a few days

I can’t do anything with this because when we finish the development of the device, we give the design to April Brother so they can sell the device as cheap as possible. The developers don’t make any money on this and we don’t make any more devices. This is done by April Brother

I hope they will have stock soon 🙂

McJimmy

Great! My apologies for being pedantic.

I’ll be buying a few when they come back online.

Keep up the good work.

Joel

Evil Crow RF stock now!

Joerg

Already out of stock again?!

Joel Serna

Stock now

Meyer

Est-ce que ça marche avec le SDR?

Joel

Evil Crow RF stock now!

BooX

Ordered 👍😁

Meyer

Je viens juste d’en acheter un sur AliExpress