What this lab is
Built around the Dolphin Ethos — the philosophy behind the Flipper Zero project. Curious, playful, multi-capable: explore the environment with every sense available. A single portable tool that speaks Sub-GHz RF, NFC, RFID, infrared, Bluetooth, and GPIO, because curiosity should not have a protocol boundary. This lab extends that ethos across the whole Pelican stack: survey the RF environment, learn wireless security hands-on, run authorized testing against our own infrastructure and in CTF competitions, and feed RF data into the existing observability stack (Pelican Maps, ATAK, ERPNext).
Three operating modes
Default mode is passive. The lab produces most of its value there: wardriving data feeds Pelican Maps, spectrum analysis feeds situational awareness, packet analysis builds understanding.
Passive
Receive only. No injection, no association, no transmission. Kismet in monitor mode, RTL-SDR listening, wardriving.
No authorization needed — always legalCTF
Competition infrastructure only. Isolated, purpose-built challenge environments.
ERPNext task with competition detailsAuthorized testing
Active testing with injection, rogue AP, or replay — against our own infrastructure only.
Signed scope.md committed before any active workHardware & software stack
Hardware kit
- Flipper Zero (Momentum firmware)
- RTL-SDR Blog v3 (RTL2832U + R820T2, TCXO, Bias-T, HF direct sampling)
- HackRF One (1 MHz – 6 GHz, half-duplex TX/RX)
- ALFA AWUS036ACS (monitor-mode WiFi adapter)
- u-blox GPS dongle (wardriving geotagging)
- Directional antennas (Yagi/panel for RF survey)
Software stack
- Kali Linux (Docker, GPU PC)
- Kismet (WiFi/BT/RF sensor + REST alerts)
- SDR++ & GNU Radio (spectrum analysis, signal processing)
- Universal Radio Hacker (protocol reverse engineering)
- Wireshark / tshark (packet capture & analysis)
- Aircrack-ng & Bettercap (authorized WiFi testing)
- Hashcat (GPU-accelerated, authorized use only)
Integration with the Pelican stack
What this lab is not
- A tool for accessing others’ networks without authorization
- An unlicensed transmitter — most SDR/Flipper Sub-GHz work is receive-only; transmit requires licensing or legal unlicensed ISM operation
- A replacement for the reference libraries — those cover background knowledge; this lab is operational