01 · 8 min
Rules of engagement
What you may practice on, what the law actually cares about, and why this bench will not teach attacks on other people's systems.
A Flipper Zero is a portable lab for radios, badges, infrared, and USB HID. In the United States, owning one is legal. Using it on a system you do not own or do not have written permission to test is a crime — typically under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, state computer-crime statutes, theft, and sometimes FCC rules.
The only legal targets
- Hardware you own: your TV, your cheap 433 MHz remote, blank tags you bought, a development board on your desk.
- A lab you control: VMs, test locks you purchased as training aids, RFID trainers.
- Work you are contracted to do, in writing, with a defined scope. A verbal 'sure, take a look' is not a pentest authorization.
What the law is pointing at
| Domain | Why it bites | Flipper-shaped example |
|---|---|---|
| CFAA / state computer crime | Unauthorized access to a computer or networked system | BadUSB against a machine you do not admin |
| Theft / burglary tools + intent | Taking or copying access to property | Cloning a badge, hotel key, or car fob |
| Wire fraud / access device | Payment credentials are federally protected | Reading or emulating a bank card |
| FCC Part 15 / jamming bans | You may not willfully interfere with radio | Jamming, flooding, or blocking a link |
Receiving vs transmitting
Listening to unencrypted broadcasts (weather sensors, your own remote) is generally treated differently from transmitting. Replaying or generating traffic on a frequency can be a transmission. Jamming — drowning a signal so the real device cannot talk — is illegal in the US, period. Stock firmware is not a license.
Rolling codes exist because replay is an old attack
A static-code remote sends the same bits every press. A rolling-code system (KeeLoq and later challenge–response designs) changes the valid packet so a captured burst does not open the door tomorrow. Modern cars and many garage doors use the latter on purpose. Official Flipper firmware will not turn a pocket radio into a car-theft tool, and this manual will not walk around that design.
In scope here
- How the physical layer works
- Reading tags and remotes you own
- Writing NDEF to blank tags you bought
- UART/SPI/I2C on a board on your bench
- HID scripts on a computer you admin
Out of scope
- Vehicle immobilizers and keyless entry
- Hotel and Airbnb locks
- Payment cards of any kind
- Workplace or gym access badges
- Anything that needs a firmware fork to 'unlock'
The rest of this manual assumes you have read the stop line above. Labs are written so you can finish them with a Flipper, a microSD card, a cheap TV, blank NFC tags, and a computer you own.
Related labs