Open-source alternatives to Hackrf

SDRPlusPlus is a cross-platform software-defined radio suite used for capturing, processing, and visualizing radio frequency signals. It functions as a multi-frequency radio receiver and spectrum analyzer, providing a unified hardware interface to connect various radio devices. The project employs a modular signal processing framework that allows for the integration of custom plugins and the loading of external compiled modules. This architecture supports a multi-oscillator virtual tuning system, enabling the simultaneous monitoring of different frequency bands within a single hardware stream

This project is an integrated software suite and graphical workbench designed for capturing, visualizing, and reverse engineering wireless communication protocols and digital waveforms. It functions as a platform for software-defined radio analysis, enabling the recording of raw radio frequency data from hardware devices to facilitate the investigation of unknown or proprietary communication logic. The software distinguishes itself through a protocol-agnostic data modeling approach that represents radio transmissions as abstract bitstreams, decoupling analysis tools from specific modulation o

Espectre is an edge machine learning framework and motion detection platform that uses Wi-Fi Channel State Information to identify human presence and movement. It functions as a sensing toolkit for ESP32 microcontrollers, enabling the detection of motion through walls without the use of cameras or wearables. The project distinguishes itself by executing compact neural network classifiers and mathematical detection algorithms directly on the microcontroller. It utilizes a MicroPython runtime to allow for the prototyping and deployment of sensing logic and wireless signal processing algorithms

Tasmota is a universal firmware platform for ESP8266 and ESP32 microcontrollers, designed to provide local control and management of smart home hardware. It functions as an event-driven automation controller that replaces proprietary factory firmware, allowing users to manage relays, sensors, and lighting systems without relying on external cloud services. The system is built on a modular driver architecture that enables dynamic hardware configuration and peripheral support through a web-based management interface. The platform distinguishes itself through a template-driven hardware mapping s

This project provides custom firmware and a suite of management tools for wireless thermometers and hygrometers. It replaces manufacturer software to improve measurement accuracy, extend battery life, and unlock configuration options not available in stock firmware. The system differentiates itself through a comprehensive set of administration utilities, including a device configurator for managing Bluetooth advertising and transmission power, and an over-the-air flasher for wireless software updates. It also features a climate data visualizer to retrieve and graph historical temperature, hum

This project is a software-defined radio signal decoder and protocol analyzer designed to translate raw radio transmissions from ISM bands into human-readable data. It functions as a tool for capturing radio samples, analyzing pulse timings, and decoding signals from wireless devices. The system acts as a data bridge, converting decoded radio signals into JSON format for publication to MQTT brokers or exposure via Prometheus-compatible endpoints. It also serves as a signal capture tool capable of recording raw radio samples and demodulated pulses to files for offline analysis and simulated pl

Xtreme-Firmware is a custom operating system for the Flipper Zero designed to expand hardware capabilities and remove software restrictions. It functions as a multi-protocol signal emulator for capturing and replaying RFID, NFC, Sub-GHz, and Infrared signals to test hardware security. The project features a specialized USB HID attack framework for sending keystroke payloads and spoofing device identifiers over USB and Bluetooth. It also includes a WiFi penetration testing suite for scanning, sniffing, and sending deauthentication frames using a wireless development board. Broad capabilities

probe-rs is an embedded debugging toolset used for flashing, debugging, and inspecting microcontrollers via hardware debug probes. It functions as an embedded firmware flasher, a memory manager for reading and writing to processor registers, and a server implementing the Debug Adapter Protocol to connect hardware debugging to various code editors. The project includes a CMSIS-Pack target parser to extract device metadata and flash configurations from industry-standard definition files. It provides a driver-based probe abstraction to interact with various hardware debug probes regardless of th

WiringPi is a GPIO hardware control library and embedded hardware interface designed for managing General Purpose Input Output pins on single board computers. It provides a standardized software layer for interacting with hardware registers, facilitating low-latency pin manipulation. The project includes a GPIO command line interface that allows users to inspect pin states and manage hardware input and output levels directly from the terminal. It supports embedded hardware prototyping and hardware state monitoring, specifically targeting Raspberry Pi boards to interact with external electron

stlink is a toolset for ARM Cortex-M flashing, firmware management, and debug server operations, with specific support for STM32 microcontrollers. It provides an ARM Cortex-M flash programmer for writing binary and hex files, an ITM trace logger for real-time instrumentation data, and a SWD/JTAG debug server. The project includes a graphical user interface for managing MCU firmware and exporting memory, as well as a remote server that allows external debuggers to control execution and inspect registers on target hardware. The toolset covers microcontroller memory management through flash era

Daytripper is a programmable laser security controller and motion detector that functions as a hardware trigger for operating system actions. It is a hardware and software system designed to detect physical intrusions via laser beams to trigger automated system responses. The system distinguishes itself through its ability to translate physical laser interruptions into software actions, such as executing keyboard shortcuts, running scripts, or triggering system commands. It also supports hardware-level integration, allowing the device to send high-voltage pulses through dedicated pins to acti

Blynk is an embedded device framework and IoT cloud connectivity library designed to establish secure, bi-directional communication between microcontrollers and a remote management platform. It provides the core identity of an IoT device management tool, enabling the synchronization of device states, remote hardware control, and the mapping of hardware data to cloud-based interfaces. The project distinguishes itself through a virtual-pin system that decouples cloud communication from physical pins, allowing for hardware-independent data exchange. It also supports advanced architectural offloa

This firmware transforms an ESP32 device into a portable penetration testing platform by combining an embedded JavaScript runtime with multi-protocol wireless attack capabilities, USB and Bluetooth HID emulation, and a menu-driven user interface. It is designed as a unified system that integrates persistent storage, hardware abstraction for external radio modules, a serial command protocol for headless operation, and a web-based remote desktop that streams the device screen and relays button inputs for remote control. The custom JavaScript scripting environment enables users to write and run

ZSWatch is a real-time operating system for wearable devices featuring a touch display and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. It provides a comprehensive software suite that includes a Bluetooth LE communication stack, an embedded UI framework for round displays, and a complete firmware toolchain for compiling, flashing, and simulating wearable hardware. The project is distinguished by its specialized wearable capabilities, such as a graphical framework for designing reactive screens and watchfaces via a visual editor. It implements a publish-subscribe messaging system to decouple hardware se

RuView is a WiFi spatial sensing platform that uses radio frequency reflections to detect presence, track body poses, and monitor vital signs without the use of cameras. It functions as a 3D point-cloud spatial mapper, converting signal disturbances into coordinate sets to visualize physical environments and human movement. The system operates as a distributed sensing mesh where synchronized nodes use consensus and shared audit trails to maintain data consistency across a swarm. It further acts as an MQTT home automation bridge, streaming real-time spatial telemetry and occupancy data to smar

MicroPython is a lean implementation of Python 3 optimized to run on microcontrollers and other resource-constrained systems. It serves as a cross-platform embedded runtime and hardware abstraction layer, providing a firmware framework that maps high-level software commands to specific microcontroller registers across diverse processor architectures. The project functions as an embedded language interpreter that enables rapid prototyping on hardware through an interactive read-eval-print loop. It supports a wide range of target environments, including ARM, ESP32, STM32, RISC-V, and WebAssembl

i2cdevlib is a collection of peripheral drivers and hardware abstraction layers designed for I2C devices. It provides a sensor driver collection, a register map database, and a peripheral manager to coordinate communication between microcontrollers and hardware components. The project utilizes a hardware abstraction layer to decouple device logic from specific microcontroller hardware and wire libraries. This transport-layer abstraction allows the same device drivers to remain portable across different hardware architectures. The library covers a broad range of hardware integration, includin

Johnny-Five is a JavaScript robotics framework and microcontroller hardware interface designed for programming robots and IoT devices. It provides a standardized library for managing pins, motors, and displays across various microcontroller platforms, allowing developers to control sensors and actuators using a consistent JavaScript API. The framework is distinguished by its use of a plugin-based hardware abstraction system, which enables communication with diverse hardware platforms and protocols. It supports real-time hardware manipulation and debugging through a read-eval-print loop that a

This project provides an open-source firmware platform and complete build environment for portable multi-tool hardware. It functions as an embedded operating system designed to manage radio, infrared, and physical interface components, enabling users to develop custom applications and system logic for specialized hardware devices. The firmware distinguishes itself through a modular architecture that organizes system functionality into isolated units, allowing for the development of custom user interfaces and logic. It includes a comprehensive collection of low-level drivers and applications s

Embassy is an asynchronous framework for microcontrollers that provides a runtime for cooperative multitasking. It enables the execution of multiple concurrent tasks to maximize energy efficiency and CPU usage, utilizing an async executor that puts the processor to sleep when idle. The framework includes a comprehensive set of embedded components, featuring a hardware abstraction layer for peripherals like GPIO, SPI, I2C, and UART, alongside a TCP/IP network stack and a USB device stack. It also provides a Bluetooth Low Energy host stack for wireless communication and a bootloader framework t

pcileech is a toolkit for executing DMA attacks, analyzing PCIe bus traffic, performing kernel patching, and conducting remote volatile memory forensics. It functions as a hardware memory acquisition tool and a PCIe DMA attack framework designed to read and write remote system memory via direct hardware interfaces. The project provides capabilities for capturing and displaying raw transaction layer packets from the PCIe bus and mounting live RAM as local drives for analysis. It enables the modification of system memory signatures and the execution of shellcode or implants within the kernel wi

NuttX is a POSIX-compliant real-time operating system designed for microcontrollers ranging from 8-bit to 64-bit architectures. It provides a deterministic execution environment with a real-time task scheduler and a POSIX embedded kernel to ensure portable code execution across diverse hardware targets. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive hardware abstraction layer that provides standardized drivers for I2C, SPI, CAN, and USB across various semiconductor chipsets. It also features an embedded networking stack supporting TCP, UDP, IPv4, and IPv6, alongside industrial proto

This project is a GSM IMSI catcher and cellular network traffic analyzer designed to intercept radio signals and extract mobile subscriber identities and network location information. It functions as a mobile subscriber identifier decoder, parsing radio packets to retrieve identity numbers and mapping them to specific countries and operators. The system provides capabilities for targeted tracking by monitoring network traffic for specific subscriber identities to detect when a device enters a coverage area. It includes a GSM frequency scanner to detect active base stations and cellular bands

srsRAN_4G is a software-defined radio suite for the 4G LTE ecosystem. It provides a full-stack software implementation of the LTE protocol, including a software-defined base station, a lightweight cellular core network, and a mobile user equipment simulator. The project enables the deployment of complete cellular networks using software-defined radio hardware. This includes the implementation of an evolved packet core for subscriber authentication and data session routing, as well as software-defined base stations to manage wireless connections. The system covers baseband signal processing,

GNU Radio is an open-source software-defined radio framework that provides a digital signal processing toolkit for building wireless communication systems. At its core, it uses a block-based flow graph architecture where pre-built signal processing blocks are connected into directed graphs to define and execute custom radio signal processing pipelines. The system operates as a flow graph signal processor that enables low-latency streaming radio signal processing, supporting both real-time operation and wireless communication simulation entirely in software. The framework distinguishes itself

Gqrx is a software defined radio application used to capture and demodulate radio signals across various frequencies to produce audio and visual data. It translates raw radio waves into audible sound using standard modes including AM, FM, SSB, and CW. The project provides tools for radio signal analysis through real-time frequency plots and waterfall displays. It enables the capture of raw baseband data and received audio for offline playback and technical analysis. The software includes capabilities for tuning radio frequencies, filtering signal noise via band-pass filters and gain control,

srsRAN is a software-defined radio suite for implementing 4G LTE networks. It provides comprehensive software implementations of the core network, base stations, and mobile user equipment. The project includes a lightweight evolved packet core with components for subscriber management and data routing, alongside a full-stack software-defined radio implementation of an eNodeB and mobile device simulation. The system covers radio access network management, core network infrastructure, and user equipment simulation. These capabilities enable the deployment of private cellular networks and the t