Samy Kamkar's Crash Course in How to Be a Hardware Hacker

Samy Kamkar is well known for many things, but lately it has been his hardware security hacks that have been turning heads. The nice thing to know is that, despite not having a background in hardware, Samy is able to run with the best of hardware researchers. At the Hackaday SuperConference he offered words of advice for anyone trying to walk the path of discovery with an exciting new piece of electronics. One might say it's a crash-course in how to be a hardware hacker.
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Learn more about the Hackaday SuperConference

[@graudins]

I truly hope this man reaches his full potential.

[@DrTune]

but most of all, samy is my hero.

[@DrTune]

^^WTF?!?!

[@BetaSeven]

That's a cool comment. but most of all, samy is my hero.

[@ericmin6055]

That's a cool comment. but most of all, samy is my hero.

[@averagegeek3957]

That's a cool comment. but most of all, samy is my hero.

[@skyler7017]

hat's a cool comment. but most of all, samy is my hero.

[@poderr]

Awesome and interesting content. Love Samy's delivery and how he makes it seem so easy that any of us can do it. Great stuff HaD/SF team and con organizers.

[@purifierphoenixthemecca]

I been waiting for another samy kamkar video all month :D

[@AssWhole-u6d]

He was just on Darknet Diaries!

[@Uneke]

This guy is so brilliant! It makes me sad that he hasn’t been posting for almost a decade now!

[@bergweg]

For continuity probing in circuits it's better to use low voltage, low current signal so that you don't open semiconductor junctions. Many multi-meters output over two volts in continuity/resistor mode.

[@fujinafiul6044]

what a incredible person he is..! though I am a software person I understand the raw idea how he was doing stuff and how vulnerable our day to day hardware products are...!! it is 2023 and hope he has already done some pretty big things ..!!

[@UNUNUN11]

Samy is genius

[@RafaelKarosuo]

Thank you so much, this thing got me a perfect summary on what to do, which tools to pick first, confirmed theories, learned a good structure, this is such a bunch of good info in a nutshell

[@RandomPsychic]

came for the talk stayed for the music

[@LogicBob]

I love Samy.

[@sweden9615]

but most of all, Samy is my hero.

[@Mishaman85]

When i grow up I want to be like Samy Kamkar

[@AndIChoseToSpeakFAX]

Start

[@322-k1s]

"revealed in a NASA document" xd

[@ahmedzouaoui8177]

NSA document, big difference!

[@AnhTrieu90]

They're both spy agencies. One spy on the universe, the other spy on you.

[@anglojojo]

@@AnhTrieu90 haha

[@YouNoobTV]

This is incredibly inspirational yet Im sat here thinking ... "That's all great n stuff Samy but uhm, I havent gotta clue about half of the stuff you just spoke about :)" .... what's simple to him ain't so simple to others. Passion develops from study and understanding. He's very passionate. Great video Samy. I doubt I'll be hacking anything hardware related any time in the near future :(

[@tequilaog420]

Understanding what he says just takes a bit of research and effort. He's not gonna do all the work for you cause that'd ruin the fun.

[@abdullahnadeem1823]

Anyone can do it, all it takes is a bit of effort. Even I don’t have a clue on some of the things he spoke about but that’s fine because I can learn :)

[@mcgoombs]

It’s the other way around. Study and understanding comes from passion, and passion comes from curiosity. Samy embodies curiosity, it’s the phenomenon that allows children to rapidly develop. Our education system (in the US) destroys this and replaces it with “right and wrong.” Were given answers and told to memorize, rather than being given the tools to investigate and follow our natural curiosities.

[@abdullahnadeem1823]

@@mcgoombs Thats true, and sadly, its not just the US, its widespread

[@obitorasu1760]

The absolute madlad who crashed MySpace

[@damnft8218]

Observing people behaviour is so fascinating…the crowd were oblivious to majority of audio information, but soon as they see a funny picture of Nicholas Cage they explode with emotion…

[@tatterdemalion898]

This man makes MacGyver look lame!

[@leegranite2920]

This presentation wasn’t just cool but really funny with South Park and N. Cage defenses. Cracked me up.

[@SleepyMagii]

"Anti-anti forensics, but no uncle-forensics" 😂 Thats exactly my type of humor, i love it

[@skyler7017]

Samy is my hero

[@peepopalaber]

but most of all, samy is my hero

[@BairdBanko]

Does anyone know what the intro and outtro music is?

[@KenanOZDEMIRThe]

Nice job Samy fasinating !!!

[@ankualex]

I love the ending music

[@edbegley5858]

lol people have no idea what they're witnessing lol. they should be applauding for god sake.

[@ZeroPlayer119]

@Zero Cool yes it was

[@HackingVision]

Thanks for the video.

[@funkymonk2254]

Awesome.

[@raphaelrehman]

I started with hardware now I want to go into software scripting

[@SN-hx4mg]

Where can buy those tools to open cars ?

[@thejasonstyle]

That was a good one „You need OS10“ 😭😂

[@CaveatSpectator]

Whats this a repeat of? Didnt he do this lesson at defcon or something?

[@fukkitful]

Yeah, Defcon 24

[@omaraceves3072]

The old electronic stuff works for dong that chips? Like the ones from videocipher ll ? Or old etéreos,etc?

[@doekewartena5729]

A friend of mine bought around 1500 euros worth of equipment at a camera store. They putted it in the car and tried to lock the car. It took them like 3 attempts before the car actually locked by the remote. They went to a supermarket and where back within 10 minutes and all the equipment was stolen from the car. I really think the signal got hacked.

[@marcoslopez2132]

this boy dangerous haha inspiring

[@linuxuser2858]

how he extract firmware from device

[@jaychandra3300]

Probably using some sort of serial data readers, most of the times, Arduino should work fine

[@craftxbox]

technically, cant you permanently lock the fob out of the car by jamming only one code?

[@joyceperyea-maiorano2114]

craftxbox see

[@sambeard4428]

It doesn't jam a code, it jams at a certain frequency. The code changes each time the button is pressed however the frequency stays the same. So yes you could jam the signal from the fob indefinitely using his tool, however that would be a different attack, more DOS style.

[@craftxbox]

@@sambeard4428 I meant jamming one code cycle, so that the fob is out of sync with the car. How does it protect against that?

[@sambeard4428]

@@craftxbox ah yeah good point, i was also wondering at this, seems strange design also, what if you point it in the wrong direction or you are out of range, it will come to a lockstate. I think rather it works in such a way that the car on receiving the code increments it's sequence number internally and sends an ack to the fob again (however this can still cause for a lock, since the fob might become out of range between sending and receiving)

[@sambeard4428]

Than you could jam the ack signal being sent back to the fob and effectively block the car, DOS style

[@tRuStThEsCiEnCeBiGoT]

"This is all so easy to do" You keep using that word- I do not think it means what you think it means.

[@RobWence]

Its easy to do if you learn the fundamentals of how hardware works and have a good critical thinking thought process. The everyday guy not knowing about hardware would not think any of this is easy.

[@anglojojo]

@@RobWence You forgot the programming languages

[@LittleRainGames]

@@anglojojo once you learn one its easy to switch

[@fukkitful]

From his perspective, I'm sure it is, and probably to most of the audience. The people watching this video might could build this if it comes in a kit with mainly picture for instructions.

[@babakgholian3467]

How do you decrypt docm inccryption ?

[@AndIChoseToSpeakFAX]

How do you injecc ranssomware?

[@sambeard4428]

I imagine him to be the inspiration for the Mr robot series lead role

[@myname-mz3lo]

nope . there are alot of hackers that are way closer to mr robot

[@littlecoce]

Name of the song in the end?

[@AndIChoseToSpeakFAX]

Idk aaaaaa

[@Bergerons_Review]

You don't get sued for reading the patent claims.

[@volkerking5932]

Nobody have this old Garage Clicker! If you break a RF-Key from a car this is maybe in the US so but here in Europe the RF-Key talk back and crypt the RF communication. Also you must make a Copy of the RFID inside the original Car-Key because if this RFID Chip is not build in the Car-Key the Engine Controller don't wont start. With this 25year old stuff you can do nothing in Europe. e.g. Mercedes Benz have a car key communication on the 24GHz Band you don't have a Equipment to receive any of the Data also this data is crypted by a 4096bit key and have a handshake system that the car key answered on different question from the car - you never open it with this simple tricks!

[@FEARNL83]

@༺M༻ Wooah more importantly, this man hacked the youtuubz. He is using different fonts

[@coolwinder]

I love you Samy, no homo.

[@justone4272]

Its all about, Learn, LEARN, LEARN! *Learn.*

[@Donatellangelo]

I started in hardware! :) I wanna do an IoT mod of my room. Just the blinds and some lights for now, maybe more later. The worst a hacker can practically do is wake me up at night before I jam the wifi.

[@Hesbonful]

Is this legal ?

[@matthewtorres2192]

More than legal- it’s a career!

[@thoughtyness]

Does Sammy have a KZbin Channel?

[@rajatbansal512]

Thoughtyness yup

[@NeverFoundSanity]

link?

[@RobWence]

I know this comment is 8 mths ago but since no one answered it ... here you go kzbin.info/door/4m2G6T18_JcjwxwtwKJijw

[@armatonix]

Rob Wence it doesn't work any more :( Can you put working one?

[@RobWence]

Not sure why you can't see it... link works just fine for me... you can also search for his name (youtube channel has his picture and called Applied Hacking with Samy Kamkar) Perhaps it may be blocked in your region?

[@MrMamanDon]

Dont use windows for anything.

[@SleepyMagii]

Yesturday, windows just got hacked in the billions of maschines world wide 😅 Just seen this comment, thought that was funy af

[@multimateco]

Nasa document

[@kevinagee4364]

a hacker who is actually very bright

[@eniggma9353]

I didn't hear anything about the attire or sunglasses or what kind of hats to wear. I really want to hacker but i just dont know. I already have a thinkpad. So we cool. Anything welcome 🎉

[@toast2047]

I just wanted infinite gems in clash of clans

[@markb4168]

Hahaha...when he said you need os10, I feel like I'm the only one that got it, zero reaction from the crowd...kinda disappointing, was a great joke!

[@confusedwolf7157]

aww musicke finished....

[@AndIChoseToSpeakFAX]

sad

[@unh0lys0da16]

Lame crowd

[@kevinspacey6090]

This is not a party

[@MrRobinhq]

It's because they're nervous, now knowing that they can unlock each other's cars and garages

[@AndIChoseToSpeakFAX]

@@MrRobinhq sure

[@XenoTravis]

I always wanted to learn how to find the right way to connect to the debug connection. Some change what pins do what or make it not just 'put these 4 cables here and use putty' ... Anyone wana teach me via Skype lol

[@svetlanalinuxenko4234]

He is like a salesman popularizing trading platforms . It is sux ..

[@secretary1653]

I want to hack into my Surface motherboard to remove the password that has lock me out.

[@7MB4]

14 people got hacked lol

[@DavidTheTech]

hi

[@megapro1725]

Where is answer of question in title?? Absolutely useless video. He just lists some hardware tools.

[@DylanCaponi]

6:08 LOL

[@TheMemeSniper]

samyk

[@laro747]

WTF Y show this info public. Nothings sacred.

[@altcheeseburger5768]

Lol

[@AndreeaCe]

They sell ladies via Amazon also...lmao

[@kennethcarvalho3684]

What an evil man...shame on him lol

[@usmantarar1865]

Such a DEAD audience !!

[@TalsonHacks]

Usman Tarar it feels like their audience are always like this. So frustrating

[@111chicane]

So this guy believe he came up with those techniques of "hacking" stuff? 'cause I've heard of all those being used in Europe over 10 years ago, when there were no sniffers, software and anything for that. And now making all this public will only worsen the problems with weak security devices like car keys, garage doors, credit cards, Wi-Fi routers, etc.... After watching a bunch of his and others' presentation, I didn't hear even once how to upgrade any of those devices and make it better, if not unbreakable for hackers? How do I protect my car with keyless entry and "smart key" of being stolen with a repeater? And I don't want to carry my car key in a metal container for sure or lose the convenience of not taking out my keys every time I approach or leave the car.

[@robertorios1154]

😱

[@user-yu7rt7hu2m]

But most of all, samy is my hero.