As I posted the other day, I recently received my FlipperZero. I learned that it would read my 26bit LF RFID cards, but not my 34bit LF RFID cards. I fed my info back to the developer(s) via github, we’ll see if improvements happen over time.
But during the process, I ended up using my Proxmark3 RDV4 to help troubleshoot, and ended up getting the latest, most maintained and seemingly most capable firmware.
What some people don’t realize about the PM3, like a lot of SDR type devices, is that the software consists of two parts — firmware for the unit itself, and client software that runs locally, connecting over the USB serial, to issue the commands to and receive replies from the firmware. This means that it’s critical, when you swap firmwares, to swap clients as well. Managing multiple firmware versions can be confusing for this reason.
In the process of troubleshooting, I realized was using the iceman firmware from a few years ago, and the official “stock” firmware, also from a few years ago, None of this firmware was able to give the developer dumps in the format requested. Turns out there’s a far more current build out there at https://github.com/RfidResearchGroup/proxmark3.git, and even flashing the bootrom has gotten easier. Just hold the button down while you’re plugging it in, and continue to hold it while entering the command to flash the bootrom. Seems that tactic also works if you’re having trouble flashing the firmware itself. Painless firmware flashes. I did this from a Macbook M1 Air, and it took a bit of fiddling to get all the requirements down, but once I did, it works like a breeze, and the pm3 client and pm3-flasher client are both in my path now.
Still bummed that I haven’t been able to read my cat’s RFID tag yet, but I’ll keep banging on it, and maybe eventually I’ll figure it out. No idea if the Flipper will be able to read that.
Next temptation: Maybe a dual RFID ring. They make nice looking rings that carry both LF RFID and a MiFare 1K “magic” tag. I wonder if many hotels are still using MiFare 1K. It’d be fun to clone my hotel room key to a ring.
I’ll probably have them both with me at the meeting tomorrow evening if anyone wants to experiment.