Turning the Raspberry Pi Zero into a Hacking Gadget

By Sebastian on Apr 16, 2026. Originally published on DEV.to.
Turning the Raspberry Pi Zero into a Hacking Gadget

Single Board Computers with the ability to run a full-fledged Linux distribution can be used as portable devices for a wide variety of use cases. To my surprise, one of them is computer hacking. I was astonished about the creativity and ease-of-use how a Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi Zero or Pico can be used for potentially nefarious activities. And after a long deliberation, I decided to start writing blog posts about this subject.

The article completely covers the installation, setup, and configuration to convert a Raspberry Pi Zero into a portable hacking device. Once powered, the device will start a custom WiFi endpoint and can be connected to via SSH or HTTP. It offers a CLI and a full-fledged GUI to configure the device behavior when connected to USB. And it can run shell or a custom JavaScript compatible language to initiate keyboard stokes, move the mouse, and access files of the device it is connected too. You will also learn how to combine triggers, startup templates, and HID script for an entry level exploit: When connected via USB to a host system, a text editor will be opened and a message written into it.

This article is for educational purposes only. Only use computers and devices that you own, and be mindful that they can be damaged.

The initial idea for this topic was sparked by an excellent article in the German computer magazine CT 2023/27 titled "Bad USB: Raspi Zero". The articles itself cannot be accessed, but only its link collection is available on the public internet.

This article originally appeared at my blog admantium.com.

Writing about Hacking?

For a long time, I have been thinking about the aspect of writing about hacking. My specific concern is about how knowledge in this area, the concrete concepts and processes, can be used for nefarious activities. On the other hand, knowledge gathered by first-hand experience, and transparent communication about it, can raise the awareness about essential dangers. Ultimately, this is tied to the question of knowledge itself: For which purpose do you use it?

Physical hacking is the process of connecting an external device to a target computer and starting an exploit. The goals of hacking are manifold, starting from recording interactions that happen at the computer, reading and copying computer files or the computer memory, running user interactions like keystrokes or mouse movements, executing scripts to modify the system or install new applications. An exploit is the concrete process to achieve a goal, and it can be a combination of intended computer behavior (e.g. registering a USB device) with known or new vulnerabilities in a computer system.

I'm no security consultant, but working in IT, I'm exposed to security topics on a daily basis. Bridging the gap from theoretical knowledge to hands-on experiences while further exploring the amazing Raspberry Pi use cases provided the final nudge to start this blog series. And with this realization, I also feel the need to formulate a disclaimer: This blog content is presented as-is for educational purposes. Only use them on computer systems that you own, and be aware that you can damage the systems.

Finally, bear in mind that explored concepts in this article are written from a beginner’s mind.

Hardware Requirements and Assembly

The required hardware for this article is as follows:

The USB dongle needs to be assembled to turn the Zero into a USB hacking device. The particular dongle that I acquired did not include a construction manual, but its components seemed manageable.

However, trying to assemble it manually surfaced an embarrassing knowledge gap. Specifically, I thought that the connection pins of the USB dongle need to be connected to the Zeros GPI pins. But no, right next to the Zeros USB ports, external circuit "touchpoints" are exposed - the dongle pins merely need to touch them too.

To assemble the USB dongle correctly, follow these steps:

The resulting device should look like this:

Software Installation & First Boot

To turn the RPI Zero into a hacking device, the Linux Distribution P4wnP1 ALOA - called PPA from here - will be used. This is a custom Linux distribution, build on top of Kali Linux and specifically modified to run on the RPI Zero. As any other OS, the installation encompasses downloading the image, flashing it onto a SD Card, and booting the device.

The specific steps in detail:

After this, put the SD Card into the device, and power it via the USB mini port.

Shortly after booting, PPA creates a custom WiFi with an awkward, UTF8 icon encoded named: "💥 🖥️ 💥". Connect to it with the password MaMe82-P4wnP1, and once the connection is established, you start exploring the many configuration options.

Tool Overview

PPA is a special Linux distribution with flexible and run-time configurable hardware features of the Raspberry Pi Zero. It provides access to this configuration both via the Web GUI and a CLI. After reading the projects extensive documentation and using the tool for some time, the Web GUI provides more features and will be used exclusively in the remainder of this article.

With an active connection to the hotspot, open http://172.24.0.1:8000 in a browser to access the configuration screen:

Each section in this GUI is a configurable building block of the complete functionality. By learning one section at a time, the overall number of available features becomes clearer.

Hardware Settings

Most sections in the tool menu directly modify the hardware features.

Behavior Programming

To create and manage scripts that are executed when the USB stick is connected to a host, you can use the following:

Log and Settings

Two more sections complete the configurability of the PPA device.

Writing and activating an HID Exploit

The feature of PPA is extensive, and for a beginner exploring the device features, it might seem daunting to find a good start point. Following the project documentation closely, let’s start with a script that opens a text editor on the host and writes a message. The target OS is Linux Ubuntu.

In the GUI, open the HID Script tab. The editor features syntax highlighting and remote execution for testing purposes. Paste the following code into the editor:

layout('de');   // US keyboard layout
typingSpeed(100,150) // Wait 100ms between key strokes + an additional random value between 0ms and 150ms (natural)

//waitLED(ANY_OR_NONE);  // Wait till NUM LED of target changes frequently multiple times (doesn't work on OSX)

delay(5000);
press("CTRL ALT t");
delay(1000);
type("gedit\n")
delay(1000);
type("Hello from Raspberry Pi Zero");
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

As you see, the commands relate directly to executing keystrokes on the target machines, enriched by meta-arguments to influence the typing process. The function layout sets the target keyboard, and the delay function defines a random time range for each keystroke, making interactions more natural. With waitForLed, a specific trigger can be added, deferring the script execution until keyboard interaction is detected. This prevents executing the script when e.g. the screen is still locked by the user.

Now, to run this script, two options exist. If you connected the Raspberry Zero directly to a host system, you could click on "Run". The other option is to actually program this script to be executed when the Raspberry Zero is connected to a computer. For this:

The final step is to store and activate this trigger definition:

That’s it. Now you can connect the stick to a Linux host computer and see the script happening.

Where to Continue

Exploring the depth of HID script to write advanced exploits is not the focus of this article. However, I explored some ideas and give my summary here:

Conclusion

Small form-size single board computer can be used as hacking gadgets. This article showed how to turn a Raspberry Pi Zero into a bad USB device, a specific form of physical hacking in which an inserted USB stick executes command on the host. You only need a Raspberry Pi Zero, an USB dongle to expose the Zeros USB ports, and the PPA Linux Image. Once the initial setup is completed, the Zero turns into a WiFi and SSH accessible device with complex configuration options for all hardware features. To write a bad USB exploit, the HID language, based on JavaScript, can be used to instruct a sequence of keystrokes. This article showed only a simple exploit: Opening the systems text editor to write a message. Yet the potential for serious exploits becomes visible: By executing shell scripts on the targets, access to the system can be achieved, stealing credentials or installing malware and backdoors.