Lavalamp

So! You could be forgiven for thinking that the Lavalamp project is dead!

The website (along with two others I own) was unfortunately lost during the great VAServ hack, and up until recently, I have been simply too busy with University to redesign it. However, the time has come that I have some free time - so hey presto! A new site. As the more astute may be able to tell, web design is really Not My Thing, so please do feel free to point out any glaring errors or horrible face-burning design issues I've stumbled upon!

The project itself is coming on well. As outlined in my previous postings, there's a lot I want to do with Lavalamp, but precious few moments in which to do it. I am, however, planning (at the moment) to have some working code released within a couple of months (of October). However, since I've been promising a release since, ooh, about two years ago, you probably don't want to hold your breath!

I've stuck some screenshots in the 'user documentation' section that should show how things are running. The 'rule' mechanism is shaping up fairly well, and looks like it'll be quite powerful if I ever manage to finish it. Lets hope, eh!

Since last time, on channel gamesfairy:

* Talked to a couple of friends - one of whom works for BT - about telecoms. Really reminiscent about all the stufff I used to do with telecom (well sort of).

* Saw the slashdot article about the dude that ran his own telco carrier. Interested.

* Remembered the recent iphone stuff, apparently obtianed by fuzzing the iphone through some 'custom' stuff. IDK how he did it - I'd probably have emulated it, if it wasn't too much trouble? IDK.

* I'd really like to play with this. Run a femtocell, hooked up to one of my phones (and with too little power to get out of my house) and send the phone bizarre shit until it explodes. I should add that to the to-do list.

* I wonder how hackable the commercially available femtocells are. Obviously, the best idea would be to use something like the USRP2 and GNU radio (software radio that does 'DC to 5ghz'), which would all fit together nciely and be awesome, but the USRP2 is far too much for me ($1400US + transciever boards). I really don't want to start fuzzing the telco system live, in case I break it.. maybe I'll have An Idea about this stuff later on. Perhaps I could remove the phone's PHY and hook it to an FPGA and then to the PC.

* Might be easier to just emulate the phone - particularly with stuff like the iPhone where a lot of the hardware is well-observed. If I can emulate it (or probe it live, ICE style) I should be able to hook it to the l33t security scanner I'm (still) writing.

* Need to rewrite a chunk of the scanner. I (rather short-sightedly) modelled memory as a set of 32bit integers, under belief that I could just mask in 16- and 8-bit memory accesses. I kinda could, but I get in to big trouble when I look at 32bit operations which span two 32bit values in memory - (eg: I'll have two memory locations, 0x00-0x03 and 0x04-0x07, and the target will request 0x01-0x04). Going to rewrite the memory access layer as dealin gin 8bit values, and tweak it a bit so it becomes easier to write tests for the instructions, too.

* Really on a telecom bender at the mo. I bet there's cash in hax0ring telco kit, too.. IDK how I'd go about selling stuff I found (to the telco, obv, my hat isn't black enough to sell natino-cripping bugs to The Terrorists). I guess if nothing else it'd earn me skills and rep in the Industry, both of which I seem to be lacking.

* Still pondering post-grad career options, if my current job plan doesn't work out. I think postgrad education might be a good bet. I'd like to go 'freelance pentesting' but realistically, I've got no chance in the market (not enough people skills, tech skills, etc). Maybe in a few years.

* Been working on lavalamp. Looks like my plan to scale it back and get a functinal release out should go ahead.

So, I found a copy of the lavalamp code yesterday. Previously I thought I'd lost almost all of the code in the Great VAServ Meltdown, but evidently not. I've lost all the repo info, but I've got the most current working copy, so that's enough for me.

All I have to do now is find enough time to work on it! It's really competing for time with other projects - ie, the securityscanner - and various real-world stuff I've got on at the moment (ie, moving house). Having said that, I'd really like to get something running with it, even if I only make it work enough for my own use and rely on the open-source patching process.

The real bottleneck in the development, at last count, was the 'native' home-grown RF link. It soaks up a lot of dev time and frequently leaves me confused. Most of my problems could probably be circumvented if I were to switch to an RF chip that does much more work for me - but I'm really keen on the 'all parts available from (highstreet shop) Maplin' idea, and all they have available is the dumb RF modules.
One way forward is to move to Zigbee - since transcievers are now cheap enough - although using that requires a fairly beefy PIC chip. The dev time required to move to Zigbee is also not inconsiderable.

I think the best way forward is to do is the following (when I get time):

1) Implement modularised 'network' layers, allowing nodes to run over different, uh, network transports.

2) Implement a straightforward and dead-simple daisy-chained RS232-over-cat5 network, allowing nodes to be hooked up via cabling. This'll let me get "something working", and get some real-world use out of the thing. Being cabled, this network wouldn't even need any encryption.

3) Finish enough of the lavalamp PC-side software for it to be useful (ie, enough that it is solid, can be scripted, and can be used interactively in a GUI).

4) Do a release under an open-source license, inviting people to use the code, give feedback, and contribute.

5) Start work on all the 'extra' features:

* Zigbee interfacing, as a different network layer (allowing people to use Zigbee if they want the extra power requirements/space requirements/complexity)

* Linux support (probably via Mono). This would be really nice as I could run the server on a tiny ARM-based machine instead of a full PC,

* More exotic peripheral drivers (LCDs, VGA, GPS, you name it),

* More exotic transport layers (homebrew RF, perhaps, and maybe even X10)

* Buzzwordy ajaxy control app, WAP access, all that jazz)

I also need to rewrite the lavalamp.gamesfairy.co.uk website, too, at some point. If only I had more hours in the day!