Handheld Backtrack

[danmiddle2]

Following the discussion in the last thread about installing Backtrack on a pocket PC, I have done quite a lot of work.

Initially I looked into buying a UMPC laptop to run Backtrack on, but these are quite a lot bigger than a PDA and extremely cost prohibitive (cira £800+).

So I did some more digging, and about a week ago I purchased an old HP jornada 720 for £50 off ebay.

There is a fairly mature full release of Debian for this particular PDA (called 720degrees) and Debian does actually support the ARM processor architecture.

I have found it extremely easy to transfer a lot of Backtracks content & tools onto this PDA and get it working. I was thinking about maybe packaging what I have done and badging it all as "Linux: Backhand". Whose permission do I need to get to do this... and would it be possible to host it here when its all done?

Many thanks

Dan

[Securityguy]

Hey man that would be super cool... did you ever get a reply???

[danmiddle2]

Hey man that would be super cool... did you ever get a reply???

Nope... no reply as yet... I can sort of see that it wouldn't be everyones cup of tea.

But I am 75% done now... I have a wireless card working, a wired ethernet card working and a bluetooth card... A lot of backtracks tools just work because they are scripts (bash, python, perl) and because Debian is supported on the ARM processor.. most of the tools to run the scripts just work aswell.

There are a lot of applications that need re-compiling for the ARM processor... but thats not the end of the world (a lot have already been done as part of the Familiar project).

Its just a question of putting it all together and giving it an appropriate badge... with the permission of all the people that have done the *real* work, ofcourse!

Dan

[Re@lity]

Very interesting.......can you supply some more details?

What have you attempted to cross-compile so far?
What are you running on the Jornado - are you making itsy packages?

Look forward to more details.

BTW, this is an open source project, using existing open source tools.
I for one would be glad to see a nicely done porting to ARM PDA's

[danmiddle2]

Very interesting.......can you supply some more details?

What have you attempted to cross-compile so far?What are you running on the Jornado - are you making itsy packages?

Look forward to more details.

BTW, this is an open source project, using existing open source tools.
I for one would be glad to see a nicely done porting to ARM PDA's

So far I have a Debian system installed on a compact flash card as the root filesystem (this is because the 720 has either 16mb or 32mb of ROM, which is not enough).... a version of iceWM that is running at 640x240 resolution, with the touch screen now working (albeit with no way to right click at the moment). I have also got fluxbox on it, but it doesn't seem as useable at the limited resolution.

That bit is all curtosy of the 720degrees project (http://stevenwiki.homedns.org/720/). Its not as finished as some other handheld distributions (and there are a few others)... but the important part is that its not a 'mobile' distribution. Familiar is to Linux like WinCE is to Windows, whereas 720degrees is full fat Debian.

I have kind of hit a wall at the moment as I have run out of space. I only had a 1GB type I compact flash card lying around to get it working and its completely full. I have ordered a 4GB card which should turn up tomorrow and I am sure will be big enough for what I am looking to do with it.

At the moment I have got an odd collection of tools working:
Wireshark, BTscanner, Kismet, nMAP, ettercap, Airsnort, Aircrack (mainly a small selection of tools for wired, wireless and bluetooth to ensure that its all working adequately).

I did copy across the whole /pentest directory from Backtrack and was going to work my way through the tools, now on hold until I get more space. Naturally any tools that are perl/python/bash should just work. I tried a few (such as dnsenum) and had to install a few modules... but they all seemed to work.

I haven't started creating any packages as yet. I have been compiling directly on the device and was sort of waiting to see if there is enough interest in it before I spend any time doing things like that.

I may not create packages as such, but create a "live PDA Version" of backtrack. i.e. if I create a working verison of everything I need +drivers for loads of other cards etc... tar it all up, and make it available for download. Then all someone would need to do is untar it onto their own CF card... put it in their own 720 jornada... and away they go. I'd be very interested in views on that.

For anyone unfamiliar with this type of use.. CF is actual a very quick memory for the "HDD"... and its a bit like having a dual boot system as you are not touching the normal bootloader or flashrom. Once you are done with linux, you can reset the device straight back into WinCE (albeit in a factory-reset state). Linux on the other hand will remember all your settings and files next time you boot it up (even if its on a different physical PDA).

I know that Backtrack and 720Degrees are both opensource projects... and that technically I can just use them, but given that all I am doing is bolting the two together, I just thought it would be polite to ask! Also, I would like to incorporate the Backtrack logo into the Backhand logo!

Like I said in the first post, I am aware that an ultra mobile laptop would be a more powerful, and easier to get working, alternative... but the idea behind this is for a really cheap handheld backtrack device.

So far...
HP Jornada 720 = £50
4GB Type 1 CF = £17.99
PCMCIA Bluetooth = £9.99
PCMCIA 10/100 ethernet = £2.50
PCMCIA 802.11b = £7.60

All off ebay.. thats less than £100!

The reason I picked the 720 is that it has an ARM processor (debian support) and it has a nearly useable QWERTY keyboard integrated. It has a 640x240 resolution (which is nearly a normal PC resolution) and may overcome certain interface difficulties that are experienced when porting applications to other devices (such as ipaqs).

Sorry for prattling on for a while, I hope some of its useful info... please let me know if you would like any more details.

[danmiddle2]

Just a quick mock-up of a possible logo / wallpaper!? Assuming I get the appropriate permission!