urh README

The project's README from github.com/jopohl/urh. As one markdown file: README.md.

URH image

CI Code style: black PyPI version Packaging status Blackhat Arsenal 2017 Blackhat Arsenal 2018

The Universal Radio Hacker (URH) is a complete suite for wireless protocol investigation with native support for many common Software Defined Radios. URH allows easy demodulation of signals combined with an automatic detection of modulation parameters making it a breeze to identify the bits and bytes that fly over the air. As data often gets encoded before transmission, URH offers customizable decodings to crack even sophisticated encodings like CC1101 data whitening. When it comes to protocol reverse-engineering, URH is helpful in two ways. You can either manually assign protocol fields and message types or let URH automatically infer protocol fields with a rule-based intelligence. Finally, URH entails a fuzzing component aimed at stateless protocols and a simulation environment for stateful attacks.

Getting started

In order to get started

If you like URH, please :star: this repository and join our Slack channel. We appreciate your support!

Citing URH

We encourage researchers working with URH to cite this WOOT'18 paper or directly use the following BibTeX entry.

URH BibTeX entry for your research paper 
@inproceedings {220562,
author = {Johannes Pohl and Andreas Noack},
title = {Universal Radio Hacker: A Suite for Analyzing and Attacking Stateful Wireless Protocols},
booktitle = {12th {USENIX} Workshop on Offensive Technologies ({WOOT} 18)},
year = {2018},
address = {Baltimore, MD},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot18/presentation/pohl},
publisher = {{USENIX} Association},
}

Installation

URH runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. See below for OS specific installation instructions.

Windows

On Windows, URH can be installed with its Installer. No further dependencies are required.

If you get an error about missing api-ms-win-crt-runtime-l1-1-0.dll, run Windows Update or directly install KB2999226.

Linux

Installation with pipx

URH is available on PyPi so you can install it, for example, with pipx: 

pipx install urh

This is the recommended way to install URH on Linux because it comes with all native extensions precompiled.

In order to access your SDR as non-root user, install the according udev rules. You can find them in the wiki.

Install via Package Manager

URH is included in the repositories of many linux distributions such as Arch Linux, Gentoo, Fedora, openSUSE or NixOS. There is also a package for FreeBSD. If available, simply use your package manager to install URH.

Note: For native support, you must install the according -dev package(s) of your SDR(s) such as hackrf-dev before installing URH.

Docker Images

The official URH docker image is available here. It has all native backends included and ready to operate.

macOS

Using DMG

It is recommended to use at least macOS 13 when using the DMG available here.

With brew

URH is available as a homebrew formula so you can install it with

brew install urh

Running from source (OS-agnostic)

Without installation

To execute the Universal Radio Hacker without installation, just run:

git clone https://github.com/jopohl/urh/
cd urh/src/urh
PYTHONPATH=.. ./main.py

Note, before first usage the C++ extensions will be built.

Installing from source

To install URH from source you need to have python-setuptools installed. You can get them with python3 -m pip install setuptools. Once the setuptools are installed execute: 

git clone https://github.com/jopohl/urh/
cd urh
python setup.py install

And start the application by typing urh in a terminal.

Articles

Hacking stuff with URH

General presentations and tutorials on URH

External decodings

See wiki for a list of external decodings provided by our community! Thanks for that!

Screenshots

Get the data out of raw signals

Interpretation phase

Keep an overview even on complex protocols

Analysis phase

Record and send signals

Record

urh (jopohl/urh)

Searching Database…

12.6K ·GitHub
Urh
archived
What is this?URH (Universal Radio Hacker) is a suite for investigating wireless protocols: it captures radio signals via SDR hardware, demodulates them with automatic modulation detection, and helps you reverse-engineer the bits and bytes flying over the air.
Is this a GUI application or a library I import into code?It is a standalone desktop GUI application built on Qt, meant to be installed and run as a program, not imported as a library.
How do I install URH on my OS?On Windows use the official installer; on Linux the recommended way is pipx (it ships precompiled native extensions), or your distro's package manager, or the official Docker image; on macOS use the DMG or install via Homebrew. You can also run it directly from source without installing.
Do I need actual SDR hardware to use it?Yes, URH is meant to drive real Software Defined Radios like HackRF, RTL-SDR, USRP, LimeSDR, AirSpy, bladeRF or SDRplay. On Linux you also need the udev rules for non-root USB access and the native driver package for your specific SDR before installing URH.
Is this project still actively maintained?No, the repository is archived, meaning it no longer receives updates, bug fixes or compatibility patches for new OS releases or SDR drivers.
What makes URH different from just viewing raw signals in a generic SDR tool?URH goes beyond signal display by auto-detecting modulation parameters, decoding sophisticated encodings like CC1101 data whitening, and letting you manually or automatically infer protocol fields and message types from captured traffic.
Can I fuzz or replay the protocols I capture?Yes, URH includes a fuzzing component for stateless protocols and a simulation environment for building stateful attacks, so you can record a signal, modify it, and resend it.
Are there real example hacks done with URH?The README links write-ups such as reverse-engineering wireless blinds, weather station RF signals, remote-controlled power sockets, and attacks on wireless keyboards and presenters.
Can the community add support for new encodings?Yes, URH supports custom decodings and the project wiki hosts a list of external decodings contributed by the community.
What are similar projects?unleashed-firmware, esp-sdr, WireTapper, sdrmm, BLEhound, w1700k-sdr, vhs-decode, V3SP3R
Which topics is it in?sdr, wireless, radio, fuzzing, qt, protocol, iot, hacking, hardware, reverse-engineering, cybersecurity, gplv3
Creator
jopohl
Size
54 MB
Stars
12.6K
Updated
CommitDec 19Releasev2.10.0Dec 17
Age
10y
Commits · 90 Days