Now one hacker who posts on Twitter as KF@d0tslash and on GitHub as MAVProxyUser, discovered that the bot contains a kill switch. "Good news!" d0tslash says on Twitter.
Good news! Remember that robot dog you saw with a gun!? It was made by @UnitreeRobotics. It seems all you need to dump it in the dirt is @flipper_zero. The PDB has a 433mhz backdoor cuts. No need for @gnuradio! https://t.co/xjDepcGYe2 CC/ @UnitreeRobot007 @IrvingRobotics @shunweicapital pic.twitter.com/6PJHjcsgJL
— KF (@d0tslash) August 4
“Remember that robot dog with the gun!? Built by @UnitreeRobotic. Apparently all you need to throw it down is @flipper_zero. PDB has a backdoor at 433mhz.”
In a video, d0tslash showed one of Unitree's robot dogs connected to a power supply. A Tamagotchi-style Flipper Zero multi-tool hacking device that can send and receive wireless signals in RFID, Bluetooth, NFC and other bands can kill the robot dog and knock it to the ground with one button.
d0tslash got his hands on one of the dogs and started looking through the documentation when he discovered something very interesting. Each dog has a kill switch for remote shutdown. The switch is connected to the power distribution panel, which routes power from the battery to its various systems.
The kill switch listens for a specific signal at 433mhz. If it hears the signal, it stops the robot. Some of Unitree's robot dogs even come with a wireless remote control that stops the machine.
d0tslash used Flipper Zero to simulate the shutdown by duplicating the signal the bot receives in frequency of 433 MHz.
Anyone with a Flipper Zero or similar device can stop these robot dogs, For more details read on Github.
