Happy 10th Anniversary to the WarKitteh Collar!
We’re approaching the tenth anniversary of our Founder and CEO’s epic DEF CON presentation – “Weaponizing Your Pets: The War Kitteh and the Denial of Service Dog.” To mark the occasion, Gene Bransfield took the time to address some of the many comments and questions users have left on his video over the last ten years.
The War Kitteh
Imagine if he had an ESP8266 back then... If only Raspberry pis were around at this time.
The ESP would probably have worked, but I think the Pi would draw too much power. But things are getting smaller every day so who knows what’s next!?
My only concern is that if something shorts out and the lipo battery does not have a good protection circuit (as many cheap ones do) it could set the cat on fire.
That is a concern – from a product design perspective, a sudden fire would drastically reduce the stealth characteristics of both the cat and the collar. We’ll keep that in mind for any future development efforts.
The next evolution of the WarKitteh:
Someone submitted this from the Internet. This is awesome!
Meh – I'm already able to destroy my neighbor's living room from across the street using only their cat and a laser-pointer…
Please provide a video!
It would have been easier to just get a bigger cat.
…in the spirit of “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”...
We used a bigger cat. It was lazy. It spent 4 hours of battery time and never left the front lawn.
Denial of Service Dog
Is there a materials list and instruction sheet for making the DoS Dog device?
1 TVBGone (https://www.adafruit.com/product/73))
1 WiFi Pineapple (https://shop.hak5.org/products/wifi-pineapple?variant=81044992)
1 Dog Backpack: (https://www.rei.com/product/189519/ruffwear-front-range-dog-day-pack)
1 DoS Dog Patches: (https://stores.joann.com/va/sterling/2550/)
1 Dog: (https://www.aspca.org/)
Recommend ensuring the Dog Backpack is size appropriate for the dog. Would advise acquiring the dog prior to acquiring the backpack to ensure proper fit.
You can do even better stuff, add a speaker to the dog so you can command him remotely over CB or Babyphone + add a remote camera.
Perhaps in DoS Dog 2.0!
There is a social engineering component to my approach: in the video, I got the dog into the restaurant because I had him on a leash with a patch that said “Service Dog” (actually, it said “Denial of Service Dog”, but only one person noticed). The staff assumed it was a service dog and let him in. If the dog rolled-up to the restaurant solo with a backpack, a baby monitor, a pineapple, and a disembodied voice, the staff may have questions.
Overall
So what the heck is the purpose of this?? I never understood what the actual function of this product is.
Demonstrating how effective tiny IoT devices are at concealment and collecting Wi-Fi. I thought it was a humorous idea that could help tech experts and muggles alike to understand just what the heck I was talking about in my regular work presentations. It also provided many lessons learned:
A tech hobbyist with no prior firmware experience can create a functional WarKitteh Collar in a relatively short amount of time.
There is still no patch for human stupidity.
Cats are really hard to work with.
Really good. But he seems to think that having open hotspots is a bad thing. I disagree. I wish more people shared their internet connections.
Enjoy your visit from the FBI Party Van!
Honestly, I REALLY disagree! An estimated 43% of public Wi-Fi users were hacked last year. My next edition of “Explaining Cybersecurity to My Dad” should focus on VPNs.
He should do stand-up with that energy and sense of humor.
My wife has assured me that I’m not nearly as funny as I think I am, but thank you!
Every time I am down, or the community is being [expletive deleted], I watch this talk and it inspires me, and puts a smile on my face.
Awesome. That puts a smile on my face, too.
Watch the Video Now and See You at DEF CON 32!
Gene Bransfield will be at DEF CON 32. If you see him and can’t remember his name, he will respond to “The WarKitteh Guy.”
