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HackRF

HackRF is an open source Software Defined Radio peripheral that can receive and transmit between 30 MHz and 6 GHz with a 20 MHz bandwidth. It includes command line utilities for device configuration, transfer, and control.

Description

HackRF provides a high-speed USB device powered by the USB bus for software-defined radio operations across a wide frequency range. The main package contains utilities like hackrf_transfer for file-based transmit/receive, hackrf_info for device probing, hackrf_debug for register manipulation, and others for clock, flash, and sweep functions. It supports hardware like HackRF One, Jawbreaker, and Rad1o.

Use cases include RF signal analysis, transmission testing, spectrum sweeping, and antenna power management. Additional packages provide firmware, documentation, development files, and runtime libraries for comprehensive HackRF support in Kali Linux.

The tools enable low-level control over RF peripherals, making HackRF suitable for wireless research, security testing, and custom radio applications.

How It Works

HackRF operates as a USB-connected SDR with 20 MHz bandwidth, handling RX/TX from 30 MHz to 6 GHz using components like SI5351C, MAX283x, RFFC5072. Utilities interface via libhackrf0 library, manipulating firmware-loaded hardware for clock config, SPI flash programming, CPLD updates, bias tee control, frequency sweeps via FFT, and sample transfer with configurable gains, filters, sample rates up to 20 MHz.

Installation

bash
sudo apt install hackrf

Flags

-hDisplay help for various hackrf utilities
-d serial_numberSpecify serial number of HackRF device
-r filenameReceive data into file for hackrf_transfer
-t filenameTransmit data from file for hackrf_transfer
-f freq_hzSet frequency in Hz for hackrf_transfer
-a amp_enableEnable/disable RX/TX RF amplifier
-p antenna_enableEnable/disable antenna port power
-x gain_dbSet TX VGA gain in dB for hackrf_transfer
-s sample_rate_hzSet sample rate in Hz for hackrf_transfer
-n registerSet register number for read/write in hackrf_debug
-RReset bias tee settings or repeat TX mode
-b modeEnable/disable bias tee immediately in hackrf_biast

Examples

Display help for antenna power utility
hackrf_biast --help
Print settings for CLKOUT clock
hackrf_clock -r 3
Show usage for programming CPLD
hackrf_cpldjtag -h
Read from SI5351C register 0
hackrf_debug --si5351c -n 0 -r
Display SI5351C multisynth configuration
hackrf_debug --si5351c -c
Read all RFFC5072 registers
hackrf_debug --rffc5072 -r
Write value 22 to MAX283x register 10
hackrf_debug --max283x -n 10 -w 22
Probe device and show configuration
hackrf_info
Updated 2026-04-16kali.org ↗