Meshtastic Command & Control

Eric Escobar

RF Village @ DEF CON 33 · Day 1 · RF Village

In this compelling talk at RF Village, Eric Escobar, Wireless Technical Lead at Sofos, introduced **Mesh C2**, a novel command and control (C2) system built atop the Meshtastic platform. The presentation delved into the intricacies of Meshtastic – an open-source, off-grid, long-range communication solution – and demonstrated how its inherent capabilities can be repurposed for covert red team operations. Escobar, drawing from his extensive experience as a wireless penetration tester, highlighted the critical need for resilient C2 channels in environments where traditional internet or cellular connectivity is unreliable or compromised, particularly for maintaining access to deployed dropboxes.

AI review

Escobar brings a genuinely useful red team tool to the table — a LoRa-based C2 channel that leverages public Meshtastic mesh infrastructure to maintain out-of-band access to deployed implants. This is practitioner-built tooling solving a real operational problem, and the insight that public routers relay encrypted payloads without holding the key is the kind of quiet detail that makes defenders uncomfortable in exactly the right way.

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