HaleHound™ firmware is proprietary software. It is not open source. Permission is granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the firmware to use it for personal, educational and authorized security testing purposes, on the conditions below.
You may
Flash and run the firmware on compatible hardware you own.
Use it for authorized penetration testing and security research, on systems you own or have explicit written permission to test.
Share a link to the official sources so others can obtain it themselves.
You may not
Redistribute the firmware binaries, in whole or in part, through any channel other than the official repository or this web flasher.
Reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble the firmware.
Modify, adapt or create derivative works from the binaries.
Sell, sublicense or commercially distribute the firmware.
Host mirrors or alternative download locations for the binaries.
Remove or alter any branding, attribution or license notice.
Claim authorship of the firmware or any part of it.
There are exactly two official sources. This web flasher at flash.halehound.com, and the official repository at github.com/JesseCHale/HaleHound-CYD. Firmware obtained anywhere else is not licensed, is not supported, and has not been verified by us. Mirroring the binaries is a license violation and is enforced.
Source code
The HaleHound™ source code is proprietary and is not publicly available. The compiled binaries are provided for end-user use only, under these terms.
Responsible Use
This firmware is a security research tool. It is supplied strictly for lawful, authorized work.
Intended use
Authorized penetration testing — only on networks and systems you own, or have explicit written permission to test.
Security research — studying wireless vulnerabilities and building defenses, in a controlled environment.
Professional assessments — carried out by qualified people with proper authorization and an agreed scope.
Amateur radio and RF experimentation — in line with your local licensing and regulations.
Prohibited use
Unauthorized access to any wireless network or system.
Disrupting legitimate wireless communications.
Interfering with emergency services, aviation, or any safety-of-life system.
Any activity that breaks local, state, federal or international law.
Malicious action against any person or organization.
Use against any system without explicit written authorization.
Unauthorized access to computer systems and wireless networks is a crime in most jurisdictions. Interfering with radio communications may itself be a federal offense — in the United States, see 47 U.S.C. § 333. You are solely responsible for staying inside the law where you are.
Regulatory Notice
Some functions may be restricted or prohibited in your jurisdiction.
Any RF transmission must comply with your local regulations, including frequency allocation and power limits.
You are responsible for holding any license your use requires, such as an amateur radio license.
Some capabilities may fall outside FCC Part 15 or its equivalent where you are.
Laws and allocations vary by country. Checking them before you transmit is your responsibility, not ours.
Liability & Warranty
The firmware is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The author assumes no liability for any misuse, damage or legal consequence arising from use of this firmware or the hardware it runs on.
By flashing this firmware, you acknowledge that
You understand the legal implications of wireless security testing.
You will obtain proper authorization before any testing.
You accept full responsibility for your own actions.
The author bears no responsibility for unauthorized use.
You will comply with all applicable RF and wireless regulations.
Hardware
This firmware targets specific ESP32-based hardware. Improper use can damage your device or attached peripherals, cause RF interference, breach radio regulations, or void a hardware warranty. Verify your board and pin mapping before flashing. You assume all risk when flashing and operating this firmware.
Bought hardware from us? Purchases are covered separately by the Terms of Service and the Refund Policy on halehound.com. This page governs the firmware itself.
Third-Party Components
HaleHound™ was originally derived from the ESP32-DIV project, released under the MIT License. That notice is preserved:
The original ESP32-DIV code has been extensively rewritten, expanded and refactored. The MIT License above applies to the original ESP32-DIV components. All HaleHound™ additions, modifications and new features are the proprietary work of Jesse C. Hale and are governed by the license at the top of this page.
Components in the compiled firmware
This project contains zero GPL-licensed code. NRF24 radio and FFT operations use HaleHound's own clean-room implementations written from public specifications.
ESP32 Arduino Core — Espressif, LGPL-2.1
ESP-IDF components — Espressif, Apache 2.0
RCSwitch — sui77, LGPL-2.1
TinyGPSPlus — mikalhart, LGPL-2.1
EspSoftwareSerial — plerup, LGPL-2.1
SmartRC-CC1101-Driver-Lib — LSatan, permissive
TFT_eSPI — Bodmer, FreeBSD
ArduinoJson — bblanchon, MIT
XPT2046_Touchscreen — Stoffregen, MIT
Adafruit PN532 — Adafruit, BSD
LGPL component rights
Nothing in the HaleHound™ license restricts, limits or overrides any right granted to you under the LGPL-2.1 licenses of the components listed above. You retain every right those licenses grant with respect to those specific components.
The author offers, for three (3) years from the date of each binary release, to provide any third party with the complete source code of the LGPL-2.1 licensed components incorporated into this firmware, at no charge, by directing them to the upstream repositories above, where the unmodified source is freely available.