What is ghostesp?

GhostESP is an open source firmware platform for ESP32 microcontrollers, the small, cheap chips commonly used in DIY electronics and wireless projects. It is built on ESP-IDF, the official development framework for these chips, and turns supported ESP32 boards into multi-purpose wireless testing devices similar in spirit to tools like the Flipper Zero, but running on ESP32 hardware instead. The feature list is extensive and organized by radio type. On the WiFi side it can scan networks, capture handshakes, run various attack and testing modes such as deauthentication and beacon spam, and export wardriving data that combines WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS information. On Bluetooth Low Energy it can scan for devices, spoof or detect AirTags, and stream captured traffic to Wireshark for analysis. It also supports USB features including acting as a USB keyboard and running BadUSB style scripts, infrared learning and transmission compatible with Flipper Zero's file format, NFC card reading and some MIFARE Classic attacks, and Sub-GHz radio signal scanning and replay using CC1101 hardware across several common frequency bands. The project supports a wide range of ESP32 chip variants and dozens of specific development boards from multiple manufacturers, though the README notes that not every feature works on every board. It includes a comparison table positioning itself against similar open source firmware projects, claiming a larger feature set and codebase size than the alternatives it lists. To get started, users flash their device using a web based flashing tool linked in the README, and can find more detailed setup help through the project's documentation site and a Discord community. Because many of these radio testing features, such as deauthentication attacks, packet capture, and card attacks, are the kind of tools used in wireless security testing, this project is squarely aimed at people already familiar with that space rather than complete beginners.