Georg Merzdovnik and Michael Pucher @ BalCCon2k26
We’re excited to announce that Georg Merzdovnik, senior researcher at SBA Research, and Michael Pucher, researcher at SBA Research, delivered a exciting talk titled “The Hitchhikers Guide to Hacking Cheap Bluetooth Speakers“ at this year’s BalCCon.
© Georg Merzdovnik
Abstract
The story so far: In the beginning closed Hard- and Software was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
(Wrong book, I know…)
Deep inside the shelves of our nearest IKEA store, hidden between smart appliances, there lies the cheap IKEA KALLSUP, a Bluetooth speaker, that promises limitless possibilities. Well, maybe not limitless. But it does allow synchronization of up to 100 devices. Supposedly at least, we did not buy 100 of them. However, it is not this promise of connectivity that caught our attention, but the curiosity about the intricacies of the internals of such a cheap device.
Follow us along on our journey into the unknown, hitchhiking on the experiences made by those who came before us, while we dive into reverse engineering of cheap, undocumented chips, analyzing firmware, and other general tomfoolery.
Hacker Jeopardy
In addition, Michael Pucher and Georg Merzdovnik organized the Hacker Jeopardy:
l.tor..: Petar Kosic, Georg Merzdovnik, © Michael Pucher
About the Conference
BalCCon is a community-organized event in the spirit of CCC events. It is organized yearly in Novi Sad, Serbia and topics range from information security to everything hacking related. It attracts speakers and attendees from the region and abroad.