Giant Neopixel Is Just Like The Regular Kind, Only Bigger

Neopixels and other forms of addressable LEDs have taken the maker world by storm. They make it trivial to add a ton of controllable, glowing LEDs to any project. [Arnov Sharma] has made a great tribute to the WS2812B LED by building the NeoPixel Giant Edition.

The build is simply a recreation of the standard 5mm x 5mm WS2812B, only scaled up to 150 mm x 150 mm. It uses a WS2811 chip inside to make it behave in the same way from a logical perspective, and this controller is hooked up to nine standard RGB LEDs switched with MOSFETs to ensure they can deliver the requisite light output. The components are all assembled on a white PCB in much the same layout as the tiny parts of a WS2812B, which is then installed inside a 3D-printed housing made in white PLA. Large metal terminals were added to the housing, just like a WS2812B, and the lens was then created using a large dose of clear epoxy.

The result is a fully functional, addressable LED that is approximately 30 times larger than the original. You can even daisy-chain them, just like the real thing. We’ve covered all kinds of projects using addressable LEDs over the years, from glowing cubes to fancy nature installations. If you’ve got your own glowable project that the world needs to see, make sure you notify the tips line!

hackaday.com/2025/12/15/giant-…

3D Printing and Metal Casting are a Great Match

[Chris Borge] has made (and revised) many of his own tools using a combination of 3D printing and common hardware, and recently decided to try metal casting. Having created his own tapping arm, he tries his hand at aluminum casting to create a much more compact version out of metal. His video (embedded below) really shows off the whole process, and [Chris] freely shares his learning experiences in casting his first metal tool.

The result looks great and is considerably smaller in stature than the 3D-printed version. However, the workflow of casting metal parts is very different. The parts are much stronger, but there is a lot of preparation and post-processing involved.
Metal casting deals with molten metal, but the process is otherwise very accessible, and many resources are available to help anyone with a healthy interest.
The key to making good castings is mold preparation. [Chris] uses green sand (a mixture of fine sand and bentonite clay – one source of the latter is ground-up kitty litter) packed tightly around 3D printed parts inside a frame. The packed sand holds its shape while still allowing the original forms to be removed and channels to be cut, creating a two-part mold.

His first-time castings have a rough surface texture, but are perfectly serviceable. After some CNC operations to smooth some faces and drill some holes, the surface imperfections are nothing filing, filler, and paint can’t handle.

To cast molten metal, there really isn’t any way around needing a forge. Or is there? We have seen some enterprising hackers repurpose microwave ovens for this purpose. One can also use a low-temperature alloy like Rose’s Metal, or eschew molten liquid altogether and do cold casting, which uses a mixture of resin and metal powder instead.

The design files for [Chris]’s tapping arm are available from links in the video description, and he also helpfully provides links to videos and resources he found useful. Watch it in the video, embedded just below.

youtube.com/embed/lp9xzWZWO_U?…

hackaday.com/2025/12/15/3d-pri…

Міноборони Туреччини заявило про знищення невідомого безпілотника, який наближався до повітряного простору країни з боку Чорного моря.

Дрон, що вийшов з-під контролю, збили винищувачі F-16 у безпечній зоні поза населеними пунктами.

США готові взяти на себе юридичні зобов'язання щодо гарантій безпеки для України, аналогічні статті 5 НАТО, – Мерц

"Ми не повторимо помилок Мінська", – додав канцлер Німеччини.

Мерц запропонував рф хоча б на час Різдва перестати бойові дії.

"І, можливо, російський уряд має залишки людяності, можливо, і може залишити людей в спокій на декілька днів, хоча б протягом Різдва"

Pufferfish Venom Can Kill, Or It Can Relieve Pain

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is best known as the neurotoxin of the puffer fish, though it also appears in a range of other marine species. You might remember it from an episode of The Simpsons involving a poorly prepared dish at a sushi restaurant. Indeed, it’s a potent thing, as ingesting even tiny amounts can lead to death in short order.

Given its fatal reputation, it might be the last thing you’d expect to be used in a therapeutic context. And yet, tetrodotoxin is proving potentially valuable as a treatment option for dealing with cancer-related pain. It’s a dangerous thing to play with, but it could yet hold promise where other pain relievers simply can’t deliver.

Poison, or…?

A license to prepare fugu (pufferfish) issued by Tokyo authorities. Credit: Nesnad, CC BY SA 3.0
Humans have been aware of the toxicity of the puffer fish and its eggs for thousands of years. It was much later that tetrodotoxin itself was chemically isolated, thanks to the work of Dr. Yoshizumi Tahara in 1909.

Its method of action was proven in 1964, with tetrodotoxin found to bind to and block voltage-gated sodium channels in nerve cell membranes, essentially stopping the nerves from conducting signals as normal. It thus has the effect of inducing paralysis, up to the point where an afflicted individual suffers respiratory failure, and subsequently, death.
Tetrodotoxin is most closely associated with pufferfish, though it’s also present in other deadly species, like the blue-ringed octopus. Thankfully, nobody is crazy enough to try to eat those. Credit: NPS, public domain
It doesn’t take a large dose of tetrodotoxin to kill, either—the median lethal dose in mice is a mere 334 μg per kilogram when ingested. The lethality of tetrodotoxin was historically a prime driver behind Japanese efforts to specially license chefs who wished to prepare and serve pufferfish. Consuming pufferfish that has been inadequately prepared can lead to symptoms in 30 minutes or less, with death following in mere hours as the toxin makes it impossible for the sufferer to breathe. Notably, though, with the correct life support measures, particularly for the airway, or with a sub-fatal dose, it’s possible for a patient to make a full recovery in mere days, without any lingering effects.

The effects that tetrodotoxin has on the nervous system are precisely what may lend it therapeutic benefit, however. By blocking sodium channels in sensory neurons that deal with pain signals, the toxin could act as a potent method of pain relief. Researchers have recently explored whether it could have particular application for dealing with neuropathic pain caused by cancer or chemotherapy treatments. This pain isn’t always easy to manage with traditional pain relief methods, and can even linger after cancer recovery and when chemotherapy has ceased.
Tetrodotoxin is able to block voltage-gated sodium channels, which is the basis of both its pain-relieving abilities and its capacity to paralyze and kill. Credit: research paper
The challenge of using a toxin for pain relief is obvious—there’s always a risk that the negative effects of the toxin will outweigh the supposed therapeutic benefit. In the case of tetrodotoxin, it all comes down to dosage. The levels given to patients in research studies have been on the order of 30 micrograms, well under the multi-milligram dose that would typically cause severe symptoms or death in an adult human. The hope would be to find a level at which tetrodotoxin reduces pain with a minimum of adverse effects, particularly where symptoms like paralysis and respiratory failure are on the table.

A review of various studies worldwide was published in 2023, and highlights that tetrodotoxin pain relief does come with some typical adverse effects, even at tiny clinical doses. The most typical reported symptoms involved nausea, oral numbness, dizziness, and tingling sensations. In many cases, these effects were mild and well-tolerated. A small number of patients in research trials exhibited more serious symptoms, however, such as loss of muscle control, pain, or hypertension. At the same time, the treatment did show positive results — with many patients reporting pain relief for days or even weeks after just a few days of tetrodotoxin injections.

While tetrodotoxin has been studied as a pain reliever for several decades now, it has yet to become a mainstream treatment. There have been no large-scale studies that involved treating more than 200 patients, and no research group or pharmaceutical company has pushed hard to bring a tetrodotoxin-based product to market. Research continues, with a 2025 paper even exploring the use of ultra-low nanogram-scale doses in a topical setting. For now, though, commercial application remains a far-off fantasy. Today, the toxin remains the preserve of pufferfish and a range of other deadly species. Don’t expect to see it in a hospital ward any time soon, despite the promise it shows thus far.

Featured image: “Puffer Fish DSC01257.JPG” by Brocken Inaglory. Actually, not one of the poisonous ones, but it looked cool.

hackaday.com/2025/12/15/puffer…

Pentesting continuo: Shannon porta il red teaming nell’era dell’AI

Shannon opera come un penetration tester che non si limita a segnalare vulnerabilità, ma lancia veri e propri exploit. L’intento di Shannon è quello di violare la sicurezza della tua applicazione web prima che qualcuno con intenzioni malevole possa farlo.

Utilizzando il suo browser integrato, Shannon cerca autonomamente nel tuo codice punti deboli da sfruttare e, per dimostrare la reale esistenza di tali vulnerabilità, esegue attacchi concreti, come quelli da iniezione e quelli volti a bypassare i sistemi di autenticazione.

La verifica della sicurezza tramite penetration test resta limitata generalmente a una sola volta l’anno. se svolta manualmente Ne deriva una significativa falla nella sicurezza. Per i restanti 364 giorni, potresti essere a rischio senza saperlo.

Shannon sopperisce a questa mancanza ricoprendo il ruolo di pentester su richiesta. Oltre a identificare possibili criticità, esegue effettivamente exploit, fornendo prove di concetto delle vulnerabilità riscontrate.

Questo strumento ha superato i penetration tester umani e i sistemi proprietari nel benchmark XBOW, segnando un passaggio verso test di sicurezza continui. Shannon simula le tattiche del red team, coprendo l’intero processo di ricognizione, analisi delle vulnerabilità, sfruttamento e reporting. Il suo principio di funzionamento include:

• Analizzando il flusso di dati di mappatura del codice sorgente
• Distribuzione di agenti paralleli per rilevare vulnerabilità OWASP critiche (ad esempio difetti di iniezione, XSS, SSRF e autenticazione).
• Integrazione di strumenti come Nmap e automazione del browser
• Per ridurre al minimo i falsi positivi, nei report di livello professionale vengono incluse solo le vulnerabilità riproducibili confermate da PoC.

Caratteristiche

Una gamma di funzioni è offerta dal software Shannon, che permette di rendere automatiche varie attività finora svolte manualmente. Queste possono essere riassunte come segue:

• Funzionamento completamente autonomo : avvia il pentest con un singolo comando. L’intelligenza artificiale gestisce tutto, dagli accessi 2FA/TOTP avanzati (incluso l’accesso con Google) alla navigazione nel browser, fino al report finale, senza alcun intervento.
• Report di livello Pentester con exploit riproducibili : fornisce un report finale incentrato su risultati comprovati e sfruttabili, completo di Proof-of-Concept copiabili e incollabili per eliminare i falsi positivi e fornire risultati fruibili.
• Copertura delle vulnerabilità critiche OWASP : attualmente identifica e convalida le seguenti vulnerabilità critiche: iniezione, XSS, SSRF e autenticazione/autorizzazione non funzionante, con altri tipi in fase di sviluppo.
• Test dinamici basati sul codice: analizza il codice sorgente per orientare in modo intelligente la strategia di attacco, quindi esegue exploit live, basati su browser e riga di comando, sull’applicazione in esecuzione per confermare il rischio reale.
• Basato su strumenti di sicurezza integrati : migliora la fase di scoperta sfruttando i principali strumenti di ricognizione e test, tra cui Nmap, Subfinder, WhatWeb e Schemathesis, per un’analisi approfondita dell’ambiente di destinazione.
• Elaborazione parallela per risultati più rapidi : ottieni il tuo report più velocemente. Il sistema parallelizza le fasi più dispendiose in termini di tempo, eseguendo contemporaneamente analisi e exploit per tutti i tipi di vulnerabilità.

Prestazioni effettive

Nei test di benchmark sulle vulnerabilità, Shannon ha dimostrato capacità pratiche che superano la scansione statica: Questi risultati dimostrano che Shannon possiede la capacità autonoma di compromettere completamente le applicazioni. Sviluppato sulla base dell’SDK Claude Agent di Anthropic, con il supporto di Shannon è possibile svolgere:

• Test white-box di repository monolitici o ambienti integrati utilizzando Docker
• Accesso con autenticazione a due fattori
• Integrazione della pipeline CI/CD

Sono disponibili due versioni:

• La versione Lite (licenza AGPL-3.0) è adatta ai ricercatori.
• La versione Pro aggiunge la funzionalità di analisi del flusso di dati LLM per le aziende.

Un test tipico dura da 1 a 1,5 ore e costa circa 50 dollari, e fornisce risultati che includono un riepilogo dell’esecuzione e una Proof of Concept (PoC). Grazie all’utilizzo da parte del team di sviluppo di strumenti di programmazione basati sull’intelligenza artificiale come Claude per accelerare i test, Shannon consente di effettuare test di sicurezza giornalieri in ambienti non di produzione, colmando le lacune di copertura nei penetration test annuali.

Gli sviluppatori sottolineano che deve essere utilizzato in modo conforme solo dopo aver ottenuto l’autorizzazione e mettono in guardia contro l’esecuzione di test di attacco potenzialmente dannosi in ambienti di produzione.

Lo strumento è open source su GitHub e i contributi della community sono benvenuti per ampliarne le capacità di rilevamento.

Licenza

Il software Shannon è distribuito sotto licenza GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPLv3), una delle licenze copyleft più restrittive. Questa licenza consente l’uso commerciale, la modifica, la distribuzione e l’uso privato del software, includendo anche una concessione esplicita dei diritti di brevetto. Tuttavia, impone che qualsiasi versione modificata o lavoro derivato venga rilasciato sotto la stessa licenza, preservando gli avvisi di copyright e di licenza originali.

Una caratteristica chiave dell’AGPLv3 è l’obbligo di rendere disponibile il codice sorgente completo anche quando il software viene utilizzato per fornire un servizio tramite rete (ad esempio un servizio web o SaaS). In questo caso, l’uso in rete è considerato a tutti gli effetti una forma di distribuzione. La licenza esclude qualsiasi garanzia e limita la responsabilità degli autori, rendendo il software disponibile “così com’è”, senza assicurazioni sul suo funzionamento o sulla sua idoneità a scopi specifici.

L'articolo Pentesting continuo: Shannon porta il red teaming nell’era dell’AI proviene da Red Hot Cyber.