Coding

Run an authorized pentest agent on an old Android phone

A developer runs an autonomous penetration-testing agent on a OnePlus 8, with a local 1.2B model and a scope-enforcing proxy.

By NickySlicks on Hacker News · Posted · Added Oct 16, 2026 · 2 sources

Difficulty
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Time to build
Not reportedOur estimate
Monthly cost
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Revenue
Not reportedWe only show revenue the source states
Engagement
120 HN points35 comments · fetched Oct 15, 2026

What they did

The phone’s model picks targets and tools; a proxy checks every command against the allowed scope; findings are matched to a local CVE database.

How it went

He reports the small model produces a usable command about 50% of the time.

Worth knowing

Only test systems you own or are authorized to test.

Builder recipe

Our own starting point, written from the source. Adapt it to your setup.

Stack

  • Android phone
  • Local 1.2B model
  • Scope proxy

Steps

  1. Open the repo in your coding agent and describe the goal and constraints.
  2. Ask for a plan first, then let it implement in small, reviewable steps.
  3. Run the tests or the app after each step and feed errors back.
  4. Review the diff before merging.

Starter prompt

Tags

Industry Security

Read the original

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