A hacker poked their e-scooter's USB port and found a hidden network

A hardware hacker probed their e-scooter's USB-C port, discovered a hidden network, and wrote custom Rust firmware to take control.

Security researcher Ben bought an Egret GT e-scooter and noticed a basic security flaw: holding the down button on startup bypassed the PIN lock entirely. Looking through the mobile app, he also found it quietly sent driving time, odometer data, and charge history to the manufacturer. Ben then wired a breakout board to the display's USB-C port—which the manual claims is only for charging phones—and hooked up an oscilloscope. He found two pins running an undocumented CAN bus network. Using an ESP32 micro-controller, he sniffed the startup traffic and started writing custom Rust firmware for the display unit.

Why it matters: Modern e-scooters are basically micro-cars packed with silent telemetry and proprietary limits. Ben's project shows how standard hardware tools can expose undocumented interfaces, giving owners full control over hardware they bought.

Know this: Ben first tried spoofing the scooter's serial identification over Bluetooth to unlock a higher 45km/h speed limit. When that failed, he moved on to hacking the internal bus directly.

Turns out the phone-charging port was a front door all along.