Frieren: an open-source framework for WiFi Pineapple-style OpenWrt security appliance

[xchwarze]

Hi everyone,
I have several projects that I’m working on and launching throughout the year, and this year it’s time to release updates for one in particular.
Here’s the post below:

https://i.imgur.com/9XNcVtV.png

I’ve been building **Frieren**, a free and open-source framework for turning OpenWrt routers and SBCs into portable wireless/security appliances.

**Repo:** https://github.com/xchwarze/frieren
**Community Discord:** https://discord.gg/jmDaM5qwzY

The idea is to provide an open, lightweight and hackable base for building your own portable security toolkit on top of standard OpenWrt-compatible hardware.

It follows a similar general workflow to WiFi Pineapple-style appliances: a compact web-managed device for wireless labs, diagnostics, modules and field tooling — but built with open components, regular OpenWrt devices and an extensible module system.

> Frieren is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Hak5 or WiFi Pineapple. The comparison is only used to describe the general category of portable wireless security appliances.

## Current features

- Web-based control panel
- WiFi scanning module
- WiFi interface management
- UCI wireless configuration editor
- Installable third-party modules
- Package manager integration through `opkg`
- Integrated web terminal via `ttyd`
- System dashboard
- Syslog viewer
- Network diagnostics
- USB/device information
- PHP backend API + React frontend
- Module template for custom extensions

## Potential use cases

- OpenWrt-based security lab devices
- Wireless testing setups
- Portable diagnostics boxes
- Homelab network tooling
- Custom red-team/blue-team lab modules
- Embedded Linux experimentation

This is intended for owned labs, authorized testing, research, education and defensive/security workflows.

## Feedback wanted

I’d appreciate feedback on:

- Useful modules to prioritize
- Code review / architecture suggestions

## Quick install

```sh
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xchwarze/frieren-release/master/install/install-openwrt.sh | sh
```

I’m especially interested in feedback from people who build their own lab devices or use OpenWrt for wireless/security workflows.

Try it out, break it, suggest modules, or join the Discord if you want to follow the project.

https://i.imgur.com/CrxPqWk.png
https://i.imgur.com/pQRLcib.png