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Jasper Devreker and collaborators have reverse-engineered enough of the original Espressif ESP32’s Wi‑Fi path to transmit and receive frames, generate acknowledgments, filter packets in hardware, scan channels, and pass UDP traffic through ESP-NETIF and lwIP. The important qualification is that Espressif’s proprietary code is still needed to initialize and calibrate the radio. This is an open-source MAC and driver project moving toward a complete Wi‑Fi stack—not yet a drop-in, production-ready replacement for ESP-IDF Wi‑Fi.
What “open Wi‑Fi” means on the ESP32
Most of Espressif’s ESP-IDF framework is open source. Historically, however, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, and low-level RF components have been delivered as compiled libraries. Those binaries hide both implementation details and parts of the hardware interface. The binaries are licensed under Apache 2.0, according to the project presentation, but their source is unavailable: 2024 project presentation.
Devreker’s project, published at esp32-open-mac, aims to make the wireless path inspectable and modifiable. It is more accurate to call the current work an open-source Wi‑Fi MAC and driver effort than a finished general-purpose networking stack. The repository says proprietary code remains part of hardware initialization, even though it is not required for the packet operations demonstrated so far.
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Why the distinction matters
- Auditability: researchers can inspect, instrument, and fuzz more of the wireless implementation instead of treating it as a black box.
- Feature freedom: contributors are not limited to features Espressif chooses to expose.
- Research access: inexpensive ESP32 nodes could become platforms for packet experiments, custom mesh work, and wireless security research.
- Maintainability: a community-controlled implementation could reduce dependence on vendor-specific binary releases.
The original motivation included standards-compliant IEEE 802.11s mesh networking. Espressif’s documented ESP-WIFI-MESH uses a root/child hierarchy and tree topology with NAT-based external connectivity; it is not the same objective as interoperable 802.11s mesh: Espressif ESP-WIFI-MESH documentation.
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MAC, PHY, and the boundary Devreker is crossing
The PHY handles radio signaling and waveform-level operations. The MAC handles 802.11 frame formats, addressing, channel access, association behavior, and acknowledgments. On the original ESP32, the PHY is hardware, while much of the MAC behavior traditionally comes from proprietary firmware: Zeus WPI project overview.
Wi‑Fi traffic is commonly divided into three frame classes:
- Management: discovery, authentication, and association.
- Control: ACK, RTS, and CTS frames.
- Data: payload-bearing network traffic.
Timing makes this difficult. An 802.11 acknowledgment may have to leave the radio roughly 10 microseconds after a frame arrives. A normal, casually scheduled software task cannot reliably meet that deadline, so the ESP32 hardware performs at least part of the time-critical ACK path: technical background from Zeus WPI.
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This was not a conventional firmware rewrite. The team had to infer undocumented hardware behavior from compiled code, live devices, traces, and radio traffic.
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Static analysis
Ghidra, with Xtensa support, was used to inspect Espressif’s compiled firmware. A useful accident was that not all function names had been stripped, giving analysts meaningful clues while navigating the binary: project presentation.
Dynamic analysis
- JTAG supplied breakpoints and memory inspection on real ESP32 hardware.
- A USB Wi‑Fi dongle in monitor mode captured over-the-air behavior.
- Espressif’s QEMU fork was extended with Wi‑Fi-peripheral behavior and execution tracing.
These methods let the team correlate register accesses and firmware decisions with packets observed in the air: project overview and presentation.
Why RF isolation was necessary
Nearby networks made experiments noisy and difficult to reproduce. Early testing used an improvised tin-can Faraday cage and a 60 dB attenuator, while the later presentation describes a setup achieving at least 70 dB attenuation at 2.4 GHz. These are descriptions of evolving test setups, not contradictory readings from one fixed apparatus: Hackster account and presentation.
What the open implementation has demonstrated
The strongest documented milestones include:
- transmitting Wi‑Fi frames;
- receiving Wi‑Fi frames;
- sending ACK frames for packets addressed to the ESP32;
- hardware filtering by destination MAC address;
- scanning channels;
- connecting to a predefined open access point;
- sending UDP traffic through ESP-NETIF and lwIP; and
- pinging across a network path using the open packet-handling portion.
The packet-reception follow-up describes how filtering and DMA handling became essential when heavy multicast traffic filled the receive buffer: Zeus WPI follow-up. Promiscuous mode is not equivalent to ordinary reception either; packets delivered only through that software path may not trigger the hardware ACK behavior needed for normal 802.11 operation.
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The 2024 presentation’s ping demonstration is easy to overread. Open-source code handled packet operations, but proprietary code still initialized and calibrated the Wi‑Fi hardware: presentation caveat. Connecting to an open access point also does not demonstrate completed WPA2 or WPA3 support.
Initialization is the major remaining barrier
Once Espressif’s firmware has brought up the radio, the open code can take over important packet-path work. Replacing the boot-time initialization is much harder because it combines radio configuration, calibration, power management, and undocumented interactions among peripherals.
Hackaday reported 53,286 peripheral accesses during initialization, compared with roughly ten calls involved in sending one Wi‑Fi packet: Hackaday’s report. That scale explains why a successful packet demo is a milestone, but not proof that the complete radio software stack has been replaced.
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Current support and compatibility
The project’s repository defines a narrow target. The following table reflects the stated project status rather than a guarantee for every later commit.
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| Area | Current position |
|---|---|
| Chip | Original, plain ESP32 is the stated target. ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3, ESP32-C3, and other variants are not confirmed as supported. |
| Build environment | Tested with ESP-IDF v5.0.1, according to the repository. |
| Network demonstrated | Predefined open access point, UDP traffic, and ping path. |
| WPA2/WPA3 | Listed as work to implement or complete, not established production functionality. |
| Access-point mode | Project goal, not a documented completed capability. |
| 802.11s mesh | Core motivation and future direction, not a demonstrated current feature. |
| ESP-IDF Wi‑Fi API compatibility | No drop-in compatibility promise; the project deliberately pursues a different implementation model. |
Hardware locations and behavior are currently hardcoded for the plain ESP32. Preliminary similarities among some RISC‑V-based variants may help future ports, but they should not be treated as confirmed support: repository status and presentation.
What still needs to be built
The repository and project presentations identify a substantial roadmap:
- open hardware initialization and radio calibration;
- a complete 802.11 MAC for scanning, authentication, association, and normal operation;
- WPA2 with hardware acceleration and WPA3’s Dragonfly handshake;
- access-point mode;
- 802.11s mesh and dual AP/client operation;
- support for more ESP32 variants and less dependence on a particular ESP-IDF version;
- more complete hardware documentation; and
- Bluetooth reverse engineering.
The MAC layer is being developed in Rust, while higher-level networking reuses ESP-NETIF and lwIP. An open MAC therefore does not require writing a new TCP/IP stack: repository and Zeus WPI follow-up.
What a complete open stack could enable
If initialization, security protocols, and the broader MAC are completed, the ESP32’s low cost and small power envelope could support experiments that are awkward with vendor-controlled firmware:
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- Support LWIP protocol, Freertos
- SupportThree Modes: AP, STA, and AP+STA
- ESP32 is a safe, reliable, and scalable to a variety of applications
- interoperable 802.11s mesh and alternative routing approaches;
- custom packet processing and unusual 802.11 control behavior;
- wireless protocol fuzzing and security auditing;
- experimental clients, access points, and dual-role nodes; and
- community-maintained features independent of Espressif’s release schedule.
These are potential applications, not claims that the current repository is a production mesh or security platform. The project’s 38C3 talk describes the broader direction: “Liberating Wi-Fi on the ESP32”.
Who should use it now?
A good fit
- embedded developers comfortable reading low-level firmware and Rust;
- wireless and security researchers who need an inspectable packet path;
- contributors with JTAG, monitor-mode capture, and RF-isolation equipment; and
- open-source hardware advocates willing to work around incomplete documentation.
A poor fit
- products that require dependable WPA2/WPA3 connectivity;
- existing ESP-IDF applications expecting the standard Wi‑Fi API;
- projects needing broad support across ESP32-S2, S3, C3, and later families; and
- teams without time to debug experimental firmware and radio behavior.
For ordinary connected products, Espressif’s official stack remains the practical choice: ESP-IDF repository. It offers the established API, broader hardware coverage, and vendor-supported wireless components. A separate Linux or other open Wi‑Fi platform offers a more mature open stack, but at higher cost, power use, and system complexity than an ESP32-class microcontroller.
Licensing, certification, and practical cautions
The project repository identifies its own code as MIT-licensed while noting that remaining Espressif blobs have separate licenses. That does not make every component of a deployed image MIT-licensed. Review the repository’s current license files before distributing firmware: project repository.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesChanging radio firmware can also raise certification and spectrum-compliance questions. A Hackaday commenter raised that concern, but it is not a jurisdiction-specific legal finding: reported commentary. Open source improves inspectability; it does not by itself make the implementation secure, certified, or production-ready.
The bottom line
Devreker’s work has moved the original ESP32’s Wi‑Fi from an opaque vendor dependency toward an inspectable, modifiable implementation. Sending and receiving frames, handling ACKs, filtering traffic, scanning, and passing UDP demonstrate real control of the packet path. But the project still relies on Espressif code for initialization and calibration, targets only the original ESP32 in its documented configuration, and has not established complete WPA2/WPA3, access-point, 802.11s, or drop-in ESP-IDF compatibility. It is an unusually valuable research foundation—and an exciting contribution target—not yet a turnkey open Wi‑Fi stack.
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