Romania · read before your first hardware lab

Curiosity, with a clear scope.

Education describes your purpose. Permission, privacy, and the radio rules still determine what you may do.

Reviewed 10 September 2026. This is a learning guide, not individualized legal advice or a guarantee that a particular test is lawful.

Three separate checks

  1. Authority: use equipment and data you control, or obtain explicit permission from someone entitled to authorize the exact test. Possessing an apartment, work, hotel, or gym badge does not establish that authority.
  2. Radio conditions: confirm the applicable Romanian interface, equipment conditions, frequency, power, bandwidth, duty cycle or channel-access requirements. Owning the transmitter or receiver does not exempt you.
  3. Effect and data: plan for unintended interference, private communications, stored credentials, and recovery. Radio does not stop at a property boundary. If a check remains unresolved, use the browser simulator.

Romania: where to check

ANCOM publishes the Romanian radio interfaces (RO-IR), including short-range devices. The current index links RO-IR SRD-01 edition 5/2025 for non-specific SRDs. Its alternatives have different conditions: a familiar “433” or “868” label is not a complete transmit authorization. Consult the applicable interface, not an old forum table. ANCOM: current Romanian radio interfaces; ANCOM RO-IR SRD-01, edition 5/2025 (PDF).

Official Flipper firmware lists the EU transmit ranges it enables, including 433.05–434.79 and 868.15–868.55 MHz. These are firmware ranges, not a complete statement of Romanian law. Equipment compliance and the applicable interface conditions still matter; 315 or 915 MHz examples from another country are not permission to transmit here. Flipper: regional frequencies.

Romanian Criminal Code articles 360–365 address conduct including unauthorized access, interception of non-public computer-data transmissions, interference with data/systems, and certain misuse of tools or access data. Article 361 is one reason “I only listened” is not a universal legal defence. Whether a specific act falls within an offence depends on its facts. Read the current consolidated text and obtain Romanian legal advice for work outside a controlled training lab. Romanian Criminal Code, Law 286/2009: articles 360–365.

Receiving is not blanket permission

Sub-GHz reception does not deliberately send a Sub-GHz command, but it may collect private data. LF RFID and NFC reading actively energize and communicate with a tag; “read” does not always mean a purely passive receiver. Restrict captures to your authorized lab, minimize stored data, and avoid publishing identifiers, keys or private payloads.

Keep official firmware’s region restrictions enabled. Firmware restrictions reduce mistakes; they do not certify the legality of your entire setup. Momentum is optional, and this course never requires a region unlock, jammer, amplifier, or brute-force app.

Choose an appropriate exercise

Course lab targets

  • Browser simulators with synthetic signals.
  • Your own IR remote and TV, one known command at a time.
  • A locally compliant, fixed-code training doorbell after the radio checks.
  • Unenrolled RFID/NFC tags and a standalone test reader.
  • Your own computer, a visible typing demo, and a low-voltage breadboard.

Keep out of these labs

  • Operational cars, gates, garages, alarms, and shared access systems.
  • Other people’s communications or credentials.
  • Jamming, floods, deauthentication, or disruption experiments over the air.
  • Region-bypass settings and unknown downloaded payloads.
  • Mains-powered, medical, or safety-critical equipment.

These are course boundaries chosen for beginner exercises, not a claim that every listed activity has the same legal status.

Learn rolling codes in simulation

A used counter is rejected in the model. Repeating an old code does not normally move a receiver’s counter backwards or make that code valid again. Real implementations vary, and experiments on operational remotes can disrupt access. Use Module 5’s simulator; use the manufacturer’s supported provisioning process when you actually need a replacement remote.

Read the primary sources: Microchip HCS301: synchronization model (PDF) · Flipper: demodulated RAW recordings. Course review: 10 September 2026.

Permission covers the system, not just the badge

Use newly purchased training tags that are not enrolled anywhere. Reading or duplicating an issued credential may involve the operator’s system and data even if the plastic is in your pocket. Written scope should identify both the credential and the authorized test reader. Keep real credential dumps out of this public repository and out of your shareable notebook.

A reusable scope note

Before a hardware session, write this in your private notebook. A checklist records your reasoning; it does not grant authorization. 

Objective and expected result:
Equipment and who can authorize it:
Permission source, permitted actions, dates and place:
For RF: applicable RO-IR, frequency, power, bandwidth, duty cycle/access:
Data I may collect and where I will keep it:
Unintended effects and stop conditions:
Recovery and cleanup plan:
Unresolved questions (use simulation until resolved):

If you find a weakness

Stop at the agreed scope. Keep only the minimum evidence, redact identifying data, and privately report through the owner’s or vendor’s published security channel. A disclosure policy authorizes only what it explicitly includes. Do not publish a working credential or expand testing to prove impact.

A useful default

When permission or radio conditions are unclear, stay in the simulator. Ask ANCOM about spectrum conditions and an appropriately qualified Romanian lawyer about the legal scope of a proposed real-world test. You can keep learning while those questions are resolved.

Start the learning path →