Hardware Hacking Advanced: Firmware Extraction & Manipulation

Overview

This one-day workshop focuses on firmware extraction and system manipulation via on-chip debug interfaces. It is a hands-on environment where students will exploit bare metal and Linux-based devices using a variety of techniques.

Prerequisites

Joe Grand's Hardware Hacking Basics two-day training

Outline

A. JTAG Discovery

• Overview of debug interfaces, JTAG specification/functionality
• Locate debug interface of off-the-shelf embedded system w/ JTAGulator

B. Firmware Extraction

• Extract firmware via JTAG
• Extract firmware via UART/bootloader
• Extract firmware via physical memory w/ device programmer
• Explore/analyze firmware contents

C. Firmware Modification

• Locate debug interface of custom circuit board w/ manual techniques
• Extract firmware via vendor-specific tools
• Determine security mechanism via disassembly
• Modify and inject new firmware to bypass security

D. Privilege Escalation

• Apply the skills learned in the workshop to gain root access on a Linux-based single board computer through real-time kernel patching.