Book Image

Practical Hardware Pentesting

By : Jean-Georges Valle
Book Image

Practical Hardware Pentesting

By: Jean-Georges Valle

Overview of this book

If you’re looking for hands-on introduction to pentesting that delivers, then Practical Hardware Pentesting is for you. This book will help you plan attacks, hack your embedded devices, and secure the hardware infrastructure. Throughout the book, you will see how a specific device works, explore the functional and security aspects, and learn how a system senses and communicates with the outside world. You’ll set up a lab from scratch and then gradually work towards an advanced hardware lab—but you’ll still be able to follow along with a basic setup. As you progress, you’ll get to grips with the global architecture of an embedded system and sniff on-board traffic, learn how to identify and formalize threats to the embedded system, and understand its relationship with its ecosystem. You’ll discover how to analyze your hardware and locate its possible system vulnerabilities before going on to explore firmware dumping, analysis, and exploitation. The reverse engineering chapter will get you thinking from an attacker point of view; you’ll understand how devices are attacked, how they are compromised, and how you can harden a device against the most common hardware attack vectors. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with security best practices and understand how they can be implemented to secure your hardware.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Getting to Know the Hardware
6
Section 2: Attacking the Hardware
12
Section 3: Attacking the Software

Practical case

Let's have a look at a DSL modem (an ABB 560NM that I bought from my local flea market) that is sporting a JTAG connector. If you can't find the same modem, you will have to find a random piece of hardware with a JTAG connector. This will be a very good exercise in locating them.

Opening the case and going through the chip, I could easily identify the main CPU as a Samsung S3C4530A (the markings have not been removed; it is a big chip with Samsung and ARM markings and SC4530A is pretty visible). A bit of internet research scores the datasheet for this chip. It is sold as an "Integrated system for embedded Ethernet applications" and that fits the bill pretty nicely for a DSL modem. The datasheet is inside the ch10 folder of the repository.

Next to it, there is an already populated 10-pin connector that is not connected to anything on the system. It smells like JTAG!

Here, I can approach it in two ways:

  • I can use my JTAGulator –...