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

The power block

The power block's role is to power the different parts and subsystems within the system. It is of the utmost importance that the power section is approached by taking a lot of precautions and using protection. Some of the systems you will test will expose dangerous voltages or components. No test is important enough that you take the risk of maiming or killing yourself. Living to be able to do more tests and to get back to your family safe and sound is the most important part of your job as a hardware penetration tester.

The power block from a pentesting point of view

From a pentesting point of view, studying the power block will allow you to identify the different voltage levels used within the system. Do not assume that everything happens in one physical space; in modern systems, it is very common to have power rails distribute power across the system with higher voltage, more powerful electricity sources, and local regulation that is physically near the...