This course is designed for hackers, tinkerers, and hobbyists with limited experience and an interest in embedded systems analysis and firmware evaluation techniques. It starts with a basic introduction to electronics, using a series of hands-on lab exercises to give the student a comfortable foundation using various embedded analysis tools and techniques, including exercises in extracting and analyzing flash images from live hardware. Students will learn how to identify and extract critical data in the firmware, and perform basic vulnerability analysis on embedded code.
The course continues with advanced emulation and exploitation techniques against MIPS Linux systems, including stack overflows, return to libc and return oriented programming. Students will develop buffer overflow exploits against live MIPS Linux devices using only a firmware update image - no hardware required!
The course culminates with students identifying, exploiting, and patching 0-day vulnerabilities in a real-world embedded device. At the end of the course, students will have the knowledge and experience to perform hardware and firmware analysis of commercial off-the-shelf embedded systems.
Learning Objectives
- Basic introduction to electronics using a series of hands-on lab exercises to give the student a comfortable foundation using various embedded analysis tools and techniques
- Learn how to identify and extract critical data in the firmware and perform basic vulnerability analysis on embedded code
- Learn advanced emulation and exploitation techniques against MIPS Linux systems, including stack overflows, return to libc and return oriented programming
- Develop buffer overflow exploits against live MIPS Linux devices using only a firmware update image - no hardware required!
- Concluding with identifying, exploiting, and patching 0-day vulnerabilities in a real-world embedded device.