An Introduction to Hardware Hacking

September 14, 2020 Arash Parsa

With the introduction of more and more IOT and embedded devices in the market, hackers are starting to find firmware exploitation as a more viable mechanism for gaining access into networks and taking over machines. Many of these devices don’t include security mechanisms out of the box, can contain backdoors that provide easy shells, or contain a number of other vulnerabilities that can make them an easy point of entry into any network.

This blog will be the first in a series on how to dump and analyze the firmware of embedded devices. I will address the various ways we can access firmware and analyze it for vulnerabilities so we can confirm if these connected devices that are so prevalent in all our homes are really safe and secure.

The Badge Challenge

The first device we will be looking at is a conference badge. I got the idea from the badge challenge from a BSides Rochester event (fig.1). A badge challenge, for those who don’t know, is often done at security conferences where an electronic badge is provided to attendees. Because of its very nature, these badges house sensitive data and the challenge is around finding vulnerabilities and data that can assist in the conference’s overall “Capture the Flag” hacking competition.

If you’ve never attended a BSides conference I recommend looking at one near you (http://www.securitybsides.com/w/page/12194156/FrontPage).


Figure 1 – bsides Badge

The first thing we need to do when analyzing an embedded device – like this badge — is to identify the chips on the board. Generally, what we are trying to find is some sort of chip that stores the data for the firmware. You can think of this as a hard drive of sorts. Often this is a flash chip or an MCU (microcontroller unit). This chip is used for storing data and usually contains the bootloader, kernel, and filesystem for the device. If we find the flash chip, we can access it and dump its contents and the firmware.

Fortunately, this device makes it pretty easy, as this device only has 1 chip on the board (everything else is an LED).

What we want to do next is identify the type of chip this is. All chips will have writing on top of them that identifies the make and model of the chip. The writing can often be illegible to the naked eye, so using your phone’s camera and zoom features or a magnifying glass will help ease this process.

This chip has “Atmel 10v Tiny 85V” (fig.2) which signifies we are working with an MCU. Googling this provides us with a valid data sheet for our chip: https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-2586-AVR-8-bit-Microcontroller-ATtiny25-ATtiny45-ATtiny85_Datasheet.pdf which we will use to identify the pins we need to connect to (fig.3).


Figure 2 – bsides Badge Back


Figure 3 – atiny85 Diagram

Here we can see what each pin does relative to the Atmel chip. The little circle at the top left of the chip identifies the orientation and tells us where pin 1 is. At this point it’s time to connect our Bus Pirate to the Atmel chip. I will use a SOIC clip to simplify the connection.

To connect the SOIC clip, make sure the side with the red line is on the side of the chip with the circle in the top left. This will align the 1-8 pins together on the SOIC clip perfectly. In addition, make sure the metal contacts on the clip touch the metal contacts on the pin. If done properly, we can identify the pinouts on the clip by looking at the numbers on the end.


Figure 4 – Speaker Badge Connected to Soic Clip


Figure 5 – Soic Clip

Now that the SOIC clip is attached we just need to connect the Bus Pirate to the SOIC clip and dump the data on the chip. Connect the pins based on the table below.

Atmel Bus Pirate
Reset CS
GND GND
VCC 3.3v
SCK CLK
MISO MISO
MOSI MOSI

This is what it looks like with the pins connected:


Figure 6 – Soic Clip Labeled


Figure 7 – Bus Pirate Cables

Now we connect the Bus Pirate to our machine and dump the firmware using avrdude software. Each cable is a totally different color to make it easy to distinguish. Fig.6 shows the SOIC Clip end connection and fig.7 shows the connection into the Bus Pirate. For the actual dumping, I personally like using Ubuntu and Attify (https://github.com/adi0x90/attifyos) VMs for this sort of work. The Attify VM often works if the Ubuntu VM fails and vice versa.

The following command will list all chips avrdude supports: “avrdude -p ?”

Within the results we will look for our chip, specifically to see if it supports Tiny85, which it does.

T45 = ATiny45
T461 = ATiny461
T5 = ATiny5
T84 = ATiny84
T85 = ATiny85
T861 = ATiny861
T88 = ATiny88
T9 = ATiny9
X128a1 = ATxmega128A1

And using this final command we can dump the firmware to a file flash.bin: “sudo avrdude -p attiny85 -c buspirate -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -U flash:r:flash.bin:r

Now at this point, I had issues recreating this for screenshots and discovered at some point I burned both the CS and MISO pins on my Bus Pirate so I am unable to continue dumping until my new device arrives. Lesson here is, be careful with your dumping devices — especially the more expensive ones like the Jtagulator. If you don’t plug things in correctly you run a real risk of burning your devices.

To test the old Bus Pirate we connect the 5v pin to the VPU pin and the 3.3v pin to the ADC pin (fig.8):


Figure 8 – Bus Pirate Cables Test

Then we connect the Bus Pirate to our machine and connect into it with the following command: “sudo picocom -b 115200 -r -l /dev/ttyUSB0

You can start a test by entering “~” and then hitting space. Then, if anything fails in the results there may be something wrong with your device. I tried flashing several different firmwares to see if that would resolve anything but, in reality, I just wasn’t very careful with this device as it was pretty cheap, and I most likely burned the pins. As you can see below, my CS and MISO pins are failing:

HiZ>~
Disconnect any devices
Connect (Vpu to +5V) and (ADC to +3.3V)
Space to continue
Ctrl
AUX OK
MODE LED OK
PULLUP H OK
PULLUP L OK
VREG OK
ADC and supply
5V(4.92) OK
VPU(4.93) OK
3.3V(3.28) OK
ADC(3.28) OK
Bus high
MOSI OK
CLK OK
MISO FAIL
CS OK
Bus Hi-Z 0
MOSI OK
CLK OK
MISO OK
CS FAIL
Bus Hi-Z 1
MOSI OK
CLK OK
MISO FAIL
CS OK
MODE and VREG LEDs should be on!
Any key to exit
Found 3 errors.

If the firmware dump fails but your Bus Pirate self-tests show everything is OK, it may be the length of the jumper cables, as they can be too long it which will cause connection issues. Using the jumper cables that came with my Jtagulator seem to work fine and haven’t failed me yet.

Luckily, I managed to snag some screenshots of a successful dump before my Bus Pirate burned out on me, you can see these below:


Figure 9 – avrdude Dump


Figure 10 – avrdude Flag

And there’s our flag and badge challenge completed (fig.10)!

Now it’s important to note that in this case, our dump with avrdude only worked because the Atmel chip itself was not locked. It is trivial to lock an Atmel chip by setting what are called “lock bits” after programming the chip. When lock bits are set, and someone tries to dump the chip, it blocks unauthorized access and does not produce any valid firmware data to analyze.

Now that we’ve dumped a simple Atmel chip, we’ll go ahead and dump a more complex board as well.

Dumping a Belkin N300 Router

The next board we will be dumping is a Belkin N300 router. Belkin is one of the most popular consumer router brands, which means unlike the previous CTF Badge, this challenge provides more of a real-world scenario. Discovering an exploit in here could impact households all over the globe.
First thing we’ll do is go ahead and try to locate a flash chip again. This time we identify an MX25L1606E chip (fig.11) (Data Sheet – https://www.macronix.com/Lists/ApplicationNote/Attachments/1991/AN0055V4-Migrate_to_MX25L1606E_and_MX25L8006E-0118.pdf).


Figure 11 – mx25l1606e Chip

Moving forward we’ll use the Attify Badge (fig.12) to dump our firmware since the Bus Pirate is out of commission.


Figure 12 – Attify Badge

The pin out is as follows:


Figure 13 – mx25l1606e Diagram

MX25L1606E Attify Badge
CS CS
SO MOSI
GND GND
VCC 3.3V
SCLK SCK
SI MOSI

When completed it should look like this:


Figure 14 – mx25l1606E -connected to Attify Badge

There was limited space on this board to use a SOIC clip because of the metal frame around the flash chip, as a result I resorted to using alligator clips this round. You can see I had to beat up the framing just to fit the alligator clips even.

Now we’re ready to go ahead and dump this firmware. This time we will be using a utility called “flashrom” instead of avrdude as we will be dealing with a flash SPI chip instead of an Atmel chip.

First we can go ahead and identify if flashrom can dump our chip with the following command: “flashrom -p ft2232_spi:type=232H

This will attempt to automatically identify our chip. If you are using the Bus Pirate you can just replace the argument passed to -p with the following instead: “flashrom -p buspirate_spi:dev=/dev/ttyUSB0

/dev/ttyUSB0 is the serial port the Bus Pirate is connected to, change this as required. After running the command it successfully returns the following:

flashrom v0.9.9-r1954 on Linux 4.15.0-88-generic (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... delay loop is unreliable, trying to continue OK.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E/MX25L1608E" (2048 kB, SPI) on ft2232_spi.

If chip identification fails don’t worry, you can just use “flashrom -L” to find your chip in the list manually and run the next command to see if it will still read the chip: “flashrom -p ft2232_spi:type=232H -c MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E/MX25L1608E -r dump.bin”

The -p tells it we would like to use the ft2232 programmer (replace this with the -p argument above if using the Bus Pirate), the -c tells it what kind of flash chip we are working with that we would like to dump (in this case the MX25L1606E ), and -r dump.bin tells it to read the contents into the file dump.bin. If this completes successfully, we should get a valid firmware file. If it fails it will either error out completely or create a file filled with null bytes.

If you’re wondering how long this can take, it could be a while, especially with bigger chips. We can identify the size from the data sheet. The MX25L1606E ends at the address 1FFFFF which is 2097151 bytes or 2MB (fig.15).


Figure 15 – mx25l1606e Memory Organization

This 2MB chip took about 2 minutes to fully dump. In the end, we are fortunate and get a successful firmware dump on the first try:

iot@attifyos ~> flashrom -p ft2232_spi:type=232H -c MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E/MX25L1608E -r dump.bin
flashrom v0.9.9-r1954 on Linux 4.15.0-88-generic (x86_64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... delay loop is unreliable, trying to continue OK.
Found Macronix flash chip "MX25L1605A/MX25L1606E/MX25L1608E" (2048 kB, SPI) on ft2232_spi.
Reading flash... done.

Doing a binwalk presents the following:

iot@attifyos ~> binwalk dump.bin 

DECIMAL       HEXADECIMAL     DESCRIPTION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5440          0x1540          LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 8388608 bytes, uncompressed size: 85344 bytes
28570         0x6F9A          Sercomm firmware signature, version control: 256, download control: 0, hardware ID: "AAZ", hardware version: 0x3200, firmware version: 0x6, starting code segment: 0x0, code size: 0x7310
142352        0x22C10         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 8388608 bytes, uncompressed size: 2764800 bytes
881324        0xD72AC         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3450 bytes
882534        0xD7766         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 10162 bytes
884943        0xD80CF         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 118270 bytes
917640        0xE0088         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 11937 bytes
920834        0xE0D02         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2992 bytes
921709        0xE106D         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 177 bytes
921863        0xE1107         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 116 bytes
921999        0xE118F         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 491 bytes
922337        0xE12E1         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 718 bytes
922610        0xE13F2         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 20267 bytes
926110        0xE219E         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 1196 bytes
926568        0xE2368         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 140 bytes
926729        0xE2409         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 708 bytes
927159        0xE25B7         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 17248 bytes
930471        0xE32A7         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 141 bytes
930632        0xE3348         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 543 bytes
930971        0xE349B         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 4166 bytes
932391        0xE3A27         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 5883 bytes
933996        0xE406C         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3257 bytes
935281        0xE4571         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 49 bytes
935337        0xE45A9         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 7205 bytes
936048        0xE4870         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 4716 bytes
937318        0xE4D66         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2506 bytes
937984        0xE5000         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 7376 bytes
938892        0xE538C         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2951 bytes
939613        0xE565D         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 7369 bytes
940273        0xE58F1         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 11312 bytes
942619        0xE621B         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 7671 bytes
944755        0xE6A73         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 300 bytes
945073        0xE6BB1         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 99243 bytes
974918        0xEE046         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 89932 bytes
1006871       0xF5D17         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 55 bytes
1006939       0xF5D5B         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 1484 bytes
1007670       0xF6036         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 11316 bytes
1008768       0xF6480         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 6962 bytes
1010654       0xF6BDE         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2723 bytes
1011701       0xF6FF5         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 9151 bytes
1013994       0xF78EA         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 13151 bytes
1016828       0xF83FC         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3592 bytes
1018079       0xF88DF         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 27452 bytes
1024437       0xFA1B5         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 711 bytes
1024870       0xFA366         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 71 bytes
1024953       0xFA3B9         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3861 bytes
1026104       0xFA838         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 4303 bytes
1026844       0xFAB1C         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 11222 bytes
1029155       0xFB423         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2189 bytes
1030156       0xFB80C         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 15453 bytes
1031493       0xFBD45         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 11326 bytes
1032515       0xFC143         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 4244 bytes
1036593       0xFD131         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 15755 bytes
1040878       0xFE1EE         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2695 bytes
1042083       0xFE6A3         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 1956 bytes
1043986       0xFEE12         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 6532 bytes
1045769       0xFF509         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 868 bytes
1046218       0xFF6CA         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2208 bytes
1047043       0xFFA03         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 1010 bytes
1047474       0xFFBB2         LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2793 bytes
1048685       0x10006D        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 1599 bytes
1049943       0x100557        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 49437 bytes
1055931       0x101CBB        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2276 bytes
1056907       0x10208B        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 9850 bytes
1059309       0x1029ED        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 14359 bytes
1062254       0x10356E        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 115629 bytes
1096126       0x10B9BE        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 142 bytes
1096289       0x10BA61        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2379 bytes
1097270       0x10BE36        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 9662 bytes
1099324       0x10C63C        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 8110 bytes
1100452       0x10CAA4        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 16599 bytes
1104501       0x10DA75        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 113073 bytes
1139633       0x1163B1        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 1164 bytes
1140114       0x116592        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2749 bytes
1141269       0x116A15        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 992 bytes
1141593       0x116B59        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2386 bytes
1142645       0x116F75        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3389 bytes
1143726       0x1173AE        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2593 bytes
1144845       0x11780D        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 112854 bytes
1178716       0x11FC5C        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 23875 bytes
1182332       0x120A7C        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 19256 bytes
1186345       0x121A29        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 22772 bytes
1189511       0x122687        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 19897 bytes
1193861       0x123785        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 5708 bytes
1195343       0x123D4F        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 118097 bytes
1230423       0x12C657        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2468 bytes
1231379       0x12CA13        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 122825 bytes
1264272       0x134A90        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 36 bytes
1264320       0x134AC0        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3331 bytes
1265332       0x134EB4        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 114489 bytes
1299549       0x13D45D        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 6837 bytes
1301387       0x13DB8B        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 13110 bytes
1303991       0x13E5B7        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 119 bytes
1304130       0x13E642        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3482 bytes
1305418       0x13EB4A        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2803 bytes
1306588       0x13EFDC        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 88006 bytes
1337278       0x1467BE        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 6572 bytes
1339658       0x14710A        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2384 bytes
1342047       0x147A5F        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 141 bytes
1342210       0x147B02        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 73 bytes
1342295       0x147B57        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 856 bytes
1343170       0x147EC2        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 625 bytes
1343809       0x148141        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 183 bytes
1343969       0x1481E1        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2619 bytes
1345099       0x14864B        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 3389 bytes
1346055       0x148A07        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 12586 bytes
1347838       0x1490FE        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 118 bytes
1347975       0x149187        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 650 bytes
1348652       0x14942C        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2791 bytes
1349331       0x1496D3        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 615 bytes
1349749       0x149875        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 13284 bytes
1352395       0x14A2CB        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 4897 bytes
1353804       0x14A84C        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 34279 bytes
1358905       0x14BC39        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 113 bytes
1359036       0x14BCBC        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 37989 bytes
1365372       0x14D57C        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2509 bytes
1366497       0x14D9E1        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 2175 bytes
1367477       0x14DDB5        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 7597 bytes
1369498       0x14E59A        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 5214 bytes
1371175       0x14EC27        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 43 bytes
1371229       0x14EC5D        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 114 bytes
1371363       0x14ECE3        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 290 bytes
1371584       0x14EDC0        LZMA compressed data, properties: 0x5D, dictionary size: 65536 bytes, uncompressed size: 929 bytes

Looking at the line with “Sercomm Firmware Signature” we can see a hardware ID of “AAZ”, which matches the hardware ID on the board (fig.16). Now we can go ahead and analyze this firmware for vulnerabilities. Keep in mind, if we can dump firmware we can write custom firmware and backdoors to the flash chip as well.


Figure 16 – Hardware Id

If anything fails, two of the most likely reasons are the pins aren’t properly connected or – if they are properly connected – it’s possible they are powering the SPI chip, which makes the chip inaccessible for dumping. The second scenario can be very common, and the best resolution generally is to simply de-solder the chip using a heat gun and dump the firmware with the chip on its own. As previously mentioned, it is worth checking the length of the cables to ensure the failure did not result from too long of cables.

While dumping these devices can take quite a bit of time, it gives us valuable insights into how these devices work. For example, by dumping the firmware for the Belkin device we can analyze the source web files directly – making it easier to identify remote vulnerabilities and exploits within the device. This also allows us to discover vulnerabilities that wouldn’t present themselves attacking the device blind.

By exploiting these types of devices, an attacker could create a backdoor within your router and reroute all your web traffic, stealing credentials for accounts such as your banking and ecommerce accounts. Knowing where these vulnerabilities exist gives us an opportunity to fix them before they can cause any significant damage.

In the next part of this series we will discuss JTAG and UART serial interfaces, how to access them, and what we can get out of them.

References:

Several tools were used to successfully dump these firmwares:

  1. SOIC Clip:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R5LPTYM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  2. A device for dumping firmware (Bus Pirate): https://www.amazon.com/SparkFun-PID-12942-Bus-Pirate/dp/B01KKYN9LW
  3. Cables and clips: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083PRVPCR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  4. SOIC Clip: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R5LPTYM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  5. Additional useful wires: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PTYBFDT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Bus Pirate is used to interface with the SPI serial protocol to dump the firmware for us. Other viable alternatives include the Shikra (https://int3.cc/products/the-shikra) and the Attify Badge (https://www.attify-store.com/products/attify-badge-uart-jtag-spi-i2c-pre-soldered-headers). Each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages. The Bus Pirate is widely available and very well documented, making it the easiest to use in my opinion. The Shikra is considered to be far more stable and faster than the Bus Pirate but doesn’t have as much support. The Attify badge in comparison is far easier to setup in my experience but again has limited support. The Bus Pirate also provides a nice serial interface that allows you to easily communicate with the device manually if you’d like as well. I personally have one of each, as long as you have at least one of these you should be good to go, but the Shikra is considered more of a specialized tool so the Bus Pirate or the Attify badge are certainly a better place to start.

The cables and clips are pretty cheap and can be bought anywhere really, I recommend these specifically because they have provided me everything I need so far and clip on to the pins well.

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