RE//verse Training - Applied Physical Attacks: Hardware Reverse Engineering with Joe FitzPatrick

RE//verse Training - Applied Physical Attacks: Hardware Reverse Engineering with Joe FitzPatrick

$4,800.00 Sale

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This course, customized for RE//verse, covers the material in Applied Physical Attacks 1 & 2 classes, but with a strong emphasis on the reverse engineering aspects. Our goal is to fill in the blanks between getting a piece of hardware in your hands and getting some binary code to reverse engineer.

  • TRAINING DATES: February 24 - February 27, 2025
  • CONFERENCE DATES: February 28 - March 1, 2025
  • LOCATION: Caribe Royale, Orlando, FL
  • NOTE: Conference admission purchased separately. Conference tickets can be purchased here.

Over the first two days, we'll cover the topics from Applied Physical Attacks on Embedded and IoT systems to introduce you to embedded devices, some basic hardware skills, and get you comfortable with the basic tools and techniques. 

We will reverse engineer:

  • A printed circuit board to identify physically accessible debug interfaces
  • The boot process of an embedded linux system to identify ways to escalate privilege
  • A standard protocol to understand how we can use it to extract firmware
  • A firmware image to identify and unpack it's contents
  • Some MIPS assembly on a live system to bypass permission checks inside the kernel

Once we have that groundwork covered, we'll switch over to a new pair of target systems used in Applied Physical Attacks and Hardware Pentesting to dive deeper into more difficult and black-box scenarios and learn how to best direct our reverse engineering efforts with a bit of planning. 

We will reverse engineer:

  • A pair of embedded device circuit boards, to determine their components, general schematic, and how parts are connected
  • One device's hardware debug interface, from scratch, to configure the tooling necessary to give us run control of that device
  • The architectural layout of that same device, to get our hands on some binary firmware to explore
  • Another embedded device's tamper detection/deterrent features, to build a hardware device allowing us to bypass them
  • A few custom protocols, to build devices that replay and mitm those protocols

At the end, you'll get to take home the tools and the targets you used in the class, along with a few binary images for your personal enjoyment.

Key Takeaways

  • Comfort and confidence when looking at hardware devices
  • Understanding of the current tools and techniques, including their limitations
  • Appreciation of how and when leveraging physical access to hardware and can inform and enable software reverse engineering.

Who Should Take this Course:

This course is geared toward reverse engineers and other security-focused people who wish to expand their skills to include reverse engineering circuit boards, embedded systems, and wire protocols.

Audience Skill Level:

Beginner through Intermediate

Student Requirements:

  • No hardware or electrical background is required.
  • Computer architecture knowledge and low-level programming experience are helpful but not required.
  • Familiarity with the Linux command line allows students to focus on the tools being used instead of struggling with the command line itself.

What Students Should Bring:

  • A lab computer or laptop running native Ubuntu 20.04+ with administrator rights, 2 usb ports, and an ethernet port

Note: OSX and other Linux systems may suffice. Windows or virtualization will not work and we won't be able to help debug issues.

What Students Will Be Provided With:

  • A kit of hardware hacking tools and target hardware for the class
  • A script to install all the necessary tools and utilities for the class
  • Access to all course materials and pre-recorded lecture videos after the course

Trainer:

Joe FitzPatrick (@securelyfitz) is an Instructor and Researcher at SecuringHardware.com. Joe started his career working on low-level silicon debug, security validation, and penetration testing of CPUS, SOCs, and microcontrollers. He founded SecuringHardware.com and has spent decades developing and leading hardware security-related training, instructing hundreds of security researchers, pen-testers, hardware validators worldwide. 

When not teaching classes on applied physical attacks, Joe is busy developing new course content or working on contributions to the NSA Playset and other misdirected hardware projects, which he regularly presents at all sorts of fun conferences.