Hardware Hacking For Beginners

Why should you care about hardware?

Things To Consider

  • Cost of tools;
    • Logic analysers;
    • USB to <PROTOCOL> (UART, JTAG, etc) dongles;
    • Bus Pirate;
    • Soldering Iron stations;
    • More...
  • Cost of tested device (at least 2);
    • 1 just for "dismembering".
  • Prior research;
    • Previous vulnerabilities, etc.
  • Legal aspect;
    • Company with/without Bug Bounty program;
    • Warranty.
  • Importance
    • Fun or impact.

Steps: Reconnaissance

  • Open-Source Intelligence;
    • Leaked blueprints;
    • Publicly available information;
    • FCC website for patent data;
    • Forums and online-available firmware;
    • Etc... 
  • Disassembly of the device/s;
  • Documents and papers in the box! :D

Steps: Discovery (Poking around)

  • Locating common debug Interfaces;
    • UART (3-4 pins);
    • JTAG (6+ pins).
  • Checking network side (if one);
    • NMAP-ing;
    • Locating web application or other network-exposed services;
    • Fuzzing.
  • Locating memory chips;
  • Checking permissions - web, network, and debug interfaces.

Steps: Reversing & Exploitation?

  • Connecting to hardware debug interfaces;
    • USB to UART connections soldering;
    • USB to JTAG connection coupling.
  • Accessing network/web interfaces;
  • Extracting firmware (or downloading, if available);
    • Extraction through debug interface;
    • Extraction through direct memory chip access clamp (flash reader);
    • Extraction through download from public repository.
  • Reverse engineering firmware;
  • Exploring and fuzzing potentially vulnerable endpoints;
  • Trying hardware exploits and fault injections.

Case Study: TP-Link C200

Source of photos and some data from: https://drmnsamoliu.github.io/hardware.html

All rights are his.

The Target 

  • TP-Link C200 - a home surveillance camera;
  •  WiFi connectable, exposed to the global internet, if configured;
  • Accessible via TP-Link proprietary mobile application;

The Hardware

The processor: Realtek RTS3903 SoC

The network chip: Realtek 8188FTV

The memory: XMC  XM25QH64A NOR Flash

The debug interface: UART

The Endpoints

  • UART access on circuit board;
  • NMAP shows multiple network endpoints (and ports);
    • HTTP endpoint (443) - API;
    • RTSP endpoint (554) - video feed access;
    • xinupageserver (2020) - motion detector access?;
    • sunwebadmin (8800) - config/update?.
nmap -p- -sV 172.0.0.168

Nmap scan report for 
TEST-CAM-C200 (172.0.0.168)
Host is up (0.153s latency).
Not shown: 996 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
443/tcp  open  https
554/tcp  open  rtsp
2020/tcp open  xinupageserver
8800/tcp open  sunwebadmin

Getting a Shell

Getting a Shell: The Bootl0g

On local PC:

$ sudo su
$ screen /dev/ttyUSB0 57600

Getting a Shell: The Password

<Firmware>/squashfs-root/etc/passwd
/squashfs/etc/passwd

0: $1$kX3zxwZJ$oalW3az6H3F/au8T0CB96.

After some brute forcing (curtesy to @kubik369):

slprealtek

Looking at the firmware

Looking at the firmware

/bin/uhttpd

Let's see it in real life!

Hardware Hacking

By Ivan Zlatanov

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Hardware Hacking

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