Joe Grand's Hardware Hacking Basics 2-Day Introduction to Hardware Hacking and Reverse Engineering

Date

02 December 2019 - 03 December 2019

Hosted by

Seaport Conference Center

Location

459 Seaport Ct, Redwood City, CA 94063
View on Google Maps

Trainer

Joe Grand

Language

English

Capacity

24 Sold Out

Course Description

Interested in hardware hacking, but don’t know where to start? This class, taught by world-renowned engineer and hacker Joe Grand, teaches fundamental hardware hacking concepts and techniques used to reverse engineer and defeat the security of electronic devices. Having premiered in 2005, it is the longest running hardware hacking training in the industry.

This comprehensive training covers product teardown, component identification, circuit board reverse engineering, soldering and desoldering, signal monitoring and analysis, and memory extraction, using a variety of tools including a logic analyzer, multimeter, and device programmer. It concludes with a final challenge where you’ll identify, reverse engineer, and defeat the security mechanism of a custom embedded system. No prior hardware, electronics, or security experience is required.

Through Joe’s unique teaching style and relevant hands-on exercises, you’ll not only gain the technical skills to explore, manipulate, and exploit electronic devices, but also the understanding of how to apply your skills against other hardware once you leave the classroom.

Course Outline

1. Hardware Hacking Overview
2. Information Gathering
3. Product Teardown
   • Opening housings
     • Product assembly/disassembly methods
     • Anti-tamper mechanisms
     • Hands-on exercise: Defeat epoxy encapsulation
   • Component identification
     • Discrete components
     • Integrated circuits
     • Finding and reading data sheets
     • Hands-on exercise: Identify target components
4. Schematics and PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards)
   • Creating/reading schematics
   • PCB construction/fabrication methods
   • Hands-on exercise: Modify target PCB
5. Soldering and Desoldering
   • Tips/techniques
   • Hands-on exercise: Soldering
   • Hands-on exercise: Desoldering
6. Buses and Interfaces
   • Identifying interfaces
   • Determining pin function
     • Hands-on exercise: Measurements w/ multimeter
     • Hands-on exercise: Create block diagram/schematic
   • Signal monitoring/analysis
     • Tools/techniques
     • Serial communications interfaces (UART, I2C, SPI)
     • Hands-on exercise: Signal monitoring w/ logic analyzer
     • Hands-on exercise: Digital decoding w/ logic analyzer
     • Hands-on exercise: Interactive console via UART
7. Signal/Data Manipulation
   • Tools/techniques/examples
   • Debug interfaces (vendor-specific, JTAG)
   • Fault injection/glitching
8. Memory and Firmware
   • Memory types
   • Hands-on exercise: Extract/modify data from EEPROM
   • Security/code protection bypass examples
   • Firmware analysis tools/techniques
9. Hardware Hacking Challenge

More information can be found here. A video description can be found here.

Who Should Take This Course

This class is for anyone interested in hardware hacking, including security researchers, digital forensic investigators, design engineers, and executive management. Whether you are looking to expand the capabilities of your organization or would like to understand how hackers may be reverse engineering your products, this class is a great starting point.

What To Bring

Students must provide their own computer running Windows (XP through 7 preferred, administrator access required, within a virtual machine is OK) and containing a functional USB interface. Software and drivers will need to be installed.

What You’ll Get

• Course presentation (in electronic format)
• Hardware hacking/embedded security reference material and software tools (in electronic format)
• Grand Idea Studio’s custom training circuit board