Serial Flash Chips: The Little Elephants in the Lab

Presented at ToorCon San Diego 19 (2017), Sept. 3, 2017, 3:30 p.m. (20 minutes).

Serial flash chips are found in (almost) all embedded devices however they usually have little to no security protection enabled, thus exposing them to eavesdropping and tampering attacks. These chips contain critical data that can be leveraged during vulnerability research such as device firmware and bootloader images, certificates, and configurations. In this talk I will introduce the most common types of serial flash, and then walk through some practical security assessment techniques while sharing use cases from my prior engagements. I will discuss various hardware and software tools including a new tool I created called sniffROM.


Presenters:

  • Alain Iamburg
    Alain is a security researcher and computer engineer with a particular interest in embedded devices. He enjoys exploring systems, discovering vulnerabilities, and sharing knowledge.

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