Awesome Embedded and IoT Security

A curated list of awesome resources about embedded and IoT security. The list contains software and hardware tools, books, research papers and more.

Botnets like Mirai have proven that there is a need for more security in embedded and IoT devices. This list shall help beginners and experts to find helpful resources on the topic.
If you are a beginner, you should have a look at the Books and Case Studies sections.
If you want to start right away with your own analysis, you should give the Analysis Frameworks a try. They are easy to use and you do not need to be an expert to get first meaningful results.

Items marked with 💶 are comercial products.

Contents

• Software Tools
  • Analysis Frameworks
  • Analysis Tools
  • Extraction Tools
  • Support Tools
• Hardware Tools
• Books
• Research Papers
• Case Studies
• Free Training
• Websites
• Conferences

Software Tools

Software tools for analyzing embedded/IoT firmware.

Analysis Frameworks

• EXPLIoT - Pentest framework like Metasploit but specialized for IoT.
• FACT - The Firmware Analysis and Comparison Tool - Full-featured static analysis framework including extraction of firmware, analysis utilizing different plug-ins and comparison of different firmware versions.
• FwAnalyzer - Analyze security of firmware based on customized rules. Intended as additional step in DevSecOps, similar to CI.

Analysis Tools

• Binwalk - Searches a binary for "interesting" stuff.
• Firmadyne - Tries to emulate and pentest a firmware.
• firmwalker - Searches extracted firmware images for interesting files and information.
• Firmware Slap - Discovering vulnerabilities in firmware through concolic analysis and function clustering.
• Ghidra - Software Reverse Engineering suite; handles arbitrary binaries, if you provide CPU architecture and endianness of the binary.
• Radare2 - Software Reverse Engineering framework, also handles popular formats and arbitrary binaries, has an extensive command line toolset.
• Trommel - Searches extracted firmware images for interesting files and information.

Extraction Tools

• Binwalk - Extracts arbitrary files utilizing a carving approach.
• FACT Extractor - Detects container format automatically and executes the corresponding extraction tool.
• Firmware Mod Kit - Extraction tools for several container formats.
• The SRecord package - Collection of tools for manipulating EPROM files (can convert lots of binary formats).

Support Tools

• JTAGenum - Add JTAG capabilities to an Arduino.
• OpenOCD - Free and Open On-Chip Debugging, In-System Programming and Boundary-Scan Testing.

Hardware Tools

• Bus Blaster - Detects and interacts with hardware debug ports like UART and JTAG.
• Bus Pirate - Detects and interacts with hardware debug ports like UART and JTAG.
• JTAGULATOR - Detects JTAG Pinouts fast.
• Saleae - Easy to use Logic Analyzer that support many protocols 💶.
• Ikalogic - Alternative to Saleae logic analyzers 💶.
• HydraBus - Open source multi-tool hardware similar to the BusPirate but with NFC capabilities.
• ChipWhisperer - Detects Glitch/Side-channel attacks.
• Glasgow - Tool for exploring and debugging different digital interfaces.
• J-Link - J-Link offers USB powered JTAG debug probes for multiple different CPU cores 💶.

Books

• 2020, Jasper van Woudenberg, Colin O'Flynn: The Hardware Hacking Handbook: Breaking Embedded Security with Hardware Attacks
• 2019, Yago Hansen: The Hacker's Hardware Toolkit: The best collection of hardware gadgets for Red Team hackers, Pentesters and security researchers
• 2019, Aditya Gupta: The IoT Hacker's Handbook: A Practical Guide to Hacking the Internet of Things
• 2018, Mark Swarup Tehranipoor: Hardware Security: A Hands-on Learning Approach
• 2017, Aditya Gupta, Aaron Guzman: IoT Penetration Testing Cookbook
• 2017, Andrew Huang: The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware
• 2016, Craig Smith: The Car Hacker's Handbook: A Guide for the Penetration Tester
• 2015, Nitesh Dhanjan: Abusing the Internet of Things: Blackouts, Freakouts, and Stakeouts
• 2014, Debdeep Mukhopadhyay: Hardware Security: Design, Threats, and Safeguards
• 2014, Jack Ganssle: The Firmware Handbook (Embedded Technology)
• 2013, Andrew Huang: Hacking the XBOX

Research Papers

• 2019, Alrawi et al: SoK: Security Evaluation of Home-Based IoT Deployments
• 2019, Abbasi et al: Challenges in Designing Exploit Mitigations for Deeply Embedded Systems
• 2019, Song et al: PeriScope: An Effective Probing and Fuzzing Framework for the Hardware-OS Boundary
• 2018, Muench et al: What You Corrupt Is Not What You Crash: Challenges in Fuzzing Embedded Devices
• 2017, O'Meara et al: Embedded Device Vulnerability Analysis Case Study Using Trommel
• 2017, Jacob et al: How to Break Secure Boot on FPGA SoCs through Malicious Hardware
• 2017, Costin et al: Towards Automated Classification of Firmware Images and Identification of Embedded Devices
• 2016, Kammerstetter et al: Embedded Security Testing with Peripheral Device Caching and Runtime Program State Approximation
• 2016, Chen et al: Towards Automated Dynamic Analysis for Linux-based Embedded Firmware
• 2016, Costin et al: Automated Dynamic Firmware Analysis at Scale: A Case Study on Embedded Web Interfaces
• 2015, Shoshitaishvili et al:Firmalice - Automatic Detection of Authentication Bypass Vulnerabilities in Binary Firmware
• 2015, Papp et al: Embedded Systems Security: Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Attack Taxonomy
• 2014, Zaddach et al: Avatar: A Framework to Support Dynamic Security Analysis of Embedded Systems' Firmwares
• 2014, Alimi et al: Analysis of embedded applications by evolutionary fuzzing
• 2014, Costin et al: A Large-Scale Analysis of the Security of Embedded Firmware s
• 2013, Davidson et al: FIE on Firmware: Finding Vulnerabilities in Embedded Systems using Symbolic Execution

Case Studies

• Binary Hardening in IoT products
• Deadly Sins Of Development - Conference talk presenting several real world examples on real bad implementations 📺.
• Hacking the DSP-W215, Again
• Multiple vulnerabilities found in the D-link DWR-932B
• Pwning the Dlink 850L routers and abusing the MyDlink Cloud protocol
• PWN Xerox Printers (...again)

Free Training

• Hardware Hacking 101 - Workshop @ BSides Munich 2019.
• IoTGoat - IoTGoat is a deliberately insecure firmware based on OpenWrt.
• Rhme-2017/2018 - Riscure Hack Me 3 embedded hardware CTF 2017-2018.
• Rhme-2016 - Riscure Hack me 2 is a low level hardware CTF challenge.
• Rhme-2015 - First riscure Hack me hardware CTF challenge.
• Embedded Security CTF - Microcorruption: Embedded Security CTF.

Websites

• OWASP Embedded Application Security Project - Development best practices and list of hardware and software tools.
• OWASP Internet of Things Project - IoT common vulnerabilities and attack surfaces.
• Hacking Printers Wiki
• Router Passwords - Default login credential database sorted by manufacturer.

Conferences

Conferences focused on embedded and/or IoT security.

• Hardwear.io - The Hague, September.
• Hardwear.io USA - Santa Clara, June.

Contribute

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.

License

To the extent possible under law, Fraunhofer FKIE has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.