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.

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.

Contents

• Software Tools
  • Analysis Frameworks
  • Analysis Tools
  • Extraction Tools
  • Support Tools
• Hardware Tools
• Books
• Research Papers
  • Case Studies
• Free Trainings
• 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.
• 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

• 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

• 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 Trainings

• 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
• OWASP Internet of Things Project
• Hacking Printers Wiki
• Router Passwords - Default login credential database sorted by manufacturer.

Conferences

• Hardwear.io

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.