Embedded and IoT Security

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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 :euro: are comercial products.

Software Tools

Software tools for analyzing embedded/IoT devices and 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.

HAL – The Hardware Analyzer

A comprehensive reverse engineering and manipulation framework for gate-level netlists.

HomePWN

Swiss Army Knife for Pentesting of IoT Devices.

IoTSecFuzz

Framework for automatisation of IoT layers security analysis: hardware, software and communication.

Killerbee

Framework for Testing & Auditing ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 Networks.

PRET

Printer Exploitation Toolkit.

Routersploit

Framework dedicated to exploit embedded devices.

Improving your firmware security analysis process with FACT - Conference talk about FACT :tv:.

Analysis Tools

Binwalk

Searches a binary for "interesting" stuff, as well as extracts arbitrary files.

cwe\_checker

Finds vulnerable patterns in binary executables - ELF support for x86, ARM, and MIPS, experimental bare-metal support.

emba

Analyze Linux-based firmware of embedded devices.

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

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.

Misc Tools

Cotopaxi

Set of tools for security testing of Internet of Things devices using specific network IoT protocols.

dumpflash

Low-level NAND Flash dump and parsing utility.

flashrom

Tool for detecting, reading, writing, verifying and erasing flash chips.

Samsung Firmware Magic

Decrypt Samsung SSD firmware updates.

Hardware Tools

Bus Blaster

Detects and interacts with hardware debug ports like [UART](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_asynchronous_receiver-transmitter) and [JTAG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTAG).

Bus Pirate

Detects and interacts with hardware debug ports like UART and JTAG.

Shikra

Detects and interacts with hardware debug ports like UART and JTAG. Among other protocols.

JTAGULATOR

Detects JTAG Pinouts fast.

Saleae

Easy to use Logic Analyzer that support many protocols :euro:.

Ikalogic

Alternative to Saleae logic analyzers :euro:.

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 :euro:.

Bluetooth BLE Tools

UberTooth One

Open source 2.4 GHz wireless development platform suitable for Bluetooth experimentation.

Bluefruit LE Sniffer

Easy to use Bluetooth Low Energy sniffer.

ZigBee Tools

ApiMote

ZigBee security research hardware for learning about and evaluating the security of IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee systems. Killerbee compatible.

Freakduino

Low Cost Battery Operated Wireless Arduino Board that can be turned into a IEEE 802.15.4 protocol sniffer.

Atmel RZUSBstick - Discontinued product. Lucky if you have one! - Tool for development, debugging and demonstration of a wide range of low power wireless applications including IEEE 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN, and ZigBee networks. Killerbee compatible.

SDR Tools

RTL-SDR

Cheapest SDR for beginners. It is a computer based radio scanner for receiving live radio signals frequencies from 500 kHz up to 1.75 GHz.

HackRF One

Software Defined Radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals from 1 MHz to 6 GHz (half-duplex).

YardStick One

Half-duplex sub-1 GHz wireless transceiver.

LimeSDR

Software Defined Radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals from 100 KHz to 3.8 GHz (full-duplex).

BladeRF 2.0

Software Defined Radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals from 47 MHz to 6 GHz (full-duplex).

USRP B Series

Software Defined Radio peripheral capable of transmission or reception of radio signals from 70 MHz to 6 GHz (full-duplex).

RFID NFC Tools

Proxmark 3 RDV4

Powerful general purpose RFID tool. From Low Frequency (125kHz) to High Frequency (13.56MHz) tags.

ChamaleonMini

Programmable, portable tool for NFC security analysis.

HydraNFC

Powerful 13.56MHz RFID / NFC platform. Read / write / crack / sniff / emulate.

Books

2020, Fotios Chantzis, Evangel Deirme, Ioannis Stais, Paulino Calderon, Beau Woods: Practical IoT Hacking
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
2018, Mark Carney: Pentesting Hardware - A Practical Handbook (DRAFT)
2018, Qing Yang, Lin Huang Inside Radio: An Attack and Defense Guide
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, Keng Tiong Ng: The Art of PCB Reverse Engineering
2015, Nitesh Dhanjan: Abusing the Internet of Things: Blackouts, Freakouts, and Stakeouts
2015, Joshua Wright , Johnny Cache: Hacking Wireless Exposed
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

2020, Oser et al: SAFER: Development and Evaluation of an IoT Device Risk Assessment Framework in a Multinational Organization
2019, Agarwal et al: Detecting IoT Devices and How They Put Large Heterogeneous Networks at Security Risk
2019, Almakhdhub et al: BenchIoT: A Security Benchmark for the Internet of Things
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 Firmwares
2013, Davidson et al: FIE on Firmware: Finding Vulnerabilities in Embedded Systems using Symbolic Execution

Case Studies

Binary Hardening in IoT products

Cracking Linksys “Encryption”

Deadly Sins Of Development

Conference talk presenting several real world examples on real bad implementations :tv:.

Dumping firmware from a device's SPI flash with a buspirate

Hacking the DSP-W215, Again

Hacking the PS4

Introduction to PS4's security.

IoT Security@CERN

Multiple vulnerabilities found in the D-link DWR-932B

Pwning the Dlink 850L routers and abusing the MyDlink Cloud protocol

PWN Xerox Printers (...again)

Reversing Firmware With Radare

Reversing the Huawei HG533

Free Training

CSAW Embedded Security Challenge 2019

CSAW 2019 Embedded Security Challenge (ESC).

Embedded Security CTF

Microcorruption: Embedded Security CTF.

Hardware Hacking 101

Workshop @ BSides Munich 2019.

IoTGoat

IoTGoat is a deliberately insecure firmware based on OpenWrt.

Rhme-2015

First riscure Hack me hardware CTF challenge.

Rhme-2016

Riscure Hack me 2 is a low level hardware CTF challenge.

Rhme-2017/2018

Riscure Hack Me 3 embedded hardware CTF 2017-2018.

Websites

Hacking Printers Wiki

All things printer.

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.

Router Passwords

Default login credential database sorted by manufacturer.

Siliconpr0n

A Wiki/Archive of all things IC reversing.

Blogs

RTL-SDR

/dev/ttyS0's Embedded Device Hacking

Exploiteers

Hackaday

jcjc's Hack The World

Quarkslab

wrong baud

Firmware Security

PenTestPartners

Attify

Patayu

GracefulSecurity - Hardware tag

Black Hills - Hardware Hacking tag

Tutorials and Technical Background

Azeria Lab

Miscellaneous ARM related Tutorials.

JTAG Explained

A walkthrough covering UART and JTAG bypassing a protected login shell.

Reverse Engineering Serial Ports

Detailed tutorial about how to spot debug pads on a PCB.

UART explained

An in depth explanation of the UART protocol.

YouTube Channels

Flashback Team

A duo of hackers explaining their step by step approach to finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in embedded devices.

StackSmashing

Reverse engineering and hardware hacking of embedded devices.

Conferences

Hardwear.io

Conferences focused on embedded and/or IoT security.

EU, The Hague, September.
USA, Santa Clara, June.