In our last free Upskill Challenge, we tackled Reverse Engineering Software (Details | Enroll). This time we look at the basics of Reverse Engineering Hardware. Reverse Engineering (RE) is, quite simply, analyzing an engineered system to figure out how it works, and ultimately, to answer questions about it. With computer systems, reverse engineering can mean many things, because there are many different ‘things’ you can reverse engineer. You may choose to reverse-engineer a Roomba (or Shark if you’re super cool) or a Tesla. You could also RE a wired or wireless network protocol or perhaps the hardware that runs the computer itself… or a dongle, or external component, or… I think you get the point. Each of these ‘things’ requires a different approach and a different set of skills, but the concepts are basically the same. This UC is focused on Hardware RE, where we take a look at the very wiring and components that make up a computer system!
Price = FREE!
Goals for Reverse Engineering Hardware
By the end of this UC, you should have a high-level understanding of:
- What is Hardware Reversing?
- Why you might want to RE HW
- Various types of hardware to reverse
- Core concepts of reverse engineering hardware
- Components on a PCB
- Attacks
- Tools
- An Iterative Approach to Reversing Hardware
What’s an Upskill Challenge (UC)?
A UC is a CTF-style, bite-sized lesson from the JHT Team, our courseware developers as well as “friends” of JHT. They are meant to be short and to the point. UCs focus on a single tool or concept and are helpful in quickly providing useful skills that might be prerequisites for other types of educational content on the platform.
A UC should be 10 – 30 minutes of student time and have no VMs. There are quizzes to make sure that the content is understood.
Prerequisites for UC – Reverse Engineering Hardware
UCs assume no knowledge at all! They’re meant to be completely self-contained, so all of the answers are in the lesson. No outside research is required.
