Exploitation of a Hardened MSP430-Based Device - Braden Thomas - Ekoparty Security Conference - 2014

Explore the reverse-engineering and exploitation of a hardened MSP430-based embedded device in this Ekoparty 2014 conference talk. Delve into techniques for exploiting devices with blown JTAG fuses, reviewing past attacks against the MSP's bootstrap loader (BSL) and addressing the challenges researchers face. Learn how to reliably extract firmware from an MSP430 with a blown JTAG fuse, gain insights into reverse-engineering MSP430 firmware, and discover a software-only attack that leverages BSL features to extract sensitive data from RAM. Follow along as the speaker dissects a real estate lockbox, examines its internals, and walks through the reverse-engineering process. Understand voltage glitching and timing attacks, their results, and limitations. Investigate MSP430 JTAG security, firmware reversing techniques, and the manufacturer's crypto architecture. Conclude with discussions on brute force attempts, hardware backdoors, and potential solutions for securing embedded devices.