Defining firmware analysis methodology
Firmware is the center of controlling IoT devices, which is why we may want to start analyzing its contents before other pieces of the device's components. Depending on the industry your IoT device is manufactured for, obtaining a firmware image and disassembling its contents may be trivial. Similarly, some industry verticals require certain safeguards that may make reverse engineering more difficult and/or time-consuming. Nevertheless, there are common patterns we will look for when analyzing firmware. Usually, the most common goals of an assessor will be to locate the following:
- Passwords
- API tokens
- API endpoints (URLs)
- Vulnerable services
- Backdoor accounts
- Configuration files
- Source code
- Private keys
- How data is stored
Throughout the following recipes, we will have the same goals when analyzing firmware. This recipe will show you the overview methodology of firmware analysis and reverse engineering.
The following is a list of the basic methodologies for analyzing...
