Hardware Podcasts

002 - Cheap And Easy

Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 30 Aug 2017 · 55m

What this episode covers

Dmitry Grinberg, a hardware hacker and reverse engineer, discusses his journey from writing PalmOS utilities as a teenager to his recent projects involving the Sega Dreamcast VMU and Cypress PSoC 4 microcontrollers. He details the technical challenges of reverse engineering the VMU's Maple bus protocol, creating an IDA Pro plugin for its custom Sanyo 68K CPU, and writing an ARM emulator to run C code on the device. Grinberg also explains how he exploited the PSoC 4's supervisory ROM to dump its firmware and uncripple lower-end chips by removing market segmentation restrictions.

Most relevant to

makers and hobbyists

Topics

Mentioned

Products
Sega Dreamcast, VMU
Chips
Cypress PSoC 4, STM32, AVR
Tools
Saleae Logic 16, IDA Pro, J-Link, U-Link
Also
Dmitry Grinberg, PalmOS, Maple Bus, Linux

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Embedded.fm · 50m

    111: Potty Train Your Tamagotchi (Repeat)

    Natalie Silvanovich, a security engineer at Google Project Zero, discusses her reverse engineering of Tamagotchi devices, detailing how she dumped code from General Plus 6502-based hardware and created a development kit. She explains the technical challenges of working with mask ROM, undocumented processors, and the specific vulnerabilities in Tamagotchi 'figures' that allowed for code execution. Silvanovich also touches on her broader career in hardware and software security, including her work on Flash exploits and the 'Hardware Excuse Generator' tool.

    Debugging & failure analysisMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    8 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 12m

    259: Calculators Changed My Life

    Brandon Wilson, a software developer and security consultant, discusses his decades-long journey of hacking Texas Instruments graphing calculators, starting from middle school. He details the technical evolution of TI's security measures, including the use of Z80 and Motorola 68K processors, flash unlock exploits, and the eventual factorization of 512-bit RSA signing keys by the community. Wilson also describes his reverse engineering of a limited-edition Sega Genesis game cartridge and his work on abusing USB protocols to jailbreak the PlayStation 3 and modify cheap USB flash drive firmware.

    Debugging & failure analysisMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    7 chapters

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 02m

    506: How Do I Fit a Whale Into an Apartment Building?

    Dmitry Grinberg, a software engineer known for running Linux on extremely constrained hardware, explains his projects including 8-pin Linux and Linux on the Intel 4004. He details how he emulates a MIPS processor on small microcontrollers like the STM32G031 to bypass memory constraints, allowing Debian to run on devices with as few as eight pins. Grinberg discusses the technical challenges of emulation, component selection, and his philosophy on open-source hardware documentation.

    Embedded firmwareMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    9 chapters

  • Hackaday Podcast · 1h 10m

    Ep 387: Superhuman Clocks, CAN in USB-C, and the Joys of Bare Metal

    Hackaday editors Elliot Williams and Tom Nardi discuss recent community hacks, including Mikey Sklar's work to bring MicroPython's Viper and empy cross speedups to CircuitPython, and Bas Bottberg's reverse engineering of a Bluetooth printer using bleak. They also cover Ben's complete firmware rewrite of an E-grooter in Rust, which involved discovering CAN bus over USB-C, and Egg Karate Singh's complex mechanical clocks like Ovodio. The episode concludes with Hackaday Europe talks: Sylvain's bare metal 'Minimacy' virtual machine for security-critical applications, and Janelle Wellen's presentation on space mission hacks and troubleshooting.

    Embedded firmwareDebugging & failure analysis
    10 chapters

  • Hackaday Podcast · 57m

    Ep094: Fake Sun, Hacked Super Mario, Minimum Viable Smart Glasses, and 3D Printers Can't Do That

    Hackaday editors Mike Szczys and Elliot Williams discuss a variety of hardware hacks, including a fake sun built from a satellite dish, the reverse engineering of a hacked Super Mario Game & Watch, and minimalist smart glasses by Samson March. They also cover a drill bit sorting system using Bluetooth calipers, a 6502 computer with wire-wrap construction, and a teardown of the Signet Technology Recon Sentinel network security device.

    Debugging & failure analysisMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    9 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.