046 - Never Reveal the Prestige

Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 18 Mar 2021 · 1h 34m

What this episode covers

Cam Hackett and Lucien Brulé from Ramagine discuss their NSF-funded market research on the reverse engineering industry, which revealed a 3.5 million job gap and the need for collaborative tools. They explain how their startup, Ramagine, developed a platform to facilitate real-time collaboration and knowledge sharing, addressing the siloed nature of current RE workflows. The guests highlight the shift from hobbyist to professional RE, the importance of tooling like Gidra and Binary Ninja, and their vision for a more formalized, accessible reverse engineering discipline.

Mentioned

Companies
Ramagine, Endgame, Malware Unicorn
Tools
Gidra, Binary Ninja, Bloomberg Terminal, Jupiter Notebooks
Also
NSF

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • The Spark Gap · 42m

    The Spark Gap - Episode 24

    Hosts Carl and Corey discuss their 2015 resolutions, including revisiting basic electronics design and exploring open-source EDA tools like KiCad and Altium CircuitMaker. They announce a shift to a bi-weekly release schedule to allow for more guest interviews and higher-quality content. The episode then explores the topic of reverse engineering old hardware, citing examples like the original Xbox, cable modems, and Kinect sensors to demonstrate how discarded electronics can be repurposed or studied.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 08m

    An interview with Alvaro and Jen from the URE Podcast

    Alvaro Prieto and Jen, hosts of the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast, discuss their backgrounds in firmware engineering at companies like Apple, Amazon, and Planet. They contrast the high-volume, rapid-cycle nature of consumer electronics with the flexible timelines of industrial hardware, highlighting challenges like silicon errata, OTA update strategies, and the difficulty of finding competent firmware engineers. The conversation covers reverse engineering techniques, including protocol analysis and firmware dumping, inspired by creators like Micah Elizabeth Scott and Dimitri Greenberg.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 15m

    Rebuilding Projects with Dave Young

    Chris Gammell of Contextual Electronics and Blue Stamp Engineering joins Dave Young to discuss the realities of hardware consulting during the component shortage, including the pain of redesigning circuits for unavailable parts and the shift in tooling from Eagle to Altium. They explore the challenges of hiring and networking in a tight labor market, with Gammell advising consultants to build financial cushions and leverage relationships with FAEs. The conversation also covers Gammell's educational program, Blue Stamp Engineering, detailing its successful pivot to remote instruction and the importance of teaching resilience to students.

  • Moore's Lobby · 56m

    VC-Backed Hardware Design Collaboration is the (All) Spice of Life

    Valentina Ratner and Kyle Dumont, co-founders of Allspice, explain their mission to bring Git-style version control and collaboration workflows to hardware engineering, addressing the industry's reliance on outdated methods like printed schematics and PDFs. Chrissy Meyer, a general partner at Root Ventures, discusses her transition from electrical engineering at Apple to VC, explaining how she recognized the visceral pain of inefficient design reviews and invested in Allspice to solve these collaboration gaps. The team details how Allspice Hub enables asynchronous design reviews and connects disparate tools, aiming to bridge the gap between electrical engineering and software development practices.

  • The Amp Hour · 1h 04m

    New Life Skills with Joe Grand

    Joe Grand, a hardware hacker and engineer, discusses his recent work reverse engineering a Trezor cryptocurrency wallet to recover $2M, detailing the fault injection and glitching techniques used to extract private keys from STM32 microcontrollers. He reflects on his career, including the design of the JTAGulator and DEF CON badges, and explains how burnout and the pandemic led him to prioritize mental health, meditation, and selective, fun projects like the Pizza Compass. Grand emphasizes the importance of open-source security tools in helping engineers build more secure products and advocates for a community-focused approach to hardware hacking.

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.