055 - Stacks Of Bricked Chips

Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast · 13 Mar 2022 · 1h 01m

What this episode covers

Laura Abbott, a software developer at Oxide Computer, explains how her team reverse engineered the NXP LPC55S69 microcontroller to build a root of trust for their servers. She details discovering an undocumented ROM patching hardware block that allowed privilege escalation, leading to a CVE and a DEF CON presentation. Abbott also discusses her background in Linux kernel development, the transition to Rust for microcontrollers, and the challenges of working with contradictory chip documentation.

Mentioned

Companies
Oxide Computer, NXP
Chips
LPC55S69
Tools
Ghidra
Also
TrustZone-M, TrustedFirmware-M, Hubris

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