Welcome to Hardware Hacking
The Internet of Things is everything with a chip and a network: cameras, smart plugs, routers, doorbells, thermostats, toys, and industrial sensors. These devices ship fast and cheap, so their security is often an afterthought. That makes them a rich target for research — and a rich target for attackers, which is exactly why we study them.
The golden rule of this course: you only ever open, probe, and attack hardware that you own outright, or that you have written permission to test. Physical access changes the ethics and the law. Buy your own cheap devices to practice on; never touch someone else's.
The IoT attack surface
An IoT product is really several targets stacked together. Learning to see all of them is the first skill:
- The hardware — the board itself, its chips, and the debug and communication interfaces on it.
- The firmware — the software running on the device, usually stored in a flash chip.
- The radio — how the device talks wirelessly, over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other protocols.
- The companion — the mobile app, local web panel, and vendor cloud the device connects to.
Building a safe hardware lab
You do not need an expensive bench. A modest, well-chosen kit covers most of what you will do in this course. Work on an anti-static mat, keep a notebook, and photograph every board before you touch it.
- A USB-to-serial adapter — the workhorse for talking to
UART interfaces.
- A logic analyzer — captures digital signals so you can decode what pins are doing.
- A multimeter — for finding voltage, ground, and continuity between points.
- A flash reader clip — reads memory chips in place without desoldering.
- Open-source software — a serial terminal, a signal-decoding suite, and firmware tools.
🎯 Challenge: Pick one cheap device you own — an old router or a smart plug is ideal. Open its case, photograph the board, and write an inventory: every chip you can read, every visible header or pad, and your best guess at what each does. This is your first target.
⚖️ For authorized, legal testing only.
What's in IoT & Hardware Hacking
- 1. The IoT Landscape & Your LabFree
- 2. Extracting & Analyzing Firmware🔒 Firmware
- 3. Hardware Interfaces: UART, JTAG, SPI🔒 Hardware
- 4. Radio Protocols: BLE, Zigbee, RF & MQTT🔒 Radio
- 5. Attacking the Web, App & Cloud🔒 Web & Cloud
- 6. Chaining Findings into an Exploit🔒 Exploitation
- 7. How Vendors Should Secure Devices🔒 Defense
- 8. Writing an IoT Assessment Report🔒 Reporting
- 9. Practical Exam: Earn FHC-IOT🔒 Certification
Continue in the interactive course reader →