Data is constantly being streamed all around us. But what does it actually look like? And more importantly, what can you learn from it?
Some equipment internally transmit data in the clear that you can easily pull off to extend the functionality into new ways. Other equipment have hidden back doors that allow for serial access for debugging or other low level control of equipment. Cybersecurity often looks at what attacks that can play out via WiFi or Ethernet, but what about if you have physical access to the equipment?
This community will have several stations setup with laptops with logic analyzers and other equipment to tap into and analyze data flows on a variety of electronics. You can come use our kit, or borrow one of our logic analyzers to take with you to check things out on your own. We’ll have some oscilloscopes as well to better visualize what’s happening under the hood. We don’t expect you to arrive with anything other than an hour or two to learn, but if you have a laptop and some wacky kit you want to hack into, bring it by and we’ll try to get you started down the path.
Primarily, we will be looking at serial protocols, such as I2C, SPI, and UART. We’ll also look at CAN traffic such as used on vehicles and other equipment. We won’t be looking at packets of Ethernet as other communities have a better focus on that.
The next step is, if you can listen in on the data stream, can you hijack it and do something new with it? How do you man-in-the-middle a serial port?
