IoT Hacking - Polycom Conference Phone - Firmware Extraction

In this video we discuss the device firmware extraction of a Polycom conference phone device.
XGecu T56 universal programmer site:
autoelectric.cn/EN/TL866_main....
Wine wrapper for XGecu software:
github.com/radiomanV/TL866
About Me:
My name is Matt Brown and I'm an Embedded Security Pentester and Reverse Engineer that loves all things Linux. Over my career I have had a wide array of Security, System Administration and Software Engineering experience that I enjoy bringing to bear on tough business problems. I enjoy finding vulnerabilities and helping businesses remediate those vulnerabilities to create better products and services for their customers.
Social:
twitter: / nmatt0
linkedin: / mattbrwn
github: github.com/nmatt0/
#hacking #iot #cybersecurity #reverseengineering #firmware

[@joedalecki7327]

I work for Poly, formerly Polycom and now part of HP, and I found this pretty interesting as well. Cool stuff.

[@jibjibam]

Sad to see giants of real videoconferencing turning into Microsoft's puppies.

[@ClosestNearUtopia]

I dont, but still I think it was interesting…

[@marlinderwall8873]

Thanks for making videos like this. My son is going to college soon to be an electrical engineer and these types of videos show interesting practical applications of what he's been studying in his electronics books.

[@whodaFru4551]

Great content! I like to see real and non-staged footage. Its authentic and just shows the raw and sometimes tedious process with all the mistakes and fuckups which are part of hacking and important for learning and improving.

[@mattbrwn]

I hate video editing so it's a win-win!

[@cristonlevato2255]

Great content. I am researching on IoT hacking to get in the domain and your videos are both fun and informative for me (and probably for other people like me). Waiting for the next episodes on this device and your future projects. Keep up!

[@ItsAuver]

You know it's a great week when we get two Matt Brown uploads in one week 😍

[@WangLees]

Keep up the great work Matt! We need more people sharing knowledge like you do :)

[@spacewolfjr]

The T56 is a great tool but I think growing a big greasy mustache is probably more useful in the long run.

[@alexpascal5403]

I like grease. I also like Greece ironically. My favorite think tho is greasy Greeks. 🤔

[@spacewolfjr]

+1 to using string -- I once ran that against a piece of malware and identified the employee who created it.. they had left some debug flags enabled and it displayed the path to some of the files including the C:\Users\

[@jahwni]

Great stuff, keep showing the process, been having a few issues finding file systems myself with some of the stuff I've been looking at so very eager to see how you get on and what you try next :)

[@mattbrwn]

Won't be a filesystem on this one. It's a microcontroller so it's just a bunch of code/data

[@jahwni]

@@mattbrwn Ah really? Interesting! So what does that mean, straight into Ghidra for some reversing? Does that mean the web server is running directly on the microcontroller? 🤔

[@futureconsequence5374]

Dang bro u a straight up genius! your comprehension levels are impressive!

[@pedroveloso9707]

hi, Matt a little trick is to before remove nand , is make 1 pass using lead solder.... them hot air, this way less heat in pcb. tip 2 ..kkkk dont use qtip to clean ics.. it left all crap around (15.17) and it will avoid contact, use a a small brush like a old tooth brush

[@mattbrwn]

Yeah I do that sometimes and definitely should have done that here to speed things up.

[@M.W.777]

Nifty! Thanks for sharing

[@SinyaAmathea]

Super interesting! Keep up the great work :D

[@garridomonfrero]

Nice video I would love to see in the next videos about exploiting the firmware, what are you looking for, how to attack the services without falling into looking for published CVEs, but rather to discover new bugs or what things we should investigate either technical or knowledge to exploit such things at the application level, once extracted the firmware.

[@in70x]

You generally just use binwalk and try and mount FS on loop back Dev then you can explore the file system (usually it’s squash but binwalk can handle that). Then you can re-host or disassemble what you want but most people pillage the files for secrets that are generally out in the open…. - Credential - MIT Vuln Researcher Person

[@Benimen106]

Please do more IoT hacking videos, im starting a course of IoT embedded systems around august and would like to get a cheat start with the help of your videos, which are really good.

[@spacewolfjr]

That's a dope furnace you have there!

[@HollyTroll]

great video, thanks for your effort. question: why were the credentials, certificates, and logs part of the extracted firmware?

[@ChakaHamilton]

The XML files are how you configure Voip Phone. See if you can find the provisioning manual and accompanying software to figure out what's in each file. I suspect the files are encrypted and you may need the software or key to decrypt them.

[@frogz]

never thought these could be useful other than the amplifier/speaker being reclaimedf for other projects

[@zataritamods7499]

In regards to the q-tip fuzz getting hooked on the pins. My girlfriend uses these special type of cotton swabs called "glob mops" for cleaning her...medicinal tools. They're like normal cotton swabs, but they're packed really densely, and one end is packed to a fine point. May be useful for something like that 🤔

[@user-mp9um5qj3u]

I always wanted to learn these hacking and low level things but currently learning web dev. Maybe one day i will learn these things which i always wanted to do. 🎉

[@feff6754]

Great video!

[@slincolne]

Interesting. You could use openssl to decode the various certificates into a human friendly version for more details. Also - the 20 pin connector that you pointed out at the start of the video looks like a JTAG header. - one way to check would be to see if half of them (one row) should be joined to ground.

[@pablopoo]

nice lab!👌

[@jaybrooks1098]

think that connector is just a accessory connector. the jtag or serial will be pads near the soc. usually in a group that looks like enough pins.

[@self_taught_stuff]

to clean the chip before putting it into the reader, you can just dip the whole chip into alcohol... way faster and better than cleaning it with qtips. to clean the solder of the pins, you can put the solder wick on the table and put the pins on it, then run the soldering tip over them, i find it easier and safer that way (you wont bend the pins).

[@nv1t]

any reason why you don't dump while in circuit? you could use a 360 clip or similar. Less stress on desoldering.

[@justinhealey-htcohio3798]

Awesome! Just out of curiosity, have you ever considered attempting to extract firmware on raspberry pi & the closed source MIPI CSI-2 Camera ISP? It would be great if that could all be exposed & made compatible with other image sensors

[@muddkipp_1]

Awesmazing channel yo..❤❤

[@tritnaha1345]

How's the firmware off these compared to those of Avaya? I did a little exploring on the Avaya J-series of phones and they employ some pretty creative ways of securing things.

[@gordslater]

I subscribed after 25 seconds of this vid lol

[@in70x]

Damn didn’t even know about the t56 I do it the old fashioned way but I just bought one

[@tritnaha1345]

What about using OFRAK or Cutter to look into what you've got ahold of?

[@tihomirborovski5661]

Most likely the pin header is for connecting JTAG. It could be possible to dump the FLASH and even debug the device using that port and no need to do any hardware job. All you need is a tool like PEEDI, BDI2000 or BDI3000.

[@cocusar]

Pretty good! One question for you: does this nand flash contain any kind of FTL? because I'd assume they'll NOT write to it like in a linear fashion, they must arrange blocks in some way.

[@mattbrwn]

Not sure but I think all the flash readers read the data block by block so it reads in order.

[@cocusar]

@@mattbrwn Yeah, I thought the actual blocks and how they're divided was the responsibility of the OS, I assume it might be possible for you to find contiguous blocks without any problem. However, with your findings about the cross site injection, that kinda voids the need to figure out how that works. Worst case scenario you can go back to what it was before!

[@lukakostic9820]

Awesome.

[@user-lr3vb1hd3n]

comment in support!

[@phr3ui559]

what equipment do you use

[@larryslobster7881]

6:38 ultrasonic cleaner, life changer

[@alexpascal5403]

Nice video. You remind me of my little sister. 👩 ..but she couldn’t solder the way you do.❤❤

[@user-hh9db5nx8t]

that stuff is so interesting :O how u found out this is possible?

[@isheamongus811]

No clean means that the flux is not conductive - if you don't clean, you won't short anything (but a bad connection is more likely) Right?

[@mattbrwn]

Ahhh that makes more sense! Thanks!

[@ngrader]

18:35 Apparently spansion was purchased by cypress semiconductor, big stock merger. according to wikipedia.

[@hoteny]

5:07 i didnt even know heating a rom would be safe for the data inside… well im not an electrical engineer or anything so yeah i just like these and one day want to extract data from a chip inside my childhood toy (probably midi and soundfont)

[@mattbrwn]

These components are heated to these temperatures when they are originally attached in the factory. Most component datasheets will document the proper temperature curves for heating and cooling the chip but I usually just go for it. :D

[@68f100ranger]

the file system is likely on the processor itself, Its called SoC. there are ways to read those usually.

[@larsmojo]

XGecu T56 + clamp adapter is part of my lap as well - but I find it more usefull to use an adapter where you simply solder it on.(via hotair) No need to clean the chip. No bad connections. However I only found a tsop48 adapter - anyone found one for tsop56?

[@spacewolfjr]

I like your microscope, is that one of those ones from Ali Express? I almost bought one a few years ago that Strange Parts recommended but decided to buy some extra meatballs for my spaghetti instead.

[@mattbrwn]

microscope is a AmScope SM-4NTP 7X-45X

[@twitch54304]

I see you also use amtek flux. I’m guessing that’s what that was by the blurry syringe with the blue label

[@mattbrwn]

yep its amtech flux

[@petereacmen716]

IIRC those Polycom conference room phones run VxWorks

[@mattbrwn]

yeah it definitely seems like an RTOS of some kind. will be discussing that more in video 3 ;)

[@foobar8894]

@@mattbrwn I'll admit i'm only thinking of this just now and not during the previous video, but running nmap OS detection could have been useful. That might have given you a hint about what to expect.

[@francistheodorecatte]

there are some Nortel models of these that run linux/unistim instead of vxworks/sip

[@tritnaha1345]

​@@francistheodorecattecorrect. Old unistim phones do. Newer ones are Android/Linux basically

[@gergopap7207]

Hi, what adapter do you put the chip in?

[@mattbrwn]

Xgecu T56

[@gergopap7207]

​@@mattbrwnThanks, but I was thinking of the green one, where you put the chip directly? Or is it a full set? Where can I order the complete set? :) Thank you.

[@gergopap7207]

Thank you! I found it! I see! :)

[@spacewolfjr]

If those are PEM certs, I'm thinking it's the local (to the PolyCom) certificate store (like the trusted CAs).

[@spacewolfjr]

Annnd you just mentioned that, lol I should really watch to the end

[@gabrielstangel919]

why 480p :(

[@asnifuashifj91274]

digital telephone devices existed wayy before the term IoT was invented. lets just call it what it is. great video though.

[@socialtraffichq5067]

He's got the gloves on so no fingerprints

[@nick9323]

wtf u bluring, like someone will trace where the phone from and go hack them !?

[@mattbrwn]

it was actually the nuclear launch codes.

[@user-mb5ng9nc2n]

plese lerning hacking licens router mikrotik

[@twitch54304]

Can’t you tell by the “0000” if it’s an actual dot?

[@mattbrwn]

2E

[@sharetripllc]

.5 solder wick works better to remove tiny pins . Thank you I learn do you think China does what you just did

[@yukit119]

15:42 So much hair stuff in there why you dont clean it right?

[@mattbrwn]

Because it works... This is engineering not art.

[@TouYubeTom]

picture quality is low, like smudged and blurry

[@daniel777L]

why dont you buy him a more expensive microscope? his optics are perfectly suitable to showing his method. be happy he filmed at all, pathetic ungrate

[@jibjibam]

Boş şeydi. Hamısı sökülməlidi.

[@user-cg3tk7zi9r]

Thanks again for your content. They have truly helped me along being new to this (For me) hobby/passion. I do have a question on something I am working on. I dunno if you have a means in which i can contact you but if you do I would really appreciate any advice.

[@mattbrwn]

twitter DMs are best for that kind of stuff

[@user-cg3tk7zi9r]

@@mattbrwn alright I'll download the app thank you

[@rickeverett3304]

Av Pro that used these extensively…before cell phones with speaker functions. I just recycled three that were in an old tub. What purpose did you do this for, certainly not to salvage parts? Curious to how this helps anything since no one wants these anymore?

[@SuckMyGreasyPrick]

ha, you blocked the username and password the first time, but I spotted them later on lol