Why Reverse Engineer Hardware?

Reverse engineering hardware is essential for uncovering hidden security flaws, validating design integrity, and identifying counterfeit or malicious components within electronic devices. It enables researchers and analysts to dissect and analyze physical devices at the chip and firmware level, ensuring trust and transparency—especially in critical systems like medical, automotive, and military hardware. Techniques such as decapsulation, circuit tracing, firmware dumping, and side-channel analysis are performed using tools like Ghidra, Binwalk, OpenOCD, JTAGulator, and ChipWhisperer. Hardware security evaluations are often guided by standards and guidelines such as NIST SP 800-160, ISO/IEC 62443, and the Common Criteria (ISO/IEC 15408) framework. Conducting such tests not only helps manufacturers improve product security but also aids in protecting against intellectual property theft, hardware trojans, and supply chain attacks.