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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until May 05, 2025

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Mobile-Centric Reverse Engineering of Heterogeneous IoT Devices

Wen, Haohuang
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712876139865135

Abstract Details

2024, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Computer Science and Engineering.
Emerging advancements in hardware, software, and networking have empowered developers to produce billions of Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, ubiquitous not only in personal but also in public and mission-critical domains. These devices span a diverse array of applications, ranging from smart home automation, retail, and entertainment to industrial, automotive, and medical sectors. Presently, they have evolved to be more open, interconnected, and complex than ever before, yet they remain vulnerable to exploitation, posing significant security concerns. Consequently, comprehensive vetting procedures are essential to ensure these devices are free from vulnerabilities before potential attackers exploit them. As such, researchers and practitioners have employed various program analysis techniques to reverse engineer these devices. However, this is still very challenging due to the absence of source code as well as the heterogeneous nature of their hardware and software. In this dissertation, I present a {\em mobile-centric} reverse engineering framework to understand and uncover vulnerabilities of heterogeneous IoT devices. This framework is motivated by the prevalent connectivity of modern IoT devices that often rely on mobile devices as their primary front-end. This framework comprises four key components, and each component capitalizes on crucial insights derived from corresponding mobile interfaces and mechanisms. Firstly, CANHunter presents an innovative and cost-effective approach for reverse engineering proprietary CAN bus commands utilizing solely car companion mobile applications, eliminating the need for actual automobiles. Subsequently, DongleScope combines static analysis of companion apps with dynamic analysis to comprehensively scrutinize On-board Diagnostic (OBD-II) dongles. Moving forward, FirmXRay harnesses the over-the-air update mechanism from mobile devices to extract bare-metal IoT device firmware at scale. It then conducts static binary analysis to pinpoint vulnerabilities from the extracted firmware within the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) link layer. Lastly, BaseMirror advances the challenging task of baseband reverse engineering by scrutinizing the Radio Interface Layer (RIL) on mobile devices. This enables the unveiling of undisclosed vendor-specific cellular baseband functions, thereby uncovering potentially exploitable vulnerabilities targeting the baseband.
Zhiqiang Lin, Dr. (Advisor)
Carter Yagemann, Dr. (Committee Member)
Ness Shroff, Dr. (Committee Member)
Anish Arora, Dr. (Committee Member)
201 p.
Computer Engineering; Computer Science
Internet-of-Things; Reverse Engineering; Mobile

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wen, H. (2024). Mobile-Centric Reverse Engineering of Heterogeneous IoT Devices [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712876139865135

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wen, Haohuang. Mobile-Centric Reverse Engineering of Heterogeneous IoT Devices. 2024. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712876139865135.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wen, Haohuang. "Mobile-Centric Reverse Engineering of Heterogeneous IoT Devices." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1712876139865135

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1712876139865135
© 2024, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.