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How to reverse engineering Siemens in 2k24?

Prerequisites:

  1. Install Ghidra SRE v11.1.1 and fix ARMTHUMBinstructions.sinc.

    Since about 2019 there has been a bug in Ghidra SRE where FF FF is treated as an BL 0xFFE instruction in v5t architecture. This causes an infinity loop in auto-analysis.

    You should apply patch ARMTHUMBinstructions.sinc if you want to work with Siemens firmwares.

  2. Obtain fullflash from your phone and remove FFS & EEPROM from it.

    This is important for auto-analysis, beacause FFS and EEPROM contain ambiguous data which can be treated as instructions.

    You can download a collection of the fullflashes with already removed FFS and EEPROM: fullflashes.zip.

  3. Obtain RAM & SRAM memory dumps from your phone.

Step 1: Open fullflash in the Ghidra

  1. Run the disassembler and click: File -> Import File

  2. Select your fullflash.bin

  3. Choose the appropriate disassembler settings:

    • Format: Raw Binary
    • Language: ARM v5t 32 little
    • Options -> Block Name: FULLFLASH
    • Options -> Base Address: A0000000
    Sreenshot

  4. Then click on fullflash.bin in the project files.

  5. Reject automatic analysis (press No).

    Screenshot

Step 2. Fix attributes for FULLFLASH memory region

Click Window -> Memory Map and select attributes for "FULLFLASH":

 R   W   X    Volatile
[x] [ ] [x]     [ ]

It is very important to UNCHECK W checkbox, since this directly affects the result of decompilation.

Step 3: Setup analysis settings

  1. Click Analysis -> Auto Analyse

  2. Change analysis settings:

    Disable:

    • Disable Embedded media.
    • Disable Non-returning functions - discovered. This seems to cause disassembly to stop in a lot of places it shouldn't.
    • Disable Create Address Tables. This seems to be better as a one-shot after initial analysis, to avoid creating data from runs of things that could be addresses.
    • Disable Demangler GNU.

    Enable:

    • Enable: Scalar operand references.
    • Enable: Shared return calls with [x] Allow conditional jumps.

  3. Click "APPLY". DO NOT CLICK "ANALYZE"!!!

  4. Close analysis window.

Step 4: Define IO memory region

  1. Click Window -> Memory Map
  2. Add a new memory region with given settings:
    • Block Name: IO
    • Start Addr: 0xF0000000
    • Length: 0x0F000000
    • Attributes: [x] Read [x] Write [ ] Execute [x] Volatile [ ] Overlay
    • Uninitialized
    Screenshot

Step 5: Import memory dumps from your phone

You should import all memory dumps which you previously made (RAM memory dump).

Example with RAM:

  1. Click File -> Add to Program

  2. Select your dump file, for e.g. C81v51_RAM_A8000000_00800000.bin.

  3. Select apropriate settings:

    • Options -> Block Name: RAM
    • Options -> Base Addr: 0xA8000000

    And click "OK".

  4. Click Window -> Memory Map and select attributes for "RAM":

     R   W   X    Volatile
[x] [x] [x]     [ ]

Step 6: Install required Ghidra Scripts

Screenshot
  1. Download: ghidra_scripts.zip (or clone repo)
  2. Go to the Window -> Script Manager
  3. Click "Manage Script Directories" icon.
  4. Add path to the dir with extracted ghidra_scripts.zip.

Step 7: Import swilib C types

Screenshot
  1. Download appropriate swilib-types-PLATFORM.h from the Swilib data types for dissasembler.
  2. Click: File -> Parse C Source...
  3. Click Clear profile (eraser icon).
  4. Add your swilib-types-PLATFORM.h to the "Source files to parse".
  5. Select "Program architecture" to ARM v5t 32 little.
  6. Click Parse to Program -> Continue -> Don't use Open Archives -> OK

Step 9: Import CPU IO registers

  1. Download appropriate cpu-PHONE.txt or cpu-pmb887x.txt from the CPU IO registers.
  2. Click Window -> Script Manager -> ImportSymbolsWithDataType.java -> Run Script
  3. Select your cpu-PHONE.txt or cpu-pmb887x.txt.

Step 10: Import swilib symbols

  1. Download appropriate symbols-PHONE.txt from the Firmware symbols for dissasembler.
  2. Click Window -> Script Manager -> ImportSymbolsWithDataType.java -> Run Script
  3. Select your symbols-PHONE.txt.

This will take a while because some auto-analysis has been started.

Once you see "Finished" in the Script Console - you can cancel this analysis process and go to the next step.

Screenshot

Step 11: Firmware analysis

Auto analysis

  1. Click Analysis -> Auto Analyse 'fullflash.bin'
  2. Check that the settings correspond to those previously specified in paragraph "Step 3: Setup analysis settings".
  3. Click "ANALYSE".

This will take a while (~1 hour), this is not a fast process. Be patient.

One-shot analysis

  1. Click Analysis -> One-shot -> Create Address Tables