USB Reverse Engineering: Down the Rabbit Hole

Post by corndoge » Sun, May 27, 2018, 1:18 AM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #6

corndoge wrote: post #5

I've sunk countless hours looking for a way to emulate USB devices in software under Windows. Two years ago there were many different ways. Today there are zero ways that I know of, apparently all removed within the last two years by an astounding tragic coincidence. To elaborate on this section: http://devalias.net/devalias/2018/05/13/usb-reverse-engineer... - There are two versions of the USB/IP drivers. The initia…

Then there's a patched version that does not cause the bluescreen. Great! Except that you can no longer install unsigned drivers on Windows 10 by putting your machine into test mode. Patching out the signing check itself may not be too difficult... and if the file the signing check is in is also signed and verified by something else, then patch that ... it's patches all the way down. I remember doing this with Vista…

Post by alias1 » Sun, May 27, 2018, 1:23 AM UTC

digi_owl wrote: post #8

jonhohle wrote: post #2

What a weekend find! This is a nice piece in a puzzle I'm trying to solve related to a consumer audio device with upgradeable firmware. The platform of the device is used for both a prosumer audio device, a professional device, as well as other consumer devices. On top of that, the prosumer device appears to have different functionality enabled based on the part of the world you buy the device, but my hypothesis is t…

Sounds like a real classic market segmentation tactic. I recall reading about a oscilloscope or something that had two models, one monochrome and slightly worse performance, one color and slightly better better. Turns out that if you flashed the firmware of the latter onto the former, the performance improved to match the latter's. Basic thing is that by doing this, the marketing people has calculated that they may r…

Post by digi_owl » Sun, May 27, 2018, 1:26 AM UTC

alias1 wrote: post #13

digi_owl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a real classic market segmentation tactic. I recall reading about a oscilloscope or something that had two models, one monochrome and slightly worse performance, one color and slightly better better. Turns out that if you flashed the firmware of the latter onto the former, the performance improved to match the latter's. Basic thing is that by doing this, the marketing people has calculated that they may r…

I can definitely understand the marketing/psychology appeal of it.. but it also feels like a bit of a rip that I either end up with a) a less good product, or b) paid more for the same thing. That is.. until we figure out the ways to DIY upgrade them ;)

Post by vvanders » Sun, May 27, 2018, 1:35 AM UTC

alias1 wrote: post #13

digi_owl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a real classic market segmentation tactic. I recall reading about a oscilloscope or something that had two models, one monochrome and slightly worse performance, one color and slightly better better. Turns out that if you flashed the firmware of the latter onto the former, the performance improved to match the latter's. Basic thing is that by doing this, the marketing people has calculated that they may r…

I can definitely understand the marketing/psychology appeal of it.. but it also feels like a bit of a rip that I either end up with a) a less good product, or b) paid more for the same thing. That is.. until we figure out the ways to DIY upgrade them ;)

Post by corndoge » Sun, May 27, 2018, 1:42 AM UTC

alias1 wrote: post #16

corndoge wrote: post #5

I've sunk countless hours looking for a way to emulate USB devices in software under Windows. Two years ago there were many different ways. Today there are zero ways that I know of, apparently all removed within the last two years by an astounding tragic coincidence. To elaborate on this section: http://devalias.net/devalias/2018/05/13/usb-reverse-engineer... - There are two versions of the USB/IP drivers. The initia…

Thanks for the links! Definitely interesting, and kind of annoying how hard it seems to be now :( Would running a VM on top of windows and passing the device through to that be an option given your use-case? Could then run *nix or similar in there, and avoid the windows driver hell.