Reverse-Engineering of (binary) File-Formats
[Pages:24]Reverse-Engineering of (binary) File-Formats
From seemingly arbitrary zeros and ones to a PCB file
Thomas Pointhuber
Open Source Computer Aided Modeling and Design devroom - FOSDEM'21
My Background
Aug. 2015 since Jan. 2016 since Oct. 2020
my first KiCad contribution KiCad Library Maintainer Team KiCad Lead Development Team
Nov 2016
my first security competition
since then
part of the university team1
"I'm a Software Engineer with focus on Security"
Find a project where I can combine those two worlds:
Reverse-Engineering the Allegro Altium file format
and write a KiCad importer!
1.
2
General Background
they unfollowed, perhaps too many KiCad tweets :D
@Chaos_Robotic
3
Step 0: Legal Bases
We want to figure out how a proprietary file formats works. Companies may have something against that work. Better be safe than sorry.
Law differs by country and change over time. For reliable statements contact a local lawyer.
Use those informations at your own risk!
4
Step 0: Legal Bases [Reverse-Engineering]
Black-Box
Reverse-Engineering
interact
save
"usually, you are allowed to observe what a program does"
view
load edit
inspect
White-Box
Reverse-Engineering (Clean-Room Design)
"usually, only allowed for interoperability reasons"
TALK WITH YOUR LAWYER!
document
SPECIFICATION
implement
analyze
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Step 1: Get a Legal Copy of the Program
"If you don't own the program, it is hard to reverse-engineer it"
Simple Direct access (yourself, friend, company, remote) Freeware, Demo-Version, Educational License Use different tool with shared codebase
Hard Mode Indirect access (files are created by other person) Free viewer
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Step 2: Collect Files for Analysis
"Diversity matters, everyone uses the tool differently!"
If there exists an ASCII and a Binary format, collect both! Search by file extension
Google: filetype:PcbDoc
Gitlab: extension:PcbDoc
Different program, shared codebase (and file format)?
.PcbDoc same as? .CSPcbDoc same as? .CMPcbDoc
Altium Designer
Altium Circuit Studio
Altium Circuit Maker
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Step 3: Existing Work and Documentation
The "standard" converter at that time
Correctly handled Altium records
The only C++ implementation I found
Extensive, but published after I started
Runs inside Altium, creates KiCad footprints
Contains a schematic file documentation!
Altium schematic JSON converter
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