nRF5 action!
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Hello guys. I wished I have found this forum earlier. I'm currently trying to extract/dump a firmware from nRF51. Using OpenOCD and ST-Link V2. I am facing some problems and have posted it on stackexchange and stackoverflow. Here are the posts:
https://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/22897/blank-binwalk-and-binvis-io
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59710114/dumping-nrf51s-firmware
Hopefully someone here could help me. Thanks in advance
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Hello guys. I wished I have found this forum earlier. I'm currently trying to extract/dump a firmware from nRF51. Using OpenOCD and ST-Link V2. I am facing some problems and have posted it on stackexchange and stackoverflow. Here are the posts:
https://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/22897/blank-binwalk-and-binvis-io
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59710114/dumping-nrf51s-firmware
Hopefully someone here could help me. Thanks in advance
@Calvin-Khung a black magic probe would allow you to do that.
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@NeverDie What is the difference with a ST-Link? I mean, I've read the features on GitHub but I don't really get the differences though :sweat_smile: Sorry, as stated in both links, I'm still a noob.
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Oh, is the command mass erase the same as dump image? If I mass erase, will the bin file appear in the bin folder?
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Oh, is the command mass erase the same as dump image? If I mass erase, will the bin file appear in the bin folder?
@Calvin-Khung Hi Calvin, I read your comments here and on Stackoverflow/exchange. I honestly think that you dont have the right skills to do this. The exploited vulnerability in the blog is quite sofisticated. I think you have to start getting your debugger configured correctly. Your say you have an st-link v2 which lets me to belive you have a cheap chinese clone.
This clone has not all debugging features included, as you might saw in my posts earlier. You are much better of with a Black magic probe or a J-Link.
Have you got a halted NRF51 yet? -
@Calvin-Khung Hi Calvin, I read your comments here and on Stackoverflow/exchange. I honestly think that you dont have the right skills to do this. The exploited vulnerability in the blog is quite sofisticated. I think you have to start getting your debugger configured correctly. Your say you have an st-link v2 which lets me to belive you have a cheap chinese clone.
This clone has not all debugging features included, as you might saw in my posts earlier. You are much better of with a Black magic probe or a J-Link.
Have you got a halted NRF51 yet?@mr_red If it's a clone then that would probably explain why it wasn't successful. I've read a thing or two about the BMP. Do you think its a good idea to convert the cheap ST-Link V2 to a BMP? Found a blog about it.
J-Link is way too expensive so I won't even bother considering it. And I don't quite get what you mean but yeah, I did halt it during the process.
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@mr_red If it's a clone then that would probably explain why it wasn't successful. I've read a thing or two about the BMP. Do you think its a good idea to convert the cheap ST-Link V2 to a BMP? Found a blog about it.
J-Link is way too expensive so I won't even bother considering it. And I don't quite get what you mean but yeah, I did halt it during the process.
@Calvin-Khung you can convert st-link clone into BMP. The only problem would be if there is not enough flash on the chip. If I remember correctly, BMP firmware needs more than 64kb. But you will know for sure, if you'll try.
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@monte For sure, I'll give it a try. Thanks for helping out guys!
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Calvin, You cam buy a Nordic Development kit for about $50 dollars or less. It has the J-Link OB device on it for swd programming and debugging.
@Jokgi said in nRF5 action!:
Calvin, You cam buy a Nordic Development kit for about $50 dollars or less. It has the J-Link OB device on it for swd programming and debugging.
Best solution imho, never had a problem with it programming the nrf5 modules, just drag & drop from Windows file explorer.
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@mr_red If it's a clone then that would probably explain why it wasn't successful. I've read a thing or two about the BMP. Do you think its a good idea to convert the cheap ST-Link V2 to a BMP? Found a blog about it.
J-Link is way too expensive so I won't even bother considering it. And I don't quite get what you mean but yeah, I did halt it during the process.
@Calvin-Khung
Jokgi
Jokgi about 2 hours agoCalvin, You can buy a Nordic Development kit for about $50 dollars or less. It has the J-Link OB device on it for SWD programming and debugging.
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I agree with Jokgi, but nonetheless for anyone interested in the Black Magic Probe alternative, here's an article on how to make a BMP from a $2 Blue Pill board:
https://medium.com/@paramaggarwal/converting-an-stm32f103-board-to-a-black-magic-probe-c013cf2cc38c -
There also is an "Education" version of the Jlink for $20 if you want an official one with access to nRF Command Line Tools.
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There also is an "Education" version of the Jlink for $20 if you want an official one with access to nRF Command Line Tools.
@Jon-Raymond Correct. It is a nice product for the price and the intended user. As Jon mentioned, you can use the command line tools as well as nRFconnect and also has direct hooks into the Segger Embedded Studio which is a fully functional IDE / compiler/ Debugger and is free when used with Nordic Semi devices.
Plus there is no license conflict as there is when using one of these cheap overseas j-link knock offs. (Which could "break / brick" anytime doing a "official" Segger update on these clones.) -
i use $10 replica Jlink from aliexpress works ok with the latest firmware without an issue. i use it just to flash bootloaders to cortex m0-m4 and nrf52's but it should work for any task that a genuine jlink can do.
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@orhanyor good to hear! i ordered that as well since just to try it out in hope that it would work. now that you've said that, maybe i shouldn't worry too much then.
@Calvin-Khung Well im actually surprised that it still works because people are reporting they might stop working after a firmware update so you might wanna hold back on that other than that it works surprisingly well. i bought another as my back up plan which im expecting it in these days. its abit different than the one i have. this one is much cheaper and looks like jlink edu mini rather than a normal j link with a black box.. i ll see if it works when i receive it, here it is.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32669702891.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4d4Fx7g9 -
i just received this little thing, tested it with atmel studio just to flash some M4 boards and it worked nicely. i wanted to update its firmware via jlink(playing with fire) but it didnt let me saying its up to date so its all ok i guess. it only has 4 pins 3v, gnd, swdio, swclk. for $2.50 in total with shipping its a steal :)
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i just received this little thing, tested it with atmel studio just to flash some M4 boards and it worked nicely. i wanted to update its firmware via jlink(playing with fire) but it didnt let me saying its up to date so its all ok i guess. it only has 4 pins 3v, gnd, swdio, swclk. for $2.50 in total with shipping its a steal :)
@orhanyor Is it just me or does that micro usb connector look like it should be mounted upside down so it actually nests into the cutout in the board below it? Of course the pinout would be mirrored but it seems like a layout issue that they just ran with.
