
Unpacking CCTV Firmware - mortenlarsen
http://itsjack.cc/blog/2015/04/unpacking-cctv-firmware/
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gvb
His spelunking through the binary shows "uImage" which is the U-Boot[0]
header/wrapper for a kernel image. The mkimage[1] utility will show what is in
the header and give direct information on how to dissect it.

A very large number of systems that run on architectures other than x86 use
U-Boot to boot their embedded OS, typically linux. U-Boot also has extensive
command line utilities that can be used to explore the hardware and software.
The console is often available as TTL-level signals on an unpopulated
connector. A little soldering and USB/TTL-level serial converter[2] results in
a console interface.

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_U-
Boot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_U-Boot) [1]
[http://linux.die.net/man/1/mkimage](http://linux.die.net/man/1/mkimage) [2]
Example:
[https://www.adafruit.com/products/70](https://www.adafruit.com/products/70)

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captn3m0
I did something similar for my D-Link router, and unpacked the last 3 versions
of its firmware to look for security loopholes. The git history is interesting
to look at[0].

[0]:
[https://github.com/captn3m0/dir-600l](https://github.com/captn3m0/dir-600l)

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pbreit
I had one of those cheapo CCTV systems for a store of mine and, wow, how
dreadful the software! Has anyone ever written some decent software that one
could load up on the generic CCTV systems?

~~~
X-Cubed
If you have a Synology NAS, Surveillance Station works quite well.

[https://www.synology.com/en-us/surveillance/7.0](https://www.synology.com/en-
us/surveillance/7.0)

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chrisper
Are you the author? There are so many typos...

