Practical Reverse EngineeringA field guide for ARM, RISC-V, Xtensa, 8051, MIPS, and Linux.

An open handbook covering embedded firmware (ARM Cortex-M, Xtensa/ESP32, RISC-V, 8051, MIPS), Linux userland, kernel modules and device trees, hardware attacks (FI / SCA), plus cross-target reverse-engineering techniques.

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Six parts, plus appendices

Foundations, static analysis, architectures, firmware and Linux workflows, automation and tooling, and hardware attacks — plus a command cheatsheet, architecture quick reference, file-format catalogue, and curated further reading.

Every common embedded target

ARM Cortex-M (STM32/nRF/SAMD), ARM Cortex-A and Linux userland, Xtensa (ESP32), RISC-V (ESP32-C, BL602), 8051, MIPS routers, plus Linux drivers and the device tree.

radare2 as the daily-driver tool

Each chapter shows commands in radare2 — the only free, open, multi-architecture disassembler that covers every target in the book. Ghidra, IDA, Binary Ninja, Frida, binwalk, and friends are surveyed in the toolkit chapter and called out where each shines.

Open source

Markdown sources, CC BY-SA 4.0 licensed. PDF built with Pandoc + Tectonic; this site is built with VitePress. Pull requests welcome.