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[Unsolved]Recover Bricked USB

Need help with peripherals or devices?
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Soul Singin'
Posts: 1605
Joined: 2008-12-21 07:02

Re: Recover Bricked USB

#21 Post by Soul Singin' »

shep wrote:There is another way to spin the $$$$. I view forums as a repository for information and information has value. The original poster is not the first nor will they be the last to blow away the firmware on a usb3.* drive. If we can get this sorted out and marked [SOLVED], it can help a number of users. The forums efforts would be multiplied by the total number of users who benefit.
I agree. I really do.

But I also imagine that each case would be different -- different damage, different firmware ... So is a universal solution even possible?

I know very little about hardware, so I would be interested in reading what the experts have to say, just as I have already enjoyed reading their posts in this thread.

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pylkko
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Joined: 2014-11-06 19:02

Re: Recover Bricked USB

#22 Post by pylkko »

No, a universal solution is highly unlikely. With more expensive devices there are communities out there that do this. For example, for routers, smart watches and so on. But it is almost always the case that the hacked solution is device-specific, even at times you need to know the revision number. You need to find the data sheet and many times do reverse engineering (i.e just put stuff into it in different combinations to see what comes out) and you may need special programmers or cables for it.

I managed to figure out how to dommand the of firmware of an ATWINC 1500 (a WiFi module) so that it does not have an annoying LED on always after it gets a lease from DHCP). Had to read through a 1000 page manual, look at code and guess the pin number that was putting the thing high. Then realized that the one that I had was a later revision and that the pin number had changed. Took several hours... was it worth it? For learning, yes. But other than that, definitely no.

I would buy all my hardware from a single manufacturer if that manufacturer strived to make a many devices as possible with simple, easy to modify and well documented firmware. For some reason, this never becomes a business model for any company, although there are some developments in that direction. For example the Librem 5 smart phone.

oddmanout
Posts: 11
Joined: 2019-11-07 21:41

Re: Recover Bricked USB

#23 Post by oddmanout »

Since there was so much attention on this, I figured I'd close with a little more information.

Having recently taken the plunge into developing/porting/hacking alternative wireless router firmwares, I've made some realizations that are likely applicable to my dead USB stick. Flash has an MTD layout, like a partition table of sorts, it's deeper than a FS. Usually the first chunk of that has some stored information and firmware for the device. In routers, this also stores a zipped Linux kernel that is loaded into memory upon boot. This would also explain some of the ways that bad actors are able to infect computers with USB flash drives that seem to be clean. The malware is hidden in the part of the USB drive that isn't detectable by normal CLI tools. Anywho, I'm convinced I fubar'd the MTD layout of the USB stick with a 'dd' command and a careless removal from the port while the command was running, I could be off, but I think this guess has potential.

shep
Posts: 423
Joined: 2011-03-15 15:22

Re: [Unsolved]Recover Bricked USB

#24 Post by shep »

I think one of the MTD partitions houses USB3.x firmware.
A thought; I recently needed a larger USB drive for an install and mount/cleaned the drive. Then dd if=/dev/sdX of=team_64_usb_backup.img.
This suggests you could purchase the same exact drive and make a backup image of the new drive. Then flash that image to the bricked drive. This may not work if the Drives have an encoded ID #

p.H
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Re: [Unsolved]Recover Bricked USB

#25 Post by p.H »

This method won't recover anything.
USB sticks are not MTDs. MTDs are bare flash chips accessed directly by the system, commonly found in embedded systems such as routers and smartphones, and require specific handling and filesystems such as YAFFS or UBIFS. USB sticks have an FTL (flash translation layer) controller which interfaces with the flash chips and present the stick as a regular block device. dd won't read or write hidden parts of the flash memory.

oddmanout
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Joined: 2019-11-07 21:41

Re: [Unsolved]Recover Bricked USB

#26 Post by oddmanout »

p.H wrote:This method won't recover anything.
USB sticks are not MTDs. MTDs are bare flash chips accessed directly by the system, commonly found in embedded systems such as routers and smartphones, and require specific handling and filesystems such as YAFFS or UBIFS. USB sticks have an FTL (flash translation layer) controller which interfaces with the flash chips and present the stick as a regular block device. dd won't read or write hidden parts of the flash memory.
I stand corrected. However, I think the basic gist is that something very low level was damaged by yours truly. And I don't have the tools or the know-how to correct it. :)

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