CESH 120 PCB RE: Board-Level Analysis & RE

Reversing · 5 days · Assessed

About the course

This is the board understanding course in the PCB reverse engineering pathway. Students learn how to work out what a board is, how it is powered, how it is wired, which components matter, what interfaces exist, and where the attack surface is. The focus shifts from bench technique to building a defensible model of the target.

Students examine power delivery, voltage rails, regulators, protection components and dependencies, because the power architecture often reveals how the system is divided and what can be influenced safely. They identify components and chip families, read markings, interpret datasheets, compare packages, and use external research to connect what is visible on the PCB to what the silicon is likely to do.

The course then moves into layout-led reverse engineering: multilayer design, defensive routing, hidden features, trace mapping, netlist reconstruction, imaging, X-ray inspection, pinout extraction and interface identification. By the end, students can explain how an unfamiliar board is structured and produce the attack-surface map needed before firmware extraction, debug abuse or fault-injection work begins.

Want to know what to expect in the classroom? Find out more about our training approach and how we turn technical concepts into practical, hands-on skills.

Skills and topics covered

This list shows the various main topics we cover during the course:

Board survey and evidence capture
Power-tree and voltage-rail analysis
Component identification and package recognition
Chip-family research and datasheet interpretation
Schematic reading and schematic reconstruction
Multilayer PCB layout interpretation
Defensive layout and hidden-route recognition
External recon, teardown research and hardware OSINT
Imaging-led analysis, including X-ray inspection
Trace following and continuity-assisted mapping
PCB zoning, net, bus and interface identification
Pinout extraction from layout, datasheets and measurement
Memory, debug, test and service interface identification
Producing a documented board map and attack plan

What will a new trainee gain?

A trainee learns to reconstruct how an unknown board works from layout, imaging and open sources, a skill that takes years to pick up by osmosis otherwise. It means your new entrants can produce a credible attack-surface map on their own, which is exactly the artefact the rest of the team plans from.

What will an experienced team member gain?

An experienced engineer gains rigour around netlist reconstruction and X-ray-led analysis, so hunches about a board become documented, defensible findings. That improves the quality of the assessments your organisation hands to clients or to its own product teams, and makes them repeatable rather than dependent on one person’s intuition.

Who this course is for

This course is for engineers, security professionals and hardware reverse engineering trainees who want to understand how unfamiliar PCBs are structured and identify where their attack surface lies. Some familiarity with electronics and PCB concepts is useful, and prior practical bench experience will help, but the course develops the analysis process systematically from board survey through to a documented attack plan.

Not sure where you fit? Find out more about our training audience and prerequisites.

As someone who used to take things apart as a kid just to see how they worked (and usually got told off for it), this course hit the spot. If you’re the same – curious, technical, and always asking how does this actually work? – then you’ll love it. Highly recommended for anyone serious about hardware hacking, reverse engineering, or just unlocking that next level of cyber knowledge.

Jon from Baigent’s Information Security Services

This was a fantastic introduction to Hardware in general. Whether you’re interested in security, RE or just curious about how things work on a hardware level, this is a fantastic hands-on course!

Davey H

Required equipment, tools, and software

You will need a laptop with at least 8GB RAM preferably 16GB, an up to date and stable Operating System, and an Ethernet port / reliable Ethernet dongle.

This laptop must be fully under your control such that you can install tools, dependencies and run arbitrary code. It is often useful to have the ability to run virtual machines and any that we provide will be suitable for importing into VirtualBox. If you use a different hypervisor, ensure that you are confident about importing VMs from OVF file formats. Unfortunately we are unable to pause the course for technical difficulties as a result of the amount of material that we need to cover.

We will use a number of other tools during the course. We put together a goodie bag which directly relates to the activities in the course. The free goodie bag is yours to keep at the end of the course, just make sure you have enough luggage space to take it home. The exact details of what is in it will vary depending on availability but we always make it a useful and interesting collection. We provide any other tools needed to complete all the tasks set, aside from a laptop.

You don’t need to bring anything extra other than your enthusiasm!

Venue and travel information

The classroom

The classroom is well appointed, has good WiFi and hot and cold drinks, it’s spacious, comfortable, has plenty of power sockets, lots of natural light, and is wheelchair friendly. The course is delivered in English and digital versions of slides and handouts will be provided where appropriate.

Food and refreshments

Lunch and morning and afternoon snacks are provided so please make sure you let us know about any dietary needs at least a week before we get started. With the exception of the social night, all other meals are for you to organise. We suggest getting a hotel that provides breakfast, and there are many good restaurants in Manchester for your evening meals. We will try and facilitate additional social arrangements, but, this is down to the individuals present.

Staying in Manchester

There are a number of good and affordable hotels in the Manchester area. We are based in an area called Media City and we are in the same complex as the northern headquarters of the BBC. This means that there are lots of facilities locally and you could choose to not venture into the city centre.

Getting here

If you do choose to look further around there are good tram links that can take you into the city as well as to key travel hubs such as Piccadilly, the national railway station, and Manchester International Airport.

Please check the weather before you travel and bring suitable clothes for the season. If in doubt, assume you will need a waterproof coat and an umbrella. The locals will tell you that Manchester is one of the rainiest places in the world, its not actually true but it does drizzle more than you might expect, even in summer.

Ready to start seeing what a board is really doing?

Develop a systematic approach to analysing unfamiliar PCBs and turning physical evidence into a clear picture of how a target works. Over five days, you’ll learn to investigate power architecture, components, traces, interfaces and hidden features, producing the documented board map and attack plan needed for deeper reverse engineering.

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