Building and Hacking USB with FPGAs
Michael Ossmann
ShmooCon XX (Final) · Day 2 · Build It
In this ShmooCon talk, Michael Ossmann, founder and CTO of Great Scott Gadgets, delves into the evolution and application of open-source tools and hardware for building and hacking USB devices using **Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)**. The presentation traces a decade of development, from the ambitious but ultimately abandoned Daisho project to the realization of its core concepts in the **Synthon** multi-tool and the **Luna** gateware library. Ossmann highlights the critical role of open-source hardware and software in empowering security researchers, reverse engineers, and hardware developers to deeply understand and manipulate the ubiquitous USB standard.
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This session delivers a deep dive into the state-of-the-art in open-source USB analysis and emulation. Ossmann, a veteran in the field, presents Synthon, a robust FPGA-based multi-tool, along with the Luna gateware library and Packetry, a custom Rust-based USB sniffer. The talk effectively demonstrates the critical limitations of traditional tools like Wireshark for wire-level USB analysis and provides actionable, high-performance alternatives, showcasing practical reverse engineering with FaceDancer. This is not just a product showcase; it's a presentation of foundational tools for anyone…