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* feat(artifacts): inventory and extract ESP32 firmware images ESP32-family app and bootloader images (magic 0xE9) had no reader, so open_binary refused OTA downloads, app partitions and bootloaders. Add the esp-image container format behind inspect_artifact and extract_artifact. A pure decoder reads each byte once and keeps only fixed-size fields. Derived facts cover the chip, from a table cited to ESP-IDF v6.1; segment classification as ESP-IDF's should_map and should_load; checksum and appended SHA-256 results; app and bootloader descriptors; Secure Boot v2 signature blocks, observed and unverified; and undescribed trailing byte ranges. Truncation and undescribed bytes make coverage unknown. ESP8266 images are refused with a specific reason, and ciphertext stays unrecognized. Add the format to every target, Evidence, snapshot, live-summary and artifact vocabulary, document it, and add an optional verify:esp-images lane that compares esptool-built images with esptool image-info and espsecure signature-info-v2. Refs #3615 * test(artifacts): run the ESP image lane on esptool v5.6.0 The lane compared descriptor fields only when esptool image-info printed one, so a descriptor that REA reports and esptool does not print passed without comparison. Compare the descriptor kind in both directions. Record that the lane passed for all 13 images with esptool and espsecure v5.6.0, the version the layout facts cite, as well as with 4.12.0. * refactor(artifacts): define ESP image layout sizes once The decoder and the derived facts each defined the segment-header, appended-digest and flash-sector sizes, the erased-byte scan and the offset formatter. Define them once with the other fixed-layout structures and import them in both places. The signature slot count is the one constant that drives the slot scan. Correct the observedEnd comment: it is the end of the last chunk read. * fix(artifacts): report ESP-IDF's segment length limit by chip ESP-IDF's verify_segment_header rejects a segment of 16 MiB or more unless the chip maps flash through 32-bit cache addresses (SOC_SPI_MEM_SUPPORT_CACHE_32BIT_ADDR_MAP: ESP32-S3, P4, C5, C61, H4 and S31 in v6.1). Record that capability in the chip table and add a limitation for such segments; unknown chips get none. `loaded` repeats should_load. It does not mean the bootloader accepts the segment: verify_load_addresses still rejects one outside the chip's RAM, which REA does not model. Say so in the docs, the skill reference and the inventory limitation. * test(artifacts): check ESP lane tools first and verify extraction The lane started work before checking its tools, so a missing RISC-V target, ld.lld, esptool or espsecure surfaced as a raw spawn or command error. Check each one before building and name the variable to set. Warn when esptool is not v5.6.0, the release the layout facts cite. Assert each segment's class for the ESP32-C3 app, its variants and the bootloader, as the Xtensa image already did. Extract the app and the signed image through the CLI and compare every file with the bytes at esptool's segment offsets or in the appended signature sector; the source's SHA-256 must be unchanged and equal the reported root_sha256. * docs(artifacts): state what the ESP image lane does not establish The Verification section listed the lane's checks but not its gaps: only ESP32-C3 and ESP32 images come from a real producer, no real project build, OTA download or flash dump is inspected, no signature is verified, and the lane does not run in CI. Record the timing of the final lane run on esptool v5.6.0. * fix(artifacts): compare ESP segment declarations Segment entries hash only their data, so compare_artifacts reported a segment that moved to another load address with the same bytes as unchanged; only the image itself changed. Compare each segment's load_addr and data_len as its declaration, as Node SEA and PyInstaller members are compared, and count a changed declaration as a metadata change, also when content is unavailable. Header offsets are layout and the classification is derived, so neither is compared. * test(artifacts): run ESP lane commands as owned process trees The lane ran its tools through execFile. A timeout killed only the direct child, so a linker or assembler that Clang or GCC had started could keep running while the lane removed its workspace. Run every command through createVerifierCommands, check the tools inside withVerifierCleanup, and remove the workspace only after commands.close() has stopped every tree; a failed close keeps the workspace. Only a nonzero exit now counts as a refusal or an expected esptool failure; timeouts and spawn failures propagate. Supervising each command roughly doubles the lane's run time. * test(artifacts): cancel ESP decoding after its first decoded chunk The cancellation test requested cancel or close on setImmediate, which can land while the file is still being opened and checked, so it never showed that decoding had started. It also passed against a reader that ignored both requests while decoding. Acknowledge the decoder's first chunk, then cancel or close, join the operation, and assert that no later chunk reaches the decoder and that the reader ends closed. * docs(artifacts): record which ESP metadata comparison ignores Segments are compared by their declaration. The image's and the signature blocks' format_metadata are not: every field comes from their own bytes, which content comparison already covers, and a block's image_digest_matches follows the image's content. * feat(artifacts): inventory and extract ESP flash layouts A whole-flash dump of an ESP32-family chip was read as its bootloader image, with the partition table, apps and data left as undescribed bytes, or refused when it began with erased flash. Read it as an esp-flash-image container instead. The partition table is decoded as esp_partition_table_verify accepts it and is found at the caller's partition_table_offset, at the default 0x8000, or by scanning 0x1000-aligned sectors for a table whose MD5 verifies, which the inventory reports as derived. The bootloader is located at its chip's ROM bootloader offset. Each partition is an entry with its declaration in flat format_metadata; the bootloader and app partitions carry ESP image facts from the existing streaming decoder; the otadata records are reported with a selection derived without rollback or anti-rollback, and the running partition stays unknown. One unreadable partition does not hide the others, and extraction writes every partition, nvs_keys included, as ordinary data. Flash layouts are detected before single ESP images. The scan runs only when an ESP image sits at a ROM bootloader offset, and is refused when a bootloader at another chip's offset shows that the dump does not start at flash address 0. open_binary gains flash_offset and partition_table_offset, which require format esp-flash-image and are part of the snapshot target identity; the CLI takes them with --target-format esp-flash-image. Comparison treats a partition's label, type, subtype, range and flags as its declaration. * test(artifacts): verify ESP flash layouts with gen_esp32part, merge-bin and otatool Add the optional verify:esp-flash lane. It builds default and relocated partition tables with ESP-IDF's gen_esp32part.py, assembles dumps with esptool merge-bin, including one written from flash 0x1000, and writes OTA records with otatool through flash_file_tool.py, which replaces parttool's esptool calls with reads and writes of the dump file. It compares REA's bootloader and app facts with esptool image-info, every partition with gen_esp32part.py's decoding of the extracted table, and the OTA records and derived slot with otatool read_otadata after each switch. It also checks extracted bytes and source integrity, the scan and caller table offsets, flash_offset on the 0x1000 dump, a corrupted app beside valid partitions and a truncated dump. ESP32 linker scripts place the conformance bootloader and app in ESP32 address ranges. * fix(artifacts): read ESP flash layouts as the bootloader does Read the partition table as bootloader_utility_load_partition_table does: the last factory, otadata and same-subtype OTA declaration wins, and a limitation names repeats. Plan each otadata record within its partition and the dump. An otadata partition smaller than two sectors selects none, the bootloader's INVALID_INDEX; a record the dump lacks leaves the selection unknown while the other record stays reported. The fallbacks follow the bootloader's indexes: ota_0-fallback and factory-fallback name no partition when the table declares none, and the assumptions add GPIO holds and deep-sleep wake. Refuse a dump whose bootloader contradicts its origin before the default table offset is tried, whether flash_offset was omitted or given, and keep the ESP image reader's ESP8266 refusal. A table never lies inside the located bootloader image, so single app images are no longer scanned. An explicit esp-flash-image selection is decided before other container signatures, and the native commands' --target-format no longer takes it. Say when no bootloader confirms the default origin. Exempt the primary bootloader and partition_table entries of ESP-IDF 5.3 from placement limits, report every region inside a longer one, and name partitions by index when labels repeat ignoring case. Keep an undecodable label's bytes in label_hex and compare them. Word undescribed ranges as starting at a byte that is not erased, and treat a short erased region as erased. Add an MCP compare_artifacts test for partition declarations, reader identity and close tests, scan edge cases, the 0x2000 ROM offset and a literal otatool CRC. * test(artifacts): verify ESP primary layout entries and the otadata fallback Build a table with the primary bootloader and partition_table entries that gen_esp32part.py fills from --primary-bootloader-offset, and check that REA reads it with complete coverage, no overlap or misplacement limitation, and a table that agrees with gen_esp32part's decoding. Erase the otadata with otatool after the slot switches and check the records against read_otadata and the factory fallback. * fix(artifacts): keep ESP flash coverage complete for a dump cut short An esptool merge-bin dump ends after the last part it wrote, usually inside its last partition. Such a partition made the layout's coverage unknown, so artifact comparison of two merge-bin dumps reported every unchanged partition as unknown. The partition table names every partition whatever the file's length, so a partition cut short or left out by the end of the file hides no entry. As the ESP image reader does for a cut-short segment, its entry holds the bytes the file has and an entry limitation gives the declared size; a partition with no bytes stays in partitions_outside_dump. Coverage stays complete unless undescribed bytes remain or no bootloader is located. An MCP compare_artifacts test of two dumps that end inside ota_0 now classifies every partition, and fails on the old rule. * fix(artifacts): report written bytes in ESP partitions, erased slots included An app slot is erased for ESP-IDF's bootloader when its image header bytes are erased flash, and REA reported only that status. A slot can still hold data further in: a dump read from a device held a complete older app image 1 MiB into an OTA slot reported as erased, with no limitation. Each partition entry now records where the bytes the dump holds are written, relative to the partition: written_offset, the first byte that is not 0xFF, written_end, just past the last, and written_bytes, how many are not 0xFF. They are null for a partition outside the dump. The status stays erased, which is the bootloader's view, and a limitation names an erased app slot that holds written bytes and says they are not read as an image. The reader reads every partition byte once more to find them. * fix(artifacts): derive the ESP boot selection for every partition table The boot selection lived inside otadata, so a table without an otadata partition, the common factory-only layout, had none. ESP-IDF's bootloader_utility_get_selected_boot_partition returns the factory index when the table declares no otadata partition. Move it to a top-level boot_selection that every layout has. Its basis names the bootloader's branch: otadata, factory-fallback and ota_0-fallback from the records, no-otadata for a table without otadata, none for the bootloader's INVALID_INDEX, and unknown when the dump lacks a record the bootloader reads, which replaces the null selection. running_partition moves with it, and otadata keeps its partition index and records. The assumptions name what each branch leaves out: no records assumption without otadata, and none for none or unknown. The real-tool lane checks no-otadata on a table gen_esp32part built without otadata. * fix(artifacts): say when an ESP image is a flash dump read from 0x1000 An ESP32 dump read from flash 0x1000, as read-flash 0x1000 or merge-bin --target-offset 0x1000 writes it, opened automatically as its bootloader image with a megabyte of undescribed bytes and no next probe. The flash reader refuses that origin, but nothing told an agent which flash_offset to pass. espFlashDumpOrigin owns the inference: an image of a chip whose ROM loads the bootloader from flash R, at file offset F, is the bootloader of a dump read from R - F when a partition table sits where that origin puts 0x8000. The ESP image reader asks it for a non-app image at file offset 0, so the result does not depend on how the reader was created, and records flash_dump {flash_offset, table_file_offset}, null otherwise, with a limitation that says to reopen the file as esp-flash-image with that flash_offset. inspect_artifact proposes the same open_binary call as a next probe, and the flash reader's misplaced-origin refusal names the offset. * perf(artifacts): summarize nested ESP images in the flash layout summary view The summary view returned an ESP flash layout's root facts whole, so each app partition and the bootloader carried every segment and signature block, about half of a dump's summary. The summary view now gives each nested image a summary instead of its facts: status, chip, entry point, segment count, load ranges (each mapped, loaded or unclassified segment's address and declared length), the checksum and appended SHA-256 statuses, coverage and limitations. Complete detail keeps the full facts, every segment included, and the retained Evidence is unchanged. On a 16 MiB device dump the summary's root falls from 5,141 to 2,657 bytes, and the summary Evidence from 10,038 to 7,554. * test(artifacts): expect the misplaced image the ESP bootloader search reports8a748d3ccadded misplacedImage to the bootloader search, which the locator uses to name the origin a misplaced bootloader implies, but one test still compared the search result without it. Expect the image's chip and file offset, and no image for an unknown chip. * fix(artifacts): give every ESP partition from the dump's start an entry Afterecbc1a772kept coverage complete for a dump cut short, a partition wholly past the end of the file still had no entry, only a partitions_outside_dump row. Comparing a merge-bin dump with a full device read then reported that partition as added or removed, as if one table did not declare it. Every partition from the dump's first byte on is now an entry holding the bytes the file has: none for one past the end, with a limitation saying the file holds none of its bytes, no image facts and null written fields. partitions_outside_dump keeps only partitions that begin before the dump's first byte, and coverage is unknown when one does, since it has no entry. Two dumps that lack the same partition now compare it as unchanged, and a dump against a longer one reports the partition as changed; an MCP test of a merge-bin dump against a full one checks that no path is added or removed. Unlike the ESP image reader, which marks a truncated image's coverage unknown because later segments and signature blocks may be hidden, the flash reader can list every partition from the table whatever the file's length; only the entry limitation follows the image reader. * fix(artifacts): select no ESP app from a partition table the bootloader rejects boot_selection followed bootloader_utility_get_selected_boot_partition but not the table check before it. For a table whose MD5 does not match, or that has a second MD5 entry, esp_partition_table_verify fails, the bootloader selects no app and resets. REA still derived a slot from the otadata records, although the table's own limitation said the bootloader rejects it. The selection now has basis none, with no assumptions, for a table the decoder marks invalid. It also follows two more branches of the bootloader: an otadata partition at offset 0, which the bootloader takes for none, selects the factory index as no-otadata, and a table without an OTA app selects its fallback even when the dump lacks a record, since the bootloader then ignores the records. The bootloader also rejects a table whose partitions end past the flash size in its header. REA does not model that check; the format guide says so. * fix(artifacts): require the ESP dump origin's table to follow the image espFlashDumpOrigin named a later flash origin whenever a partition table decoded where that origin puts 0x8000. Bytes inside the image's own segments could be read that way, so an ESP32 bootloader whose segment data held table-shaped bytes at file offset 0x7000 was reported as a dump read from 0x1000. The table must now start at or after the image's end, the rule the locator already applies to the default table. The ESP image reader passes the image_end it decoded, or the file size for a truncated image; the flash reader's refusal passes the end of the misplaced image's segments. The bootloader search drops its misplaced flag, which only restated misplacedImage, and the next probe formats offsets with offsetText. Reader tests cover the 0x1000 and 0x2000 ROM offsets, a standalone bootloader, bytes that begin like a table, an app with a table at 0x7000 and a table inside a segment; without the boundary check, three of them fail. * fix(artifacts): give the ESP flash summary its own kind and each image's identity The summary view's ESP flash root kept kind esp-flash-image, so a consumer bound to kind could not tell an image's summary from its full facts, and the advertised schema held two objects with the same kind const. It is now esp-flash-image-summary. The per-image summary also dropped the descriptor, which is what tells two app slots apart, and named each image only by its partition index, which the summary view, having no entry rows, could not resolve. Each nested image now carries its entry path from the layout plan, in both views. The summary adds the descriptor kind with its identifying fields (an app's project_name, version, idf_ver, secure_version and app_elf_sha256; a bootloader's version, idf_ver and secure_version), the signature block count and each load range's classification. Its enums and fields derive from the schemas that own them. An MCP test reads a dump with an app in ota_0 and an erased ota_1 that holds older bytes: it checks both summaries, that the summary's inventory Evidence is the one the complete view returns with full facts, and the erased slot's written range. * test(artifacts): cover cancel and close during the ESP written-bytes scan The written-bytes pass reads every byte of each partition the dump holds, checking that the reader is open before each chunk, but only app decoding had a cancellation and close test. A data partition, which only that pass reads, now holds 9 MiB; once the scan has examined its first chunk, a cancel rejects preparation with the caller's reason and a close with unavailable, and the scan examines no further chunk. The erased-slot test now asserts the whole set of erased-slot limitations, so factory, ota_0 and nvs, which the bootloader reads or which are not app slots, are shown to have none. * docs(artifacts): re-time the ESP flash lane and state only observed causes The lane ran again after its assertions changed; both esptool runs passed, and the timed run's figures replace the earlier ones. The erased-slot paragraph no longer names a cause for the older bytes, which REA cannot observe, and the skill reference states that every table has a boot_selection in its own sentence, with the none basis for a table the bootloader rejects. * fix(artifacts): retire ESP flash members as the ESP image reader does #7498's maintainer commits made the ESP image reader keep a member owned until its consumer closes it, retire fully buffered bytes when cancellation arrives after production, and refuse to finish an inventory paused across close. The ESP flash reader was copied from the earlier reader. Main's shared stored-member lifecycle cases failed two of eight against it: a paused inventory completed after close, and buffered member bytes stayed readable after cancellation. Give the flash reader the same lifecycle and run the shared cases against it. * docs(artifacts): re-time the ESP flash lane after merging main The lane passed again with esptool v5.6.0 and 4.12.0 on the merge of upstream main. Record the v5.6.0 run's time and peak resident set. * fix(artifacts): read ESP image Evidence recorded before flash_dump The flash layout work made `flash_dump` a required field of the `esp-image` root metadata. Evidence recorded before it has no such field, so newer REA rejected records that were valid when they were made: `compare_artifacts` and `inspect_analysis_view` reported `evidence_integrity_mismatch` for them. The field is now optional when read. A record without it parses as it is, so the graph digest it commits to still matches; nothing fills the field in. The image reader still writes it for every image, and the inspection probe reads a missing field as no hint. A regression test recommits an image inventory without the field and passes it inline to `compare_artifacts` and `inspect_analysis_view`. Against a server built with the required field, `compare_artifacts` rejects it. * fix(artifacts): stop the ESP flash gap scan when the reader closes The scan for the first written byte in each undescribed gap checked only the caller's signal. `close()` marks the reader closed and waits for preparation, so it waited while the rest of a long erased gap was read. The gap scan now takes the reader's open check, as the written-bytes scan and the image decoder do, and checks it before each chunk. Tests cancel or close the reader after the scan's first chunk of a 9 MiB erased gap and confirm that no later chunk is examined. * fix(artifacts): name ESP partitions with Windows device labels by index The safe-label rule accepted labels such as `NUL`, `con` or `COM1`, so extraction wrote `partitions/NUL.bin`. Windows reserves those names before any extension, and ordinary Windows tools cannot use such a file. A label that is a Windows device name (`CON`, `PRN`, `AUX`, `NUL`, `COM0`-`COM9` and `LPT0`-`LPT9`, any case, alone or before a dot) now takes the existing index fallback. The partition metadata and the entry's source path keep the label. * fix(artifacts): read ESP flash partitions' written bytes in one pass Each partition got its own scan of the bytes the dump holds, so partitions declared over the same bytes read them again and again. Overlaps only add limitations, so a crafted table reached this normally: 94 overlapping partitions over a 32 MiB dump would examine about 3 GiB before the first entry. The reader now reads the bytes the partitions cover once. Partition boundaries cut them into segments; one pass counts each segment's written bytes and bounds, and each partition's extent is the sum of the segments inside it. Every partition keeps its own declaration, extent and limitations. The pass checks the reader's open state before each chunk, as the per-partition scan did. A test declares 60 partitions over one MiB, 40 over all of it and 20 over its first half, and checks each partition's extent and the overlap limitations. The reader reads 1,113,256 bytes of the 1,114,112-byte dump; one scan per partition read 52,493,480. * test(artifacts): fail the ESP lanes on failed commands and refusals `otatool` turned a nonzero exit into returned text, which its callers discarded, and `inspect()` returned `{ refused }`, which the flash lane never checked. A failed command then surfaced later as a slot assertion, an output-parser error or a TypeError, hiding its cause. Commands the lanes need to succeed now reject with the output they exited with: `otatool` and `inspect()` do so through a shared `failedCommand`. An expected refusal is opt-in: `refusal()` returns REA's output and fails the lane when REA opens the file. The ESP image lane's two ESP8266 cases use it. Checked by calling `otatool` on a file without a table, `inspect()` on a file REA refuses and `refusal()` on a file REA opens; each rejects with its cause. * fix(artifacts): require a partition entry in an ESP partition table The decoder counted the slot, not the partitions, so a lone MD5 entry over the empty prefix, followed by the terminator, decoded as a table with no partitions. Default and caller-selected detection then accepted that empty layout, although the guide requires one partition. A table now needs one partition entry before its terminator. An MD5 entry alone is refused as `entry 1 at 0x20 ends the table before any partition entry`. The cases cover the decoder and both automatic and caller-selected location. * fix(artifacts): decode an image shared by ESP app partitions once Each app partition got its own decode, so app partitions declared over the same bytes decoded and hashed the same image again and again, the same pattern the written-bytes scan had. With 60 app partitions over one 960 KiB image the reader read 64,029,736 bytes of a 1,114,112-byte dump. Regions with the same file range now share one decode; each keeps its own copy of the facts. Partitions with different ranges still decode separately, because truncation can change the facts: at most one decode per partition the table holds, each within its partition. A test declares 60 app partitions over one image, 40 holding all of it and 20 cutting it short, and expects three decodes: the bootloader, the whole image and the cut one. The 60-partition dump now reads 2,161,864 bytes, as a dump with one app partition does.
349 lines
19 KiB
Markdown
349 lines
19 KiB
Markdown
# ESP flash images
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REA reads a dump of an ESP32-family SPI flash, such as the output of
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`esptool read-flash 0 ALL dump.bin` or `esptool merge-bin`, through
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`inspect_artifact` and `extract_artifact`. The reader is static: no device,
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esptool or ESP-IDF is needed, and no code is run.
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The container format is `esp-flash-image`. Entries are the bootloader region,
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the partition table sector and one file per partition. The bootloader and
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each app partition are also decoded as [ESP images](esp-image.md), so their
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headers, segments, integrity and descriptors appear in the root
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`format_metadata`. Layout facts are cited to ESP-IDF v6.1
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(`esp_flash_partitions.h`, `flash_partitions.c`, `gen_esp32part.py`,
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`bootloader_common_loader.c`, `bootloader_utility.c` and each chip's
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`esp_rom_caps.h`).
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## Recognition
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A file is a flash image when REA finds a partition table in the entry
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structure ESP-IDF's bootloader verifies (`esp_partition_table_verify`):
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32-byte `0x50AA` entries, at most one `0xEBEB` MD5 entry over the entries
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before it, and a terminating entry within `0xC00` bytes. ESP-IDF accepts a
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table with no partition entries, but REA requires one, so that neither
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erased flash nor a lone MD5 entry is read as a table. A table whose MD5 does not match, or that has a second MD5 entry, is
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still read, with `md5.status` `invalid` and a limitation, because the
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bootloader would refuse it. The table is located in this order:
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1. at the caller's `partition_table_offset`, when given; no scan follows;
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2. at the default `0x8000`;
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3. by scanning every `0x1000`-aligned flash sector for a table whose MD5
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verifies. This location is derived, and the inventory says so.
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A table never lies inside the located bootloader image, so the default
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offset and the scan are tried only after the image's last segment. Without
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a caller selection, the scan runs only when an ESP image sits at a ROM
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bootloader offset, and a single app or bootloader image ends at its last
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segment, so neither ordinary files nor single images are scanned. A C3 or
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S3 dump begins with its bootloader, so flash layouts are detected before a
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file is read as one ESP image.
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Unless the caller names the table with `partition_table_offset`, REA
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refuses two kinds of dump before looking for a table:
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- an image of a known chip at another chip's ROM offset, such as an ESP32
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bootloader at the start of a dump read from `0x1000`. The dump's origin
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is not the flash address REA assumed, given or default, and a table found
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there would place every partition at the wrong file offset; pass the
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`flash_offset` where the dump starts. When a partition table sits where
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the image's own ROM offset puts `0x8000`, after the image's segments, the
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refusal names that offset.
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Without a selected format such a dump opens as its bootloader image, whose
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[ESP image](esp-image.md) facts say how to reopen it.
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- an ESP8266 image at a ROM offset. ESP8266 dumps can hold the same table
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format, and they keep the [ESP image](esp-image.md) reader's ESP8266
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refusal.
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When no table is found the layout is not recognized. This is an unknown
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outcome, not a malformed file: flash encryption, which encrypts the
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bootloader and the table, is one cause. When a table is found without a
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located bootloader and `flash_offset` is omitted, a limitation says that
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each partition's file offset assumes the dump starts at flash `0x0`.
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## Caller inputs
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| Input | Meaning |
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| ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `format: esp-flash-image` | Read the file as a flash dump; with no table found, refuse it |
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| `flash_offset` | Flash address (`0x…`) of the dump's first byte; default 0 |
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| `partition_table_offset` | Flash address (`0x…`, a multiple of `0x1000`) of the table; disables the scan |
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MCP takes these on `open_binary`; the CLI takes `--target-format
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esp-flash-image`, `--flash-offset` and `--partition-table-offset` on
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`inspect-artifact` and `extract-artifact`. The offsets require the format, and
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the format takes no `architecture` or `entry_point`. The inputs are part of
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the target's identity, so reopening the same bytes with other inputs reads
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them again instead of reusing the earlier reading. The `open_binary` summary
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reports them as `flash_offset` and `partition_table_offset`, null when
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omitted.
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## Layout facts
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The root `format_metadata` (`esp-flash-image`) records:
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- `flash_offset`: its `value` and whether the `caller` gave it or it is the
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`default`;
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- `chip`: from the bootloader's `chip_id`, or null without a located
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bootloader;
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- `bootloader`: the region from the chip's ROM bootloader offset to the
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table, with its ESP image facts;
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- `partition_table`: its flash address, the `method` that found it
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(`default`, `caller` or `scan`), the partition count and the MD5 `status`
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(`valid`, `invalid` or `absent`) with the stored and computed digests;
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- `apps`: ESP image facts for each app partition the dump holds; app
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partitions declared over the same bytes share one decode;
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- `otadata`: the otadata partition's records, or null without one;
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- `boot_selection`: the app the bootloader would select, for every table;
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- `partitions_outside_dump`: declared partitions that begin before the
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dump's first byte, which have no entry;
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- `undescribed`: ranges outside every region, each from a byte that is not
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erased flash to the end of its gap.
|
|
|
|
The ROM loads the bootloader from `ESP_ROM_BOOTLOADER_OFFSET_FLASH`:
|
|
`0x1000` for ESP32 and ESP32-S2; `0x0` for ESP32-S3, C2, C3, C6, C61, H2 and
|
|
H21; and `0x2000` for ESP32-C5, H4, P4 and S31. A bootloader is located only
|
|
where its own `chip_id` says the ROM loads it.
|
|
|
|
### Partitions
|
|
|
|
Each partition entry is `partitions/<label>.bin` when the label is a safe
|
|
name of up to 16 letters, digits, `.`, `_` and `-` that starts with a
|
|
letter, digit or underscore and has at least one letter or underscore, is
|
|
not a Windows device name such as `NUL` or `COM1`, alone or before a dot,
|
|
and no other label repeats it, ignoring case as some file systems do; it is
|
|
`partitions/<index>.bin` otherwise. `source_path` keeps the label, the
|
|
table's own name for the partition. Its `format_metadata`
|
|
(`esp-flash-partition`) records the table `index`, `label` (null when not
|
|
UTF-8), `label_hex` (the label's bytes when it is not UTF-8, else null),
|
|
`type`, `subtype`, ESP-IDF's `type_name` and `subtype_name`,
|
|
`flash_address`, `size`, the `encrypted` and `readonly` flags and any
|
|
`unknown_flags`. The `encrypted` flag says how a device with flash
|
|
encryption stores the partition; it does not establish that the dump's
|
|
bytes are ciphertext.
|
|
|
|
Each partition entry also records where the bytes the dump holds are
|
|
written, relative to the partition's start: `written_offset`, the first
|
|
byte that is not erased flash (`0xFF`), `written_end`, just past the last
|
|
such byte, and `written_bytes`, how many bytes are not `0xFF`. A partition
|
|
erased throughout has null offsets and `written_bytes` `0`; a partition the
|
|
file holds none of has all three null. The range bounds the written
|
|
bytes and does not say whether erased flash lies between them; extract the
|
|
partition to read them. REA reads the bytes the partitions cover once, so
|
|
overlapping partitions share that read however many the table declares.
|
|
|
|
ESP-IDF 5.3 and later may declare primary `bootloader` and `partition_table`
|
|
entries over the bootloader region and the table sector. They are
|
|
partitions like any other, whose bytes are also `bootloader.bin` and
|
|
`partition-table.bin`, and they are exempt from the rule that partitions
|
|
follow the table, as in `gen_esp32part.py`.
|
|
|
|
Every partition from the dump's first byte on is an entry holding the bytes
|
|
the file has. One that the file holds only in part, as when an `esptool
|
|
merge-bin` dump ends inside its last partition, has an entry limitation that
|
|
gives the size the table declares; one that lies past the end of the file is
|
|
an entry with no bytes and a limitation, and has no image facts. A partition
|
|
that begins before the dump's first byte has no entry and is listed in
|
|
`partitions_outside_dump`. One unreadable partition does not hide the
|
|
others: partitions outside the dump or overlapping another are each reported
|
|
while the rest stay readable.
|
|
|
|
### App partitions and the bootloader
|
|
|
|
Each app partition and the bootloader region carry their entry's `path`
|
|
and ESP image `facts`:
|
|
`status` is `esp-image`, `erased` (the image header bytes are erased flash,
|
|
as in an empty OTA slot) or `unrecognized` (ciphertext or other data). For an
|
|
image they hold the [ESP image](esp-image.md) root facts, `segments`,
|
|
`signature_blocks`, `coverage` and `limitations`, with offsets relative to
|
|
the region. Extract a partition and inspect it as an ESP image for its
|
|
segments as entries.
|
|
|
|
The summary view (`inspect_artifact` with `detail: "summary"`, or the
|
|
inventory summary of `inspect_analysis_view`) reports the root facts under
|
|
their own kind, `esp-flash-image-summary`, and gives each of these images a
|
|
`summary` instead of its `facts`: `status`, `chip`, `entry_addr`,
|
|
`segment_count`, `load_ranges` (the load address, declared length and
|
|
classification of each segment that is mapped, loaded or unclassified),
|
|
`signature_block_count`, the `descriptor` kind with the fields that tell
|
|
builds apart (an app's `project_name`, `version`, `idf_ver`,
|
|
`secure_version` and `app_elf_sha256`; a bootloader's `version`, `idf_ver`
|
|
and `secure_version`), the `checksum` and `appended_sha256` statuses,
|
|
`coverage` and `limitations`. The default complete detail keeps the full
|
|
facts, every segment included, and the summary's `inventory_evidence_ids`
|
|
name the Evidence that holds them.
|
|
|
|
`erased` is the bootloader's view: with no image header at the start of the
|
|
slot, it finds no app there. An erased slot can still hold data further in,
|
|
even a complete app image. When it does, its entry's `written_offset` and
|
|
`written_end` say where, and a limitation says that the slot holds bytes the
|
|
bootloader does not read; REA does not look for images in them.
|
|
|
|
### OTA data
|
|
|
|
The otadata partition holds two `esp_ota_select_entry_t` records, one at the
|
|
start of each 4 KiB sector. Like the bootloader, REA reads the last otadata
|
|
partition the table declares, and the last factory app and OTA app of each
|
|
subtype; a limitation names any repeated declaration. REA reports each
|
|
record the partition and the dump hold: its `ota_seq`, `seq_label`,
|
|
`ota_state` and its name, `crc`, whether the CRC matches (CRC-32 of
|
|
`ota_seq` seeded with `0xFFFFFFFF`) and whether the bootloader would treat
|
|
it as valid.
|
|
|
|
### Boot selection
|
|
|
|
`boot_selection` is present for every table. It is derived as
|
|
`bootloader_utility_get_selected_boot_partition` does without app rollback
|
|
or anti-rollback, and `basis` names its branch:
|
|
|
|
- `otadata`: the valid record with the higher `ota_seq` (record 0 on a tie)
|
|
selects slot `(ota_seq - 1) % ota_app_count`, indexed by OTA subtype;
|
|
- `factory-fallback`: no record is usable, or the table has no OTA app, and
|
|
a factory app is declared; or records are set but none is valid, as after
|
|
a CRC mismatch, which selects the factory index whether or not a factory
|
|
app is declared;
|
|
- `ota_0-fallback`: no record is usable, or the table has no OTA app, and no
|
|
factory app is declared, so the bootloader selects boot index 0;
|
|
- `no-otadata`: the table declares no otadata partition, or one at offset 0,
|
|
which the bootloader takes for none, so it selects the factory index, as in
|
|
the common factory-only layout;
|
|
- `none`: the bootloader rejects the table, for an MD5 mismatch or a second
|
|
MD5 entry, or cannot read an otadata partition smaller than two 4 KiB
|
|
sectors, and resets without selecting an app;
|
|
- `unknown`: the dump lacks an otadata record the bootloader reads.
|
|
|
|
Without an OTA app the records do not matter, so a dump that lacks them
|
|
still selects a fallback. REA does not compare the partitions with the
|
|
flash size in the bootloader header, which the bootloader also checks.
|
|
|
|
`active_record` and `slot` are set for `otadata` and `slot` for
|
|
`ota_0-fallback`. `partition_index` is null when the table declares no
|
|
partition for the selected slot or fallback; the bootloader then tries the
|
|
other apps. `assumptions` list what the derivation leaves out: records used
|
|
as written (for the branches that read them), anti-rollback, load fallback,
|
|
and factory-reset and test-app GPIO holds and a wake from deep sleep; they
|
|
are empty for `none` and `unknown`. `running_partition` is always
|
|
`unknown`: at boot the bootloader may first mark a pending-verify record
|
|
aborted, check the app's secure version against eFuse, and fall back to
|
|
another partition when an app fails to load.
|
|
|
|
## Coverage and extraction
|
|
|
|
Erased flash (`0xFF`) between regions is described. In a gap between
|
|
regions, the first byte that is not erased starts an `undescribed` range to
|
|
the end of the gap, and makes coverage `unknown`; the rest of that range is
|
|
not examined. Coverage is also `unknown` when no bootloader is located, or
|
|
when a declared partition begins before the dump's first byte, since it has
|
|
no entry. A partition cut short or left out by the end of the file does not
|
|
make it `unknown`: its entry holds the bytes the file has, none for one past
|
|
the end, and its limitation says what the file lacks. Coverage describes the
|
|
inventory of the file, not the observation of every declared flash byte.
|
|
|
|
So artifact comparison classifies every partition entry of two dumps. Where
|
|
both lack the same bytes, as two `merge-bin` dumps of the same layout do,
|
|
the entries are equal; a dump against a longer one reports each partition
|
|
it cuts short or lacks as `changed`, and that entry's limitation says the
|
|
file did not hold the bytes.
|
|
|
|
`extract_artifact` writes every entry as an ordinary file, `nvs_keys`
|
|
partitions included. On a device without flash encryption an `nvs_keys`
|
|
partition holds the NVS encryption keys in plain text, and a dump of it
|
|
contains them. REA decrypts nothing, recovers no keys and does not interpret
|
|
NVS.
|
|
|
|
## Comparison
|
|
|
|
Artifact comparison uses each partition's `label`, `label_hex`, `type`,
|
|
`subtype`, `flash_address`, `size` and flags as its declaration, so a
|
|
partition that moves, changes type or flags, or is renamed with unchanged
|
|
bytes is `changed` in `metadata`. Partitions pair by path. The root facts
|
|
are not compared as a declaration: they derive from the dump's bytes, which
|
|
content comparison covers, and from the caller's `flash_offset` and
|
|
`partition_table_offset`, which are part of the target's identity and
|
|
decide each partition's byte range.
|
|
|
|
## Limits
|
|
|
|
- A flash dump inside another container, such as a ZIP, is classified from
|
|
its first bytes and so reads as an ESP image, not as a flash layout; extract
|
|
it first.
|
|
- ESP8266 dumps are refused; Secure Boot v1 bootloader digests and
|
|
flash-encrypted layouts are not read.
|
|
- Partitions are not checked against the flash chip size, which the
|
|
bootloader also verifies.
|
|
- NVS, FAT, SPIFFS and other data partitions are extracted, not decoded.
|
|
- An image nested in a partition is decoded for its facts; its segments are
|
|
not inventory entries.
|
|
|
|
## Verification
|
|
|
|
Synthetic fixtures with computed MD5s and CRCs, and one CRC otatool wrote,
|
|
cover the table rules, every way the table is located, the scan's chunk and
|
|
sector edges, the misplaced-origin guard with the origin omitted or given,
|
|
the ESP8266 refusal, the `0x0`, `0x1000` and `0x2000` ROM bootloader
|
|
offsets, single images that are not scanned, overlaps, primary entries,
|
|
truncation and partitions outside the dump, index names for unsafe labels,
|
|
repeated declarations, the otadata states and records, and each branch of
|
|
the bootloader's selection. CLI and stdio MCP tests exercise the inputs and
|
|
their identity and extraction. MCP `compare_artifacts` tests compare
|
|
partition declarations, labels that are not UTF-8 included, two dumps that
|
|
end inside their last partition, and such a dump against a full one.
|
|
|
|
The optional real lane builds its dumps with esptool and ESP-IDF's own tools:
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
REA_RISCV_CLANG=/path/to/clang REA_RISCV_LLD=/path/to/ld.lld \
|
|
REA_ESPTOOL_PYTHON=/path/to/python-with-esptool \
|
|
REA_ESP_IDF_PATH=/path/to/esp-idf \
|
|
npm run verify:esp-flash
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
It converts the conformance ELFs with esptool, builds a default, a
|
|
relocated and a primary-entry partition table with `gen_esp32part.py`,
|
|
assembles dumps with `esptool merge-bin`, one of them written from flash
|
|
`0x1000` with `--target-offset`, and writes OTA records with `otatool`
|
|
through `tests/conformance/esp/flash_file_tool.py`. That script replaces
|
|
parttool's esptool calls with reads and writes of the dump file, so
|
|
otatool's own OTA logic runs unchanged. The lane then checks:
|
|
|
|
- the bootloader and app facts against `esptool image-info`;
|
|
- every partition against `gen_esp32part.py`'s decoding of the table REA
|
|
extracted;
|
|
- both OTA records against `otatool read_otadata` after switching to slot 0,
|
|
then to slot 1, then erasing the otadata, and the derived selection after
|
|
each: slot 0, slot 1, then the factory fallback;
|
|
- that each extracted file is the dump's bytes at its range and that the
|
|
source is unchanged;
|
|
- a table with the primary `bootloader` and `partition_table` entries that
|
|
`--primary-bootloader-offset` fills, read with complete coverage and no
|
|
overlap or misplacement limitation; it has no otadata, so its boot
|
|
selection is `no-otadata` with the factory app;
|
|
- the relocated table, found by scanning and named with
|
|
`partition_table_offset`, and the dump written from `0x1000`, read with
|
|
`flash_offset` and, without it, left an ESP image whose `flash_dump`
|
|
names `flash_offset` `0x1000`;
|
|
- an app with a flipped byte beside valid partitions, and a truncated dump,
|
|
read with complete coverage and its missing partitions as entries with no
|
|
bytes.
|
|
|
|
The lane ran on macOS arm64 with Node 24.22.1, Homebrew Clang and LLD 21.1.8
|
|
and ESP-IDF v5.5.2's `gen_esp32part.py`, `otatool.py` and `parttool.py`,
|
|
once with esptool v5.6.0 and once with 4.12.0. Its `gen_esp32part.py` is
|
|
identical to v6.1's, and its otatool and parttool differ only in import style
|
|
and esptool command spelling. All checks passed in both runs. With v5.6.0 and
|
|
the build already cached, the run took 24.1 s elapsed, 16.9 s user CPU and
|
|
6.3 s system CPU under `/usr/bin/time -l`; the largest single process peaked
|
|
at a 278 MiB resident set, and the combined peak of all processes was not
|
|
measured.
|
|
|
|
The lane does not establish:
|
|
|
|
- dumps read from a device: its dumps come from `merge-bin`;
|
|
- chips other than ESP32-C3 and ESP32;
|
|
- `ota_state` and record validity, which `read_otadata` does not print, or
|
|
OTA states the bootloader writes itself, app rollback or anti-rollback;
|
|
- selection with gaps or repeated OTA subtypes, which otatool does not
|
|
write;
|
|
- flash-encrypted dumps, which are not recognized by design.
|
|
|
|
It does not run in CI.
|