Entrpi
e6d0618979
* 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.
18 KiB
Firmware analysis
REA accepts Binwalk 3.1.x for region inspection and Unblob 26.6.x for explicit extraction. The report parsers are verified with Binwalk 3.1.0 and Unblob 26.6.4. Another build on those lines is accepted, the observed version is reported, and a limitation records that the parser was not verified against that build. This first firmware milestone is verified on Linux x64. No device, root privilege, mount, emulation or execution of extracted programs is needed. Arbitrary firmware bytes do not pass native executable admission; select a returned ELF separately for supported Ghidra analysis.
On Linux, Binwalk and Unblob run as REA-owned processes and require a
procps-compatible ps on REA's PATH; see the shared
Linux process prerequisite.
Caller-supplied tools
Provide existing tools using absolute executable paths, scoped to your shell:
export REA_BINWALK_COMMAND=/absolute/path/to/binwalk
export REA_UNBLOB_COMMAND=/absolute/path/to/unblob
REA does not install these tools, their dependencies or system packages. It
checks the tool's --version banner when executing a request. Binwalk must
print binwalk <version> and Unblob must print the version alone. Inspection and
extraction have independent prerequisites; one does not require the other.
Both require util-linux prlimit, normally /usr/bin/prlimit; override its
absolute path with REA_FIRMWARE_PRLIMIT_COMMAND if needed. rea doctor does
not currently inspect firmware readiness. Engine selection/version checks run
when the firmware operation is requested; successful general doctor checks do
not establish firmware tool or external-extractor availability.
REA retains at most 8 MiB of combined stdout and stderr per command. Exceeding that diagnostic budget stops analysis with an explicit truncated-output error; child process limits do not bound parent-side pipe retention. Completed commands drain their output streams before recording diagnostics. Failed worker cleanup retains the worker and workspace for retry before another request or at shutdown.
Unblob needs the external extractor for the selected format on its inherited
PATH: for example, debugfs for ext2/ext3/ext4. Its default Landlock sandbox
and skip rules stay enabled. Sandbox startup failures remain actionable errors;
REA does not retry with --no-sandbox. Missing extractors reported in a valid
analysis report retain partial results and dependency names inline.
Upstream sources are preserved unmodified as optional pinned submodules:
git submodule update --init third_party/binwalk third_party/unblob
Normal REA builds and npm packages do not include or build these sources or engine binaries. See upstream provenance.
Windows submodule checkout
On Windows, the Unblob checkout stops with error: invalid path. Several
upstream test fixture names under tests/integration/ contain characters,
trailing dots, or trailing spaces that NTFS does not allow; REA does not use
those fixtures. Keep the clone, exclude that directory, and retry from the
repository root in PowerShell:
git -C third_party/unblob config core.protectNTFS false
git -C third_party/unblob sparse-checkout set --no-cone '/*' '!/tests/integration/'
git submodule update third_party/unblob
Both settings are required. While core.protectNTFS is enabled, Git for
Windows also rejects index paths that the sparse pattern excludes; the pattern
keeps the invalid names out of the worktree. The setting applies only to the
Unblob submodule. In Git Bash, prefix the sparse-checkout command with
MSYS_NO_PATHCONV=1; otherwise !/tests/integration/ is rewritten as a
Windows path.
The extraction destination must be absent with an existing writable parent.
REA checks that selection before starting an engine and still acquires it
exclusively during publication. Invalid sources and destinations identify the
caller argument; failures inside an acquired workspace keep their own cause.
Published file relative_path preserves producer spelling for lineage; path
uses the writer's actual normalized filename. An extracted filename that cannot
be represented losslessly as UTF-8 fails publication explicitly with its raw
name bytes in hexadecimal instead of silently omitting the entry.
Unpublished symlinks retain the extracted tree's target bytes in lowercase
link_target_hex; link_target is null when those bytes are not valid UTF-8.
Older retained Evidence may omit the hexadecimal field. Unblob may have rewritten
the target before REA observed it, so these bytes are not necessarily those stored
in the firmware image.
CLI and MCP
rea inspect-firmware-regions /path/to/firmware.bin
rea extract-firmware /path/to/firmware.bin /path/to/new-output
rea extract-firmware /path/to/firmware.bin /path/to/selected-output \
--offset 64 --length 4096 --max-depth 3
The corresponding MCP tools accept the same intent:
{
"name": "inspect_firmware_regions",
"arguments": { "path": "/path/to/firmware.bin" }
}
{
"name": "extract_firmware",
"arguments": {
"path": "/path/to/firmware.bin",
"output_directory": "/path/to/new-output",
"range": { "offset": 64, "length": 4096 },
"max_depth": 3
}
}
Both return Evidence with the original path and SHA-256, raw producer reports, actual executable path/digest, version and limitations. Binwalk signature UUIDs and Unblob blob IDs are producer-local identities; compare content hashes and source ranges across runs. A matching version does not attest an installed build's source revision, so that field remains unknown.
Interpret the results
- Region offsets refer to bytes in the original firmware.
reported_sizepreserves Binwalk's output;size_basis=provider_reported_validation_unknownreflects that Binwalk can replace unknown lengths with the next signature or EOF before serialization. Neither a signature nor its confidence byte proves a valid partition, encryption or runtime behavior. - Extraction returns regular file paths, independently verified SHA-256 values,
producer hashes when available, chunks, diagnostics and task derivations.
Unblob's task report is unordered; REA resolves relationships by paths and
blob IDs. Logical references use
$input,$output, or$output/<relative-path>so a real file named$inputstays distinct from the original input. Chunk offsets belong to the task's input file. Only chunks in the selected input have a knownroot_file_range, adjusted by the selected offset. - Decompressed children have unknown original byte ranges and runtime addresses. Task lineage does not establish a byte-for-byte mapping through decompression.
partialmarks unknown/encrypted chunks, selected input bytes outside all reported chunk intervals, reported extraction problems, unpublished links/special files or reached depth limits.completemeans the selected input is covered by reported chunk intervals and the engine finished its configured extraction without those reported conditions; default skip rules and format coverage still apply. It does not establish complete firmware reconstruction.extraction_gapsmakes those conditions recoverable: a row identifies an unextracted region or a failed task/stage. A chunk retains its identity and byte range, plus its original-file range when it belongs to the selected input.unclassified-rangerows identify selected input intervals with no reported chunk; their provider identity and handler stay null. An empty chunk inventory therefore cannot establish complete extraction of a nonempty selected input. A multi-file stage retains its reported ID and handler with unknown byte ranges; a standalone task failure keeps unavailable stage identity null. Rows retain exact dependency names from the producer's missing-dependency reports; an accepted report with no names remains a failure with unknown dependencies; no executable identity or specific installation step is inferred. Each row'scontinuation_idreferences one instruction inextraction_continuations, so many regions share recovery prose without losing any region identity. Instructions use already configured capabilities where one exists. Every extraction rerun requires a fresh absentoutput_directory, preserving the prior evidence. Unblob's declaredERRORseverity establishes an extraction failure, including standaloneUnknownErrortask exceptions. Warnings and resolved extraction problems remain diagnostics with partial coverage; they do not establish failed extractor stages. Standalone errors do not acquire a nearby chunk's handler or byte range. Nested unknown chunks useinspect_firmware_regionson the actual published child rather than repeating the same extraction with unchanged handlers. Inspection requires separately configured Binwalk (REA_BINWALK_COMMAND); without it, the inspection step is unavailable and the region remains unexamined. A listed gap does not mean the target is corrupt or that a retained region is empty; REA installs nothing.- The destination must be absent, absolute, with an existing parent. Publication uses exclusive, symlink-resistant writes and durable digest readback. Existing destinations are never overwritten. This is not an atomic directory rename: a new tree can be visible while files are written. Failed uncommitted output is rolled back. Symlinks and special files are recorded without publication; empty directories, ownership and executable permission bits are not reproduced.
Select a verified native child for the existing tools:
{
"name": "open_binary",
"arguments": {
"path": "/path/from/extraction/usr/bin/program",
"provider_id": "ghidra"
}
}
Then use analyze_function, inspect_native_api or the other native primitives.
Native architecture and executable validation still apply. Generic
MIPS ELF and RISC-V ELF lanes are separate
documents with their own admission boundaries. This milestone does
not add PPC decompilation, raw flash load profiles, bootloader/device
tree semantics, vulnerability scanning, emulation or hardware runtime capture.
Resource and lifecycle policy
- Nonempty regular firmware inputs: at most 128 MiB, copied and hashed into a private workspace before analysis. Growth beyond that allowance during copying receives the same typed input refusal as an already oversized file. Supply a stable copy within the allowance. No in-place source modification.
- One queued heavy operation per provider instance; Binwalk one thread and Unblob one worker. No automatic parallel extraction engines.
- Analysis defaults to 120 seconds, from tool resolution and input snapshot
through inspection and its final private-workspace cleanup, or extraction
through report consumption and inventory, excluding queue waiting and retained
cleanup admission. Inspection has no publication phase. Select
analysis_timeout_msin either MCP operation or--analysis-timeout-msin either CLI command for slower analysis. Current results retain the actual budget; an absent historical value means unknown. Extraction publication and its final cleanup start a separate 120-second budget; selectpublication_timeout_msin MCP or--publication-timeout-msin CLI for a slow destination. Valid budgets are integers from 1 through 2,147,483,647 ms (the timer representation limit). Publication timeouts identify their phase and verified file progress; verified writes before atomic commit are not a claim that output remains published after rollback. Caller cancellation applies to both phases and final cleanup. Phase handoff, publication commit and final completion also check monotonic elapsed time, so delayed timer callbacks cannot revive an expired budget. - Analysis timeout recovery names the selected budget and the analysis control, not the later publication control. Keep the client call timeout above analysis, publication and cleanup headroom; keep the input/range/question unchanged. Resolve any reported incomplete cleanup before retrying. Raising wall time does not raise fixed CPU, memory, report, diagnostic or input limits.
- Inherited 1 GiB per-process address-space limit,
120 CPU seconds and zero core-dump allowance through
prlimit. - JSON reports: at most 8 MiB and valid UTF-8; malformed encoding and
oversized reports fail without repairing or truncating producer data.
Exit status 0 is not an empty result: a missing, empty, malformed or
oversized report fails with
unreadable_output, itsreport_state, the command, exit status and captured output. REA does not retry automatically. Diagnostic output is bounded with exact captured byte counts. - Default staging budget: 256 MiB and 10,000 entries, configurable using
max_output_bytes/max_output_files(CLI--max-output-bytes/--max-output-files). Exceeding either selected staging budget returns a nonretryable resource constraint naming the selected limit. Depth defaults to 3, allowed range 1–10.
Staging budgets are polled and rechecked after exit; short-lived overshoot is possible. The per-file process limit is the larger of the selected payload budget and the fixed report/diagnostic file allowances, so a small payload selection still permits the mandatory report. A tighter inherited host limit still applies. The inherited file-size limit bounds each file, not total storage; address-space limits are per process, not an aggregate memory quota. Worker count is not CPU affinity for every external extractor. These limits do not claim cgroup/container containment. Cancellation cleans the owned process group before removing its workspace; uncertain cleanup retains resources and blocks further operations in that provider instance.
Verification
Generate small public, source-derived fixtures into ignored _reference/:
npm run fixtures:firmware
npm run verify:firmware
Fixture generation requires existing Python 3 and a host C compiler (cc);
override with REA_FIRMWARE_PYTHON / REA_FIRMWARE_CC. The independent oracle
records gzip offset/length and extracted file hashes. Real verification checks
CLI/MCP, full-file and selected-range extraction, unknown chunks, depth limits,
content parity and unchanged source bytes. No binary fixture is committed.
The optional missing-extractor lane asserts dependency names and the owning
handler in extraction_gaps. Those assertions must be run against the pinned
Unblob release to establish real-provider coverage; synthetic producer fixtures
alone do not verify Unblob's report nesting or stage identities. The gap ownership
claims remain unverified against real Unblob until that lane runs.
Additional lanes are explicit, so the base lane stays small:
# Existing mke2fs and debugfs required; put debugfs on the scoped PATH.
REA_FIRMWARE_VERIFY_EXT4=1 npm run fixtures:firmware
REA_FIRMWARE_VERIFY_EXT4=1 npm run verify:firmware
# Existing Ghidra 12.x (>=12.1) and its declared JDK required.
REA_FIRMWARE_VERIFY_GHIDRA=1 npm run verify:firmware
REA_FIRMWARE_MKE2FS_COMMAND selects the optional ext4 fixture producer.
REA_FIRMWARE_FIXTURE_ROOT selects generated data storage.
REA_FIRMWARE_TEST_ENTRYPOINT can select an isolated installed npm package's
scripts/rea.mjs to verify the packaged CLI/MCP workflow. Real coverage here is
generated gzip/USTAR/ext4 with a Linux x64 ELF child; SquashFS, UBIFS, proprietary
firmware, other hosts and architectures remain unverified.
Inspect ESP images
Use inspect-artifact / inspect_artifact on an ESP32-family app or
bootloader image, such as an OTA download or app partition, for its chip,
classified segments, checksum and SHA-256 results, descriptor and Secure Boot
v2 signature blocks. extract-artifact / extract_artifact writes one file
per segment and signature block. Reading is portable and needs no external
tool. See ESP images.
Inspect ESP flash dumps
Use the same tools on a whole-flash dump, such as esptool read-flash 0 ALL
output. The inventory reports the bootloader, the partition table and how it
was found, each partition with its declared type, flags and digest, ESP image
facts for the bootloader and each app partition, and the OTA records with a
derived selection; the running partition stays unknown. Extraction writes
each partition, nvs_keys included, as an ordinary file. For a dump that
does not start at flash address 0, select esp-flash-image with
flash_offset. See ESP flash images.
Inspect extracted devicetrees
Use inspect_devicetree / rea inspect-devicetree on an
extracted DTB for its node/property tree, reservations, hardware summary and
selected phandle relationships. FDT v16/v17 inspection is portable and requires
no external tool or disassembler.
Inspect Intel HEX and S-record images
Use inspect-artifact / inspect_artifact on an Intel HEX or Motorola S-record
file for its address regions, declared start address and record facts, then
extract-artifact / extract_artifact for one raw file per region. Decoding is
portable and requires no external tool. See
Intel HEX and S-record images.
Inspect U-Boot legacy uImages
inspect-artifact / extract-artifact recognize a legacy uImage by its
0x27051956 magic and inventory it without running or decompressing it.
The root facts record the 64-byte header (architecture, OS, type, and
compression as raw values and names, load and entry addresses, image name,
and timestamp) with the header and data CRC32 verified; the stored payload
is extractable as payload.bin, and multi-file and script images additionally
expose each sub-image as image-<n>.bin from the stored size table. Declared
addresses are facts from the header, not proven entry points, and compressed
payloads stay as stored. Intel HEX/S-record and FIT images are separate
readers and are not covered here. See U-Boot legacy uImage for
component padding, preserved names, resource policies and verification scope.
Inspect U-Boot FIT images
Use inspect-artifact / inspect_artifact on a U-Boot FIT (.itb) for its
images, declared load and entry addresses, configurations and verified hashes,
then extract-artifact / extract_artifact for one raw file per image.
Decoding is portable and requires no external tool. See
U-Boot FIT images.