Competition Firmware Layout

Use this skill only as a downstream specialization after $ctf-sandbox-orchestrator is already active and has established sandbox assumptions, node ownership, and evidence priorities. If that has not happened yet, return to $ctf-sandbox-orchestrator first.

Use this skill when the hard part is understanding how a firmware image is structured, booted, updated, and turned into reachable device behavior.

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Quick Start

1. Preserve the original image, extracted partitions, unpacked filesystems, and patched copies as separate artifacts.
2. Map outer container, partition table, bootloader, kernel, rootfs, config, and update metadata before editing anything.
3. Track the boot or update chain in order instead of jumping straight to the most interesting file.
4. Record keys, signatures, offsets, partition boundaries, and init entrypoints in one compact evidence chain.
5. Reproduce the decisive secret, branch, or reachable service from the smallest extracted path.

Workflow

1. Establish Image Layout

• Identify container type, partition headers, compression, filesystem type, and any appended or nested images.
• Record offsets, sizes, hashes, mount points, and partition names before extraction mutates anything.
• Separate bootloader, kernel, initramfs, rootfs, config blobs, and update metadata as different layers.

2. Trace Boot Or Update Flow

• Map how control moves from bootloader to kernel to init to services, or from update package to verifier to installer.
• Note which credentials, certificates, passwords, seeds, or config files are consumed at each stage.
• Distinguish checked-in firmware intent from the live behavior the extracted files actually support.

3. Reduce To The Decisive Path