Testing a Cheap STM32 RDP1 Flash Reader from Chinese Marketplace
By
carlossless
Sesame, salt, and substance. A flagship bake.
Summary
The article details the author's purchase and testing of a cheap STM32 RDP1 'decryptor' device found on Chinese marketplace Xianyu. The device claims to bypass Read-Out Protection Level 1 on STM32 microcontrollers (F0, F1, F2, F4 series) to read protected flash memory. The author describes receiving the device, its physical appearance, and initial testing methodology, noting there's an entire market for such tools in China for reverse engineering or recovering code from locked chips.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledRecently while browsing Xianyu (闲鱼) looking for BYK-series chips (Sinowealth 8051 MCUs) for another project I'm working on, I stumbled across something peculiar: a device claiming to bypass STM32 RDP1 (Read-Out Protection Level 1) on F0, F1, F2 and F4 series chips.
As it turns out, there's a whole market for these if you search for 'STM32解密' (STM32 decryption).
At about 150 yuan, roughly 19 EUR plus shipping and forwarding on top, I decided to bite the bullet and just buy one to see if it actually works.
What arrived was a small, nondescript cardboard box with a simple PCB inside, no documentation, and a USB cable.
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