Reverse engineering binary firmware

Richard M Stallman rms at gnu.org
Fri Feb 27 10:10:45 UTC 2009


    Each of the wireless adapters requires a corresponding microcode or
    firmware image to be loaded in order to function. The microcode for the
    ipw3945 driver (ieee80211 based) also requires the use of a user space
    regulatory daemon. All of those binaries are distributed as binaries
    under a proprietary, free to redistribute (but not modify), license. "

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding.  I am looking for firmware
released as binaries under a free license.  If someone decompiles
such a binary and gives it meaningful function and variable names,
and comments to explain it, that will be free source code.

This firmware is not an option because it has a "proprietary, free to
redistribute (but not modify), license".  To do reverse engineering on
this and make a useful result would require a clean-room procedure.

Can anyone recommend a real candidate?



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