Hack the Router

A hands-on hardware hacking workshop built around the TP-Link TL-WR841N (v14.0 and v14.20). Take a ten-euro router apart until it gives up a root shell: OSINT and recon, a UART console and a live shell, then a full SPI flash dump and firmware reverse-engineering.

▶ Live site: https://warpnet.github.io/hack-the-router/

The two board revisions are the whole lesson. Same MediaTek MT7628 silicon, one firmware change: the v14.0 hands you a BusyBox root shell, while the v14.20 locks the console and blocks downgrades. Watching a vendor close a hole in real time teaches more than any single exploit.

What's inside

• Section 1 · Initial recon & OSINT. FCC ID, chip identification, datasheets, network setup, stock firmware, and nmap.
• Section 2 · The debug port. Find and solder the UART header, capture it with a logic analyzer and PulseView, open the serial console, drop to the U-Boot prompt, land a BusyBox shell, and exfil files over TFTP.
• Section 3 · SPI dump & firmware. Clip the flash and dump it, map and decompress the image, and hunt for secrets.

18 challenges with a live scoreboard, a quick-reference cheat sheet, and troubleshooting tips.

The kit

Everything runs on cheap, off-the-shelf gear: a CP2102 USB-UART adapter, a CH341A SPI programmer with a SOIC-8 clip, a multimeter, a logic analyzer, and a soldering iron.

Run it locally

This is a plain static site (index.html, style.css, script.js) with no build step. Open index.html directly, or serve the folder:

python3 -m http.server 8000

Then visit http://localhost:8000.

Credits

Built by Warpnet. Trainers: Roald Nefs and Jordi.