Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast

49 episodes listed below

Listen to the show on

Hardware reverse engineering with the bench clutter visible.

The gist

Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast is a conversational hardware reverse engineering show built around devices, protocols, tools, and the people pulling them apart. Recent episodes range from Flock cameras and cable modems to DeskThing flashing, access control systems, wireless hacking, and chip reverse engineering.

PRESS PLAY

Find your next episode

All episodes

About Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast

Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast is a hardware reverse engineering show with a lived-in, conversational feel. Its recent run moves across surveillance cameras, cable modems, DeskThing flashing, access control systems, wireless hacking, computer chip reverse engineering, firmware extraction, and the social world around security conferences. The show does not sand off its rough edges. Openings can wander through beatboxing, movie plans, forgotten recording buttons, and the problem of getting started before the conversation settles into devices and methods. That informality gives the technical material a particular shape. Instead of presenting reverse engineering as a finished paper, the show often follows how people found a device, what tools mattered, where a protocol got strange, and which parts of a system remained awkward or flawed. Recent conversations spend time with practical systems that touch the outside world: Flock cameras logging license plates, DOCSIS cable modem behavior, offline physical access control, hotel lock ecosystems, and wireless research. It also has room for community infrastructure. CypherCon, Teardown Conference, Access Control Village, Reverse Engineering Plus Plus, and the Mountain View Reverse Engineering Meetup all appear as places where projects, guests, and stories cross paths. The guests are allowed to bring specific work into the room, from DeskThing and Amlogic flashing paths to access control villages and published wireless research. The hosts' questions often keep the discussion grounded in how something is configured, queried, flashed, or physically handled. That gives the show a useful rhythm: casual banter, then a technical knot, then a practical explanation. It is not a polished classroom lecture. It is closer to listening in while capable people compare notes, chase context, and occasionally laugh at how weird the work gets. The subject matter can be serious, especially when surveillance, vulnerabilities, and access systems enter the conversation. The copybook version of reverse engineering can feel sterile; this show keeps the bench clutter visible. It suits a listener who wants device-level security talk, hardware curiosity, and conference-community texture without losing the human chatter around it. Its strongest quality is the contrast between low-ceremony conversation and highly specific technical terrain.

Made for: Suits a listener who wants hardware security, device teardowns, protocols, firmware, and conference-scene context in conversational form. It is best for someone comfortable with technical detail and informal pacing.

What sets it apart: The show pairs practical reverse engineering detail with the texture of real community conversation. Its episodes can move from jokes and awkward starts into modem protocols, lock systems, chipsets, and surveillance-camera research without changing rooms.

In their own words

Listen and learn about different reverse engineering hardware projects and methods as Alvaro (@alvaroprieto) and Jen(@rebelbotjen) talk with guests about their work.

hardware reverse engineeringfirmware extractionaccess control systemswireless hackingconference projectsdevice flashingsecurity vulnerabilitiesopen-source tools

Talks about

Podcasts like Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast

Episodes

  1. 1

    077 - The Beatbox Diversion

    Hidden gem

    ["Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast 077, 'The Beatbox Diversion,' opens with a beatboxing class joke before Alvaro and Jenna frame 2025 as a year about control, not novelty.", "They describe monopolistic consolidation, surveillance creep, and AI exploitation as the common pattern behind the year's technology news.", "The discussion cites iFixit, 404 Media, Flock cameras, Meta Ray-Ban glasses, DMCA exemptions, and California repair rights to show how those fights play out in practice.", "Later, they switch to Dave Agans's debugging book, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Storygraph, and Letterboxd as personal recommendations and examples of how they consume media."]

    Jan 9, 2026·1h 1m·4 clips
  2. 2

    076 - Living In A Vast World of Craziness

    Hidden gem

    Jen Costillo and Alvaro talk with Dan Walters, also called Byte Tinker, about the CypherCon ISP hacking ward and why cable-modem infrastructure exposes so much surface area.

    Sep 29, 2025·1h 1m·4 clips
  3. 3

    075 - Teleporting All Over The Timeline

    Hidden gem

    Spotify sold Car Thing for $90, later cut it to $30, and then announced it would stop making the device and ask owners to dispose of it responsibly.

    Aug 2, 2025·1h 35m·5 clips
  4. 4

    074 - This Coconut Won't Open

    Hidden gem

    Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto host Noah Holland and Josh, who explain how the Michigan Tech Red Team grew an Access Control Village from an improvised SecretCon table into a formal CypherCon demo.

    May 6, 2025·1h 5m·4 clips
  5. 5

    073 - REPP.show

    Hidden gem

    ["Reverse Engineering Plus Plus cross-posts a Friday, 24 January 2025 conversation with Jen Castillo and Alvaro Prieto, the duo behind the unnamed Reverse Engineering podcast.", "Del introduces them as long-time listeners who brought their Mountain View Reverse Engineering meetup habit into a new show.", "The episode asks why they started the podcast, what reverse engineering gives firmware engineers, and why they still keep coming back to the bench.", "The discussion moves through PCB reverse engineering, Ghidra, KiCad, x-rays, and stories about the white van, Google badges, and John's garage chemistry."]

    Feb 1, 2025·1h 10m·5 clips
  6. 6

    072 - EOF?

    Alvaro and Jen use episode 072 of the Unnamed Reverse Engineering Podcast to audit more than seven years of production, including 72 episodes, 73 hours, 17 minutes, 59 seconds of audio, and 230,983 unique downloads.

    Dec 7, 2024·1h 15m·5 clips
  7. 7

    071 - Snerd Niped

    Sep 7, 2024·1h 31m
  8. 8

    070 - I Have a DediProblem

    Jun 9, 2024·1h 56m
  9. 9

    069 - Canned Cheese and Onion Rings

    Apr 17, 2024·1h 23m
  10. 10

    068 - The Monkey Button

    Apr 7, 2024·1h 9m
  11. 11

    067 - I Don't Know What I'm Doing

    Mar 3, 2024·15m
  12. 12

    066 - Use Your Scope!

    Dec 9, 2023·1h 40m
  13. 13

    065 - Multitalented Grinch

    Jul 30, 2023·1h 4m
  14. 14

    064 - MS-DOS Malware Chose Me

    May 21, 2023·1h 8m
  15. 15

    063 - I Read Online That It's Impossible

    Mar 26, 2023·1h 15m
  16. 16

    062 - Keymap Rain Dance

    Dec 30, 2022·1h 16m
  17. 17

    061 - A Case of the Sniffles

    Nov 9, 2022·1h
  18. 18

    060 - The Brie List

    Aug 13, 2022·53m
  19. 19

    059 - Instant Nerd Snipe

    Jul 4, 2022·1h 2m
  20. 20

    058 - Technically Met the Specs;Low SNR: Live Hardwear io 2022

    Jun 15, 2022·1h 29m
  21. 21

    057 - I Did Not Expect Sharks!

    May 9, 2022·1h 38m
  22. 22

    056 - Listening to Jupiter

    Mar 17, 2022·1h 13m
  23. 23

    055 - Stacks Of Bricked Chips

    Mar 13, 2022·1h 2m
  24. 24

    054 - It's A Calibration, Not An Update!

    Feb 11, 2022·1h 16m
  25. 25

    053 - It's Hammer Time!

    Dec 16, 2021·1h 40m
  26. 26

    052 - Twitter Is My Lab Notebook

    Oct 26, 2021·2h 7m
  27. 27

    051 - Collecting Students With Similar Names

    An interview with a researcher about wireless hacking and reverse engineering in mobile networking.

    Oct 5, 2021·1h 28m
  28. 28

    050 - Four Years In

    Aug 22, 2021·53m
  29. 29

    049 - Reversing Your Childhood One Game At a Time

    Jul 11, 2021·1h 1m
  30. 30

    048 - A Bad Case of Kubernitis

    Jun 6, 2021·1h 16m
  31. 31

    047 - The Sun, The Moon, The Stars

    May 16, 2021·51m
  32. 32

    046 - Never Reveal the Prestige

    Mar 18, 2021·1h 34m
  33. 33

    045 - Rizin and Cutter

    Feb 15, 2021·1h 21m
  34. 34

    044 - Scots Army Knife

    Jan 3, 2021·1h 44m
  35. 35

    043 - Filling In Zeros

    Dec 21, 2020·1h 16m
  36. 36

    042 - Diwali in the Morning

    Nov 24, 2020·55m
  37. 37

    041 - What did you fail at this week?

    Nov 7, 2020·1h 32m
  38. 38

    040 - Uh-tastic

    Oct 4, 2020·27m
  39. 39

    039 - Changing the Nature of Reality

    Sep 13, 2020·1h 1m
  40. 40

    038 - My Favorite Random Number is 5

    Aug 23, 2020·1h 16m
  41. 41

    037 - 2020 Survey Results

    Aug 4, 2020·31m
  42. 42

    036 - ADDVulcan - Hack-a-sat Part 1

    Jul 20, 2020·57m
  43. 43

    035 - Giving it all away (Listener Survery)

    Jul 4, 2020·6m
  44. 44

    034 - Mechanical RE

    Jun 23, 2020·1h 33m
  45. 45

    033 - All Over the Place

    Apr 27, 2020·45m
  46. 46

    032 - High Molarity Rants

    Hosts Alvaro and Jen interview John McMaster about his work in computer chip reverse engineering and firmware extraction, discussing his background in embedded software for imaging satellites and the origins of the Mountain View Reverse Engineering Meetup.

    Feb 25, 2020·1h 11m
  47. 47

    031 - The Title Isn't DibbleDabble

    Hosts discuss their year's highlights attending hardware and security conferences, focusing on reverse engineering projects.

    Dec 27, 2019·45m
  48. 48

    030 - Supercon 2019

    At Hackaday Supercon 2019, hosts interview attendees about their reverse engineering projects and experiences.

    Dec 1, 2019·37m
  49. 49

    029 - Old Timey Name Droppin'

    Oct 17, 2019·1h 42m