Once you have opened up the device, the next step is to look at the PCB and identify all the various chips present. To read the labels of the chip, use a USB microscope or your smartphone's flashlight while tilting the chip slightly. It is also recommended to have holders, which can hold the device steadily while you read the names of the various chips.

Once you have figured out the name of a chip, head over to Google and search for its manufacturer, followed by the model number and the word, "datasheet". This is also something we will do later on in this chapter.

Once you have the datasheet with you, you can use the information present there to figure out all the various properties of the target chip, including the pinout, which would prove to be extremely useful during the hardware exploitation process.

Now that we know how to perform reconnaissance on our target device, we can move on to getting deeper into hardware exploitation. To ensure that we know our target very well and to ensure that our attacks succeed, we will need to get a finer understanding of electronics, which will make things easier and more understandable for us as we go into exploitation.