FRM-120 · Firmware & MCU · Practitioner
Bootloaders & Firmware Update — full syllabus
Updating firmware in the field without bricking devices, including signature verification and rollback.
Who this course is for
Firmware engineers shipping connected MCU products who must update devices in the field without bricking them — and prove the update path is safe before a regulator or customer asks.
Prerequisites
- FRM-101-level bare-metal knowledge: memory maps, linker scripts, startup code
- C programming
- Basic public-key signing concepts (what signing and verification mean)
Course outline
Day 1 — Bootloader design
- Why a bootloader exists: update, recovery and factory provisioning roles
- Flash layout for a two-image system: slots, metadata and the scratch question
- The handoff: relocating the vector table, setting the stack and jumping to the application
- Shared state between bootloader and application: retention registers and no-init sections
- Boot-time cost and what to strip for fast startup
Day 2 — MCUboot and signed images
- MCUboot architecture: image format, header and TLVs
- Slot strategies: swap-scratch, swap-move and overwrite-only, and their wear implications
- Signing with imgtool and verifying signatures at boot
- Key provisioning: where the public key lives and what an attacker can reach
- Version checks, security counters and anti-rollback enforcement
Day 3 — Transport and power-loss safety
- Getting the image to the device: UART, USB, BLE and network transports
- Chunking, flow control and resumption after an interrupted transfer
- Power-loss safety at every point: worst-case timing and the recovery walk-through
- Failure paths: revert, test images and the confirm step
- Factory recovery and the un-brickable fallback position
Hands-on labs
- Lab: write a minimal bootloader that validates, selects and jumps to an application; trace the handoff with gdb over SWD
- Lab: sign and flash MCUboot images with imgtool, boot them through each swap strategy, and measure the boot-time cost of verification
- Lab: tamper with a signed image and roll back the version counter, watch each attack get rejected, then prove a good image still boots
- Lab: pull power at scripted points during an update — first chunk, mid-swap, final commit — and prove the device recovers every time
- Lab: build a resumable update transport over UART with chunking, then interrupt it mid-transfer and resume
Capstone project
Deliver a complete update path for the lab board: an MCUboot-based flash layout with signed images, anti-rollback counters, a resumable transport and a documented power-loss safety case. Your evidence pack is the threat analysis, the layout, boot logs for the negative tests (tampered image, downgrade attempt, interrupted transfer, repeated power cuts) and a recovery demonstration a reviewer can repeat.
What you leave with
- A working MCUboot integration: slots, signing, verification, anti-rollback
- A flash layout and bootloader/application handoff contract you can adapt to your own part
- A power-loss safety case built from scripted fault injection, not hope
- Key-provisioning habits that keep signing keys out of the wrong places
- A resumable transport pattern with measured interruption behaviour
Upcoming dates
| Dates | Where | Seats | Early bird | Regular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Nov – 17 Nov 20263 full days | RiyadhIn person · KAFD Conference Centre | 4 of 14 | SAR 7,090until 16 Oct | ||
| 22 Nov – 24 Nov 20263 full days | Kuwait CityIn person · Al Hamra Tower | 9 of 14 | KWD 580until 23 Oct | ||
| 22 Nov – 24 Nov 20263 full days | MuscatIn person · Knowledge Oasis Muscat | 4 of 14 | OMR 730until 23 Oct | ||
| 29 Nov – 6 Dec 20266 half-days | Gulf bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 GMT+3 | 6 of 20 | US$1,350until 30 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 2 Dec 20263 full days | OttawaIn person · Kanata North Tech Park | 9 of 14 | CAD 2,570until 31 Oct | ||
| 30 Nov – 7 Dec 20266 half-days | Europe bandLive online · 09:00–13:00 CET | 11 of 20 | US$1,350until 31 Oct | ||
| 7 Dec – 9 Dec 20263 full days | TorontoIn person · MaRS Discovery District | 4 of 14 | CAD 2,570until 7 Nov | ||
| 7 Dec – 9 Dec 20263 full days | LondonIn person · Shoreditch Works | 9 of 14 | GBP 1,480until 7 Nov | ||
| 7 Dec – 14 Dec 20266 half-days | Americas bandLive online · 13:00–17:00 ET | 16 of 20 | US$1,350until 7 Nov | ||
| 14 Dec – 16 Dec 20263 full days | BerlinIn person · Factory Görlitzer Park | 4 of 14 | EUR 1,740until 14 Nov |
Book a seat, or bring this course to your team
Seats can be reserved online; private delivery runs on-site or live online, adapted to your stack.
Questions about fit or prerequisites? Email hello@kernelsystems.academy. To save this syllabus, print this page to PDF from your browser.