Introduction Modern computer systems rely on complex architectures where concurrency and parallelism are ubiquitous. In this context, Race Condition vulnerabilities emerge as a significant challenge for system and software security. This article aims to examine the nature of these vulnerabilities, their implications for security, and current mitigation strategies. Definition and Mechanism A Race Condition manifests when the behavior of a system depends on the sequence or timing of uncontrollable events.

Context This article begins by exploring the analysis of the hardware and the serial console, before focusing on the reverse engineering of the firmware, which will be covered in a later article. The target product is a TP-Link N300 router. The router’s technical specifications will be presented in the following section. This work is designed for anyone interested in the field of hardware analysis and hardware hacking. The complete research process, from information gathering to firmware extraction, including an alternative method of extracting system files via the UART, will be described in detail.