Case study

EP4CE6 Bitstream Reverse Engineering: mapping Cyclone IV configuration bits

EP4CE6 Bitstream Reverse Engineering maps the proprietary .rbf configuration format of the Cyclone IV EP4CE6F17C8 FPGA. Its Python pipeline compiles controlled Verilog variants with Quartus, diffs bitstreams and records CRAM, LUT and routing mappings. The repository includes format findings and code for reading and writing bitstream features.

Targets: Firmware
Category: Independent reconstruction cases
Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06

Stars: 10
Last commit: 2026-09-30
Language: Python

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

Prerequisites: Research hardware includes an EP4CE6F17C8 FPGA board and USB-Blaster JTAG programmer.
Prerequisites: The documented workflow uses Quartus Prime 21.1 Lite, Python 3 and SQLite.
License: Code is GPL-3.0-or-later; research data and documentation are CC-BY-SA-4.0.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{cyclone-cram-mapper-case,
  title = {{EP4CE6 Bitstream Reverse Engineering: mapping Cyclone IV configuration bits}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/14sea/Cyclone_CRAM_Mapper}},
  url = {https://github.com/14sea/Cyclone_CRAM_Mapper},
  urldate = {2026-11-06},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/cyclone-cram-mapper-case/}}
}

Plain text

EP4CE6 Bitstream Reverse Engineering: mapping Cyclone IV configuration bits. https://github.com/14sea/Cyclone_CRAM_Mapper (accessed 2026-11-06). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/cyclone-cram-mapper-case/

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About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · 14sea/Cyclone_CRAM_Mapper · Revision 221f790
results/FINDINGS.md GitHub · 14sea/Cyclone_CRAM_Mapper · Revision 221f790
LICENSE GitHub · 14sea/Cyclone_CRAM_Mapper · Revision 221f790