flashrom

Flashrom is an open-source utility for identifying, reading, writing, verifying, and erasing flash ROMs. It supports a wide range of flash memory devices and interfaces, including serial (SPI) and parallel flash, BIOS/UEFI chips used on personal computers, and other firmware storage found in embedded systems. The project aims to provide a universal, vendor-agnostic tool for firmware recovery, tweaking, and auditing.

It operates with various hardware programmers and interfaces, from dedicated flash programmers to SPI adapters connected through PCI, USB, or other buses. Flashrom relies on libraries such as libpci and libusb to communicate with supported devices and attempts automatic detection of chip vendors and models to simplify operation. When possible, it can read the existing firmware before writing and can verify the new data to catch errors.

Typical use cases include updating a motherboard BIOS/UEFI, reflashing firmware on recovery scenarios, or dumping firmware for analysis or archival purposes. The project emphasizes caution: incorrect flashing can brick hardware, especially if power is lost during a write, or if the wrong image is used. Users are advised to backup the original firmware and to test in safe conditions.

Flashrom is released under the GPL and has an active, volunteer developer community. It is primarily used on Linux and other Unix-like systems, with extensive documentation, user guides, and community support available on the project website and associated repositories.