ImportError: No module named pylibmpsse

[nikhilh-20]

I'm new to IoT firmware RE and I was following the blog at https://nvisium.com/blog/2019/08/07/extracting-firmware-from-iot-devices.html.

The author mentioned the following command:
sudo python spiflash.py -s 15000000 -r firmware.bin

I git cloned this repository, ran the above command and got the error:
ImportError: No module named mpsse

So, I ran the mpsse.py file in the src directory and got the error:
ImportError: No module named pylibmpsse

What is this library? How do I get spiflash.py to execute?

More information:

root@malnet:/opt/libmpsse/src/examples# python spiflash.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "spiflash.py", line 3, in <module>
    from mpsse import *
ImportError: No module named mpsse

root@malnet:/opt/libmpsse/src# python mpsse.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "mpsse.py", line 1, in <module>
    import pylibmpsse as _mpsse
ImportError: No module named pylibmpsse

root@malnet:/opt/libmpsse/src# python examples/spiflash.py 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "examples/spiflash.py", line 3, in <module>
    from mpsse import *
ImportError: No module named mpsse

root@malnet:/opt/libmpsse/src/examples# uname -a
Linux malnet 4.19.0-kali5-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.37-5kali1 (2019-06-20) x86_64 GNU/Linux

root@malnet:/opt/libmpsse/src/examples# python -V
Python 2.7.16

[Brets0150]

Hello,
Did you resolve this issue? If so how? Running into the same problem myself.

[whoot]

Hello,
Did you resolve this issue? If so how? Running into the same problem myself.

@Brets0150 The error says it clearly. Just install the missing library ;)
python2 -m pip install libmpsse

[nikhilh-20]

I don't remember exactly what I did but I think I switched over to using flashrom for firmware extraction. @whoot's solution seems simple enough if it works.

[hassan-salloum]

Hi guys, i would like to re-open this topic, after a lot of adaptation for the spiflash.py script, to make it work with python3, like:
1- add () for all print""
2- change the exception try from (except GetoptError, e:) to be (except getopt.GetoptError as e:)

Then i tried to run the script and i got this error:

After many search i didn't succeed to install the libmpss:

any suggestion please ? i am using kali linux 2023.2
thx

[whoot]

As far as I know there is no Python 3 version of libmpsse.
However, you could try this patch here: #10

[hassan-salloum]

@whoot thanks, well in that case i believe the best approach is to make the script run with python2 on latest kali version (in my case kali 2023.2)

These are my steps that can be a fix for this issue:

1- Change python version system-wide with update-alternatives python to temporary force it on python2 while using the spiflash.py script:. (Note: don't forget to switch back to your default python version once you finish using the script since your system packages will probably based on the lasted python version.)

2- Then i installed the missing library libmpsse (you need to install first the pip for python2):

curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
python get-pip.py
python2 -m pip install libmpsse

3- Libmpsse requires swig as well as the libftdi and python development packages. as mentioned here.

in case you are using latest debian version like kali 2023.2, this command may not work:

so use this instead:

Result:

To fix this as well : please added (import getopt) to the spiflash.py code

like that:

[whoot]

@whoot thanks, well in that case i believe the best approach is to make the script run with python2 on latest kali version (in my case kali 2023.2)

These are my steps that can be a fix for this issue:

1- Change python version system-wide with update-alternatives python to temporary force it on python2 while using the spiflash.py script:. (Note: don't forget to switch back to your default python version once you finish using the script since your system packages will probably based on the lasted python version.)

This should not be necessary. Kali has python2 already installed.

[hassan-salloum]

@whoot Yes its necessary, and my steps not about installing python2. You have to read with attention my steps. But i will explain:
1- new version kali linux once you install, dominate python3. and in case you need to use python2 you need to update-alternative (sometime)
2- pip for python2 not installed by default on new kali version, you have to install.

None of my steps was without a POC (you can see the screenshoot ! )

The best thing you can do is to install kali linux 2023.2 VM and try with python2 to run the spiflash script directly without my steps and you will understand the struggle i passed.

[whoot]

I just said that you should use python2, because there is no support for python3.
You got it working, so everything is fine, right?