{"id":14626,"date":"2025-09-29T16:22:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=14626"},"modified":"2025-07-17T16:38:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T23:38:02","slug":"a-little-intro-to-reverse-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=14626","title":{"rendered":"A little intro to reverse engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LowLevelTV\">Low Level<\/a> does a very brief but decent introduction to reverse engineering binaries (on linux).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gh2RXE9BIN8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He doesn&#8217;t discuss it, but when reverse engineering it&#8217;s always good to start with what your goal is. There&#8217;s a variety of reason to reverse engineering at the binary level:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Learning how an algorithm or binary works<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See what assembly code your compiler is generating (for optimization, performance analysis, etc).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trying to debug or fix an issue without source<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trying to discover vulnerabilities in enemy systems<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trying to hack in\/out behavior (copy-protection removal, remove checks that cause crashes, etc)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>This is important, because each goal often focuses on a different set of reverse-engineering skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Real world reverse engineering also carries <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reverse_engineering\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reverse_engineering\">many possible legal dangers<\/a>. In the past, companies reverse engineered mechanisms to compete against companies that had monopolies and ended up in massive lawsuits. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atari_Games_Corp._v._Nintendo_of_America_Inc.\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atari_Games_Corp._v._Nintendo_of_America_Inc.\">Atari vs Nintendo lawsuit<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sega_v._Accolade\">Sega v. Accolade<\/a> are good examples. The methods of doing legal reverse engineering is a complex legal topic that requires very carefully monitored and documented <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clean-room_design\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Clean-room_design\">clean-room<\/a> procedures.<br>It&#8217;s a fascinating world in which big companies to nefarious hackers engage in.<br><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Low Level does a very brief but decent introduction to reverse engineering binaries (on linux). He doesn&#8217;t discuss it, but when reverse engineering it&#8217;s always good to start with what your goal is. There&#8217;s a variety of reason to reverse engineering at the binary level: This is important, because each goal often focuses on a different set of reverse-engineering skills. Real world reverse engineering also carries many possible legal dangers. In the past, companies reverse engineered mechanisms to compete against&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=14626\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4WECr-3NU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14626"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14629,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14626\/revisions\/14629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}