In around 2001 I started reverse-engineering games on the PC before having any programming skills (later moved to programming).
I remember MadWizard's assembly tutorial[0] being very helpful at the time.
Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
61–70 of 70 posts
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#62Upvote if you grew up on Fravia and tKC
Was going to mention Fravia. He died in 2009 if you weren't aware, age 56. Website here: http://acrigs.com/FRAVIA/index-old.htm +ORC ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Red_Cracker ) always interested me. Like Satoshi Nakomoto, he has never been identified. Fravia's site has his tutorials here: http://acrigs.com/FRAVIA/orc1.htm Some pretty serious old school hackers.
Yup, blast from the past. I got serious about programming when I wanted to hack games for extra lives on my Spectrum.
When I later moved to the PC +fravia's resources were very much a sight for sore eyes.
Though I admit it was only years later when it occurred to me that +orc was almost certainly +fravia in a weak disguise. I took it literally at the time..
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was going to mention Fravia. He died in 2009 if you weren't aware, age 56. Website here: http://acrigs.com/FRAVIA/index-old.htm +ORC ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Red_Cracker ) always interested me. Like Satoshi Nakomoto, he has never been identified. Fravia's site has his tutorials here: http://acrigs.com/FRAVIA/orc1.htm Some pretty serious old school hackers.
Yup, blast from the past. I got serious about programming when I wanted to hack games for extra lives on my Spectrum. When I later moved to the PC +fravia's resources were very much a sight for sore eyes. Though I admit it was only years later when it occurred to me that +orc was almost certainly +fravia in a weak disguise. I took it literally at the time..
Obviously I don't know for sure, but the +ORC == Fravia seems to be rejected by most(?) +ORC stalkers.
http://www.woodmann.com/crackz/Orc.htm
Of course, without looking deeper he's the most obvious candidate
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#64Maybe fix the title to make it clear that this is about reversing binaries? Because RE is quite a broad term, even within the field of computing and/or generally "topics of HN interest". You can reverse engineer so many other things than just executable binaries. And not just other kinds of software (web), but hardware, communication protocols, even organisations and bureaucracies, or processes in the widest sense of the word.
It's not like this article teaches much about the general "reversing mindset" (similar to the "hacker mindset", but not quite exactly the same), or the "methodology" as promised in the title. Because yes there is some very interesting overlap in skill within the broad field of RE. Ask any pentester who also picks locks.
Not to discredit the article itself, btw, which is fine given what it actually covers. Which is about Linux binaries, and in particular with the object of solving a crackme puzzle.
Maybe "Reverse engineering a crackme for beginners" would be a bit more descriptive.
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#65Maybe fix the title to make it clear that this is about reversing binaries ? Because RE is quite a broad term, even within the field of computing and/or generally "topics of HN interest". You can reverse engineer so many other things than just executable binaries. And not just other kinds of software (web), but hardware, communication protocols, even organisations and bureaucracies, or processes in the widest sense o…
Just to provide another perspective: I was expecting exactly this when I saw the title. Maybe we could also use reverse engineering for binaries and come up with new terms for all those other, largely unrelated, things. It's probably too late though and naming things "by committee" is unlikely to work anyway.
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#66After brushing up on this, if you're looking for something "fun" to work through, the NSA's 2016 Codebreaker challenge is good, granted you have a .edu email address (only US .edu too, unfortunately). https://codebreaker.ltsnet.net/challenge I think they're going to be keeping the 2016 version up for a while longer. They generally start a new one in September each year.
Damn, too bad they don't accept .ac.uk addresses :( I feel like there should be a standardised way to ensure users are students/affiliated with an educational institution (maybe an international federation on top of SAML a la the UK Access Management Federation). I guess at the end of the day the NSA want students in the US, who are likely US citizens and thus eligible for a job.
> I feel like there should be a standardised way to ensure users are students/affiliated with an educational institution
or you know, they could just open it for the public, given that there's such a wide gap in quality, cost, subsidy and affordability between higher education worldwide.
only after I stepped out the university bubble, I saw how unfair this "educational license" stuff really is. so many people who just can't afford to, so many people who don't have access to actual quality education (and don't want to throw money away just to get a piece of paper), so many smart people that spent years in "lower" (level) education (often family background not aiming high enough for their daughter/son) and then not qualifying for further funding (I'm seeing this a lot in the Netherlands, recently, it's really sad).
question is, what are you really selecting for by only accepting affiliation with an educational institution? who are you excluding and why?
(note: I put "lower" in quotes, because I feel everyone should in principle receive education to the best of their abilities. learning skills/knowledge/stuff is the goal and there's nothing wrong if that's not university-level. it's a wide world out there with so many beautiful different kinds of people)
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#67After brushing up on this, if you're looking for something "fun" to work through, the NSA's 2016 Codebreaker challenge is good, granted you have a .edu email address (only US .edu too, unfortunately). https://codebreaker.ltsnet.net/challenge I think they're going to be keeping the 2016 version up for a while longer. They generally start a new one in September each year.
Frankly, Micro-corruption, and crypto-pals is way better if you are looking for something to spend your time on for learning. https://microcorruption.com https://cryptopals.com/
Do you happen to know of any similar learning resources or tools for reversing file formats? Reversing the code that actually reads it is one way, but I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of static analysis of the save file.
For example, we plug known data into the program, save it, then figure out how to extract that info from the save file.
Bonus if anyone knows the legal status for that kind of work. My impression is reversing file formats has been successfully defended in US courts but I haven't started researching fully and would appreciate any leads there, cases, etc. to review and potentially discuss with lawyer. (What kind of lawyer would know about that kind of thing?)
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#68Binary Ninja is a fine piece of software, but it is more ethical to advertise this article as "nice reversing tutorial included with said software", because not-so-hidden shameless advertisement for it is worse.
IMO, I really don't see this as "shameless advertisement". As far as I know, there are really only three worthwhile static analysis tools available right now, Radare2(free), Binary Ninja($99-$300), and IDA pro($500-$5000+). Using Radare2 at the beginning can be very daunting if you are new to RE. IDA is so expensive you can really only obtain it legally through your workplace or college/university, or if you're willi…
FWIW, I've found the IDA Freeware version to be good enough to learn from. Personally, I couldn't really tell the difference between the freeware version I was using at home, and the PRO version that we were using at school (Although that might've been an old version).
https://www.hex-rays.com/products/ida/support/download_freew...
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#69Binary Ninja is a fine piece of software, but it is more ethical to advertise this article as "nice reversing tutorial included with said software", because not-so-hidden shameless advertisement for it is worse.
All I see is a sponsored article to show Binary Ninja as wonderful and talk trash on r2.
And a lack of openness about that fact.
Re: Reverse engineering guide for beginners: Methodology and tools
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damn, too bad they don't accept .ac.uk addresses :( I feel like there should be a standardised way to ensure users are students/affiliated with an educational institution (maybe an international federation on top of SAML a la the UK Access Management Federation). I guess at the end of the day the NSA want students in the US, who are likely US citizens and thus eligible for a job.
> I feel like there should be a standardised way to ensure users are students/affiliated with an educational institution or you know, they could just open it for the public, given that there's such a wide gap in quality, cost, subsidy and affordability between higher education worldwide. only after I stepped out the university bubble, I saw how unfair this "educational license" stuff really is. so many people who jus…
You raise some really interesting points, and it's something I've never really considered befoer. I'm curious as to how you think it should work, though - a universal non-commercial license that people can use personally?
Do you think there's much scope for abuse in terms of people using the licenses commercially without funding the company behind the product, though? As an example I'm considering JetBrains' IDEs, but I think the same concerns could be applied to a wide variety of products.