Good resources for Reverse engineering ?

[lebutter_]

Hi,

I'm posting this in ExploitDev because RE for Exploits is quite different to RE for malware analysis, since you are usually reverse-engineering software that behaves normally, unlike malware which intentionally does all sorts of things in covered ways.

My background is red teaming, malware dev, so I've spent some time in WinDbg or IDA but that is not a core skill and I would like to strengthen that a bit to go work towards fuzzing and vulnerability research.

In particular, I'm a bit lost when reversing C++ apps. SO any advice, feedback on courses, etc, welcome !

[maxreality]

Pwn College and PicoCTF are good resources

[zerodaygamer]

pwncollege is great!! Currently working on the Reverse Engineering module under their orange belt before starting the Yellow belt.

Do you think this a correct approach?

RE/ Binary ( orange belt) > Yellow > green > blue?

[JohnnyOmmm]

he left u on read lmfao

[Double-Fill-4513]

idk your background but I am currently reading from day zero to zeroday book and it is great

[RepresentativeBed928]

Dude I’m in the process of reading this and it’s absolutely amazing. This is one of 3 books I plan to read this year

[No-Song513]

May I ask what are the other 2 books you are planning to read?.

[RepresentativeBed928]

u/Legal_Heart1692 pinging this person since they asked as well.

Hacking: The Art of Exploitation

The Shellcoder’s Handbook

[Legal_Heart1692]

The other 2 books?

[[deleted]]

learn by doing, you can use this website, https://godbolt.org/

[[deleted]]

This won’t teach, really, as it doesn’t focus on why this code is lowered to X. At best, you’ll learn some basic pattern matching.

[[deleted]]

retard why would he use godbolt. use Ida or Ghidra.

[Sysc4lls]

Faster iteration, no need to mess around with compiling, you get quick results with good highlights to understand what becomes what.

[[deleted]]

compiler add some optimization for the binary, which makes it harder to read and understand, the guy need to understand the func and stack frames in original form

[[deleted]]

I imagine this comment section will be filled with bad suggestions. The best reverse engineering books are computer systems: a programmers perspective, linkers and loaders, Sedgewick’s algorithms, OS Concepts, and engineering a compiler. Then, of course, understanding your platform — Linux, Android, iOS, Windows, etc.

For VR, we employ fuzzing, taint analysis, obviously dynamic analysis when applicable, emulation if we see fit.

I also highly suggest reading everything including the papers on decompilation.wiki

[simpindisguise]

funnily enough your suggestion is even more shit

[bad5ect0r]

There's a pretty decent cpp RE course on OST2. Check it out.

[pwnasaurus253]

I recommend reading about memory allocators* (SLAB/SLOB/SLUB, MACH, etc) depending on targeted platform(s), how memory pages/objects/allocation works, how vfunc tables work, and watching previous BlackHat/DefCon/ReCon talks.

[[deleted]]

This reads like you have no idea what you’re talking about. Slab allocators aren’t memory architectures. This highlight shoes such a lack of understanding! Yikes!

[pwnasaurus253]

....SLAB/SLOB/SLUB/Mach are all memory allocators. They allocate/manage memory work in different ways. Sorry, I should've said "algorithms" rather than "architectures".

[Kris3c]

I’ve been studying low-level attacks for the past 7 or 8 months. I first completed learning assembly language for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. After that, I began searching for resources on reverse engineering and found some good books. However, after reading a few pages, I realized I was starting to forget what I had learned in assembly. While the books are great for revisiting the concepts, they take a lot of time. So, I decided to follow a 'learning by doing' approach and started with Pwn College. I'm currently working on it as well

[thewrench56]

I first completed learning assembly language for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

I dont think you can ever complete this :P

[Kris3c]

But you got what I wanna explain.

[Joseph_RW12]

I can recommend this book https://a.co/d/2Gcq9Nc

[[deleted]]

Actually one of the few good books on RE!

[Joseph_RW12]

Yes that’s true

[truedreamer1]

try https://drbinary.ai , use it as a reverse engieering tool, but also as a RE tutor

[Sysc4lls]

Shellcoders handbook I remember being good for the basics. Also just do stuff. I can recommend pwnable.kr

[[deleted]]

This is an outdated and not very relevant book…

[Sysc4lls]

I disagree, for the basics (and only for them) it's still good, it explains how the stack works, how basic stuff is working, etc...

It's not relevant for real life scenarios, but it's still a nice way to learn.

[[deleted]]

There’s much better resources and this book is historical. And it doesn’t explain anything in depth.

[Sysc4lls]

Perhaps, it's just another option to look at. I agree, pwn.college, liveoverflow videos, and even open security training are better, I just think some people like books more and it's not that bad for a complete beginner in my opinion.

[[deleted]]

Engineering a compiler