Book Image

Mastering Reverse Engineering

By : Reginald Wong
Book Image

Mastering Reverse Engineering

By: Reginald Wong

Overview of this book

If you want to analyze software in order to exploit its weaknesses and strengthen its defenses, then you should explore reverse engineering. Reverse Engineering is a hackerfriendly tool used to expose security flaws and questionable privacy practices.In this book, you will learn how to analyse software even without having access to its source code or design documents. You will start off by learning the low-level language used to communicate with the computer and then move on to covering reverse engineering techniques. Next, you will explore analysis techniques using real-world tools such as IDA Pro and x86dbg. As you progress through the chapters, you will walk through use cases encountered in reverse engineering, such as encryption and compression, used to obfuscate code, and how to to identify and overcome anti-debugging and anti-analysis tricks. Lastly, you will learn how to analyse other types of files that contain code. By the end of this book, you will have the confidence to perform reverse engineering.

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Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Title Page
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Contributors
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Preparing to Reverse
Preparing to Reverse
Reverse engineering
Technical requirements
Reverse engineering as a process
Tools
Malware handling
Basic analysis lab setup
Samples
Summary
2
Identification and Extraction of Hidden Components
Identification and Extraction of Hidden Components
Technical requirements
The operating system environment
Typical malware behavior
Tools
Summary
Further reading
3
The Low-Level Language
The Low-Level Language
Technical requirements
Binary numbers
x86
Basic instructions
Tools – builder and debugger
Hello World
After Hello
Summary
Further reading
4
Static and Dynamic Reversing
Static and Dynamic Reversing
Assessment and static analysis
Dynamic analysis
Try it yourself
Summary
References
5
Tools of the Trade
Tools of the Trade
Analysis environments
Information gathering tools
Disassemblers
Debuggers
Decompilers
Network tools
Editing tools
Attack tools
Automation tools
Software forensic tools
Automated dynamic analysis
Online service sites
Summary
6
RE in Linux Platforms
RE in Linux Platforms
Setup
Linux executable – hello world
Network traffic analysis
Summary
Further reading
7
RE for Windows Platforms
RE for Windows Platforms
Technical requirements
Hello World
What is the password?
Summary
Further reading
8
Sandboxing - Virtualization as a Component for RE
Sandboxing - Virtualization as a Component for RE
Emulation
Analysis in unfamiliar environments
Summary
Further Reading
9
Binary Obfuscation Techniques
Binary Obfuscation Techniques
Data assembly on the stack
Encrypted data identification
Assembly of data in other memory regions
Decrypting with x86dbg
Other obfuscation techniques
Summary
10
Packing and Encryption
Packing and Encryption
A quick review on how native executables are loaded by the OS
Packers, crypters, obfuscators, protectors and SFX
Unpacking
Dumping processes from memory
How about an executable in its unpacked state?
Other file-types
Summary
11
Anti-analysis Tricks
Anti-analysis Tricks
Anti-debugging tricks
Anti-VM tricks
Anti-emulation tricks
Anti-dumping tricks
Summary
12
Practical Reverse Engineering of a Windows Executable
Practical Reverse Engineering of a Windows Executable
Things to prepare
Initial static analysis
Debugging
Summary
Further Reading
13
Reversing Various File Types
Reversing Various File Types
Analysis of HTML scripts
MS Office macro analysis
PDF file analysis
SWF file analysis
Summary
Further reading
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think
Index
Index

How about an executable in its unpacked state?

Now that we have an executable file from Volatility, running this back in our Windows guest sandbox gives us the following message:

Remember that the packed executable has its own PE header and stub and not that of the original host's. The header, stub and compressed data were directly mapped to the process space. Every API function was dynamically imported. Even with the code and data decompressed, the entry point set in the header is still of the packed executables and not of the original hosts.  

 

 

Fortunately, x86dbg has a plugin known as Scylla. After reaching the original entry point, which means we are in the unpacked state, we can rebuild the process being debugged into a brand new executable file. The new executable file is already unpacked and can be executed alone.

This still requires us to debug the packed executable until we reach the original entry point (OEP). Once at the OEP, open up Scylla from the plugins' drop-down menu. This...

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