Reverse Engineering

Reverse engineering is the process of taking a program apart to find out how it works. You can do this by examining the compiled app (static analysis), observing the app during runtime (dynamic analysis), or a combination of both.

Overview

Overview#

• A program's elementary building block is a function. To gain insights about the scope and the internal workings of a function it has to be wrapped within an instrumentation function.
• Ones the intermediate function is in place it hides the original function from the outside. The intermediate function invokes the original function with its functional parameters. The return value of the original function is in the scope of the intermediate function, an observation of the functionality of the method is possible.
• Depending on the use case different subsequent steps can be specified. In order to protect an application against certain attack vectors, it is necessary to determine the application behavior against different attack vectors.
• An attack procedure exploiting a vulnerability is directed against the application. The reaction and defensive behavior of an application are observable through the second step. Conclusions of an observed problem are delegated to the engineering team, which initiates an adaptation of the application logic to prevent the exploitation of the identified security problem.