Название: x86 Software Reverse-Engineering, Cracking, and Counter-Measures
Автор: Stephanie Domas, Christopher Domas
Издательство: Wiley
Год: 2024
Страниц: 317
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub (true)
Размер: 15.8 MB, 39.5 MB

A crystal-clear and practical blueprint to software disassembly.

x86 Software Reverse-Engineering, Cracking, and Counter-Measures is centered around the world of disassembling software. It will start with the basics of the x86 assembly language, and progress to how that knowledge empowers you to reverse-engineer and circumvent software protections. No knowledge of assembly, reverse engineering, or software cracking is required.

Reverse engineering and software cracking are disciplines with a long, rich history. For decades, software developers have attempted to build defenses into their applications to protect intellectual property or to prevent modifications to the program code. The art of cracking has been around nearly as long as reverse engineers have been examining and modifying code for fun or profit.

The book begins with a bootcamp on x86, learning how to read, write, and build in the assembly that powers a massive amount of the world's computers. Then the book will shift to reverse engineering applications using a handful of industry favorites such as IDA, Ghidra, Olly, and more. Next, we move to cracking with techniques such as patching and key generation, all harnessing the power of assembly and reverse engineering. Lastly, we'll examine cracking from a defensive perspective. Providing learners with techniques to be a better defender of their own software, or knowledge to crack these techniques more effectively.

• Assembly: computer Architecture, x86, system calls, building and linking, ASCII, condition codes, GDB, control flow, stack, calling conventions
• Reverse Engineering: reconnaissance, strings, RE strategy, stripping, linking, optimizations, compilers, industry tools
• Cracking: patching, key checkers, key generators, resource hacking, dependency walking
• Defense: anti-debugging, anti-tamper, packing, cryptors/decryptors, whitelist, blacklist, RASP, code signing, obfuscation

Both offensive and defensive reverse engineers benefit from the same set of skills. Without an understanding of reverse engineering and cracking, a defender can't craft effective protections. On the other hand, an attacker can more effectively bypass and overcome these protections if they can understand and manipulate how a program works.

Who Should Read This Book:
From security professionals to hobbyists, this book is for anyone who wants to learn to take apart, understand, and modify black-box software. This book takes a curious security-minded individual behind the curtain to how software cracking and computers work. Learning how an x86 computer works is not only powerful from a reverse-engineering and cracking perspective, but will make each reader a stronger developer, with advanced knowledge they can apply to code optimization, efficiency, debugging, compiler settings and chip selection. Then the curtain continues to pull back as readers learn how software cracking happens. Readers will learn about tools and techniques that real-world software crackers use, and they will set their newfound knowledge to the test by cracking real-world applications of their own in numerous hands-on labs. We then circle back to understand defensive techniques for combating software cracking. By learning both the offensive and defensive techniques, readers will walk away as strong software crackers or software defenders.