Book details of 'Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering'

Title	Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering
Author(s)	Eldad Eilam
ISBN	0764574817
Language	English
Published	April 2005
Publisher	Wiley

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
The introduction defines reverse engineering in the broadest possible way, but notes that the primary intention of the book is to cover the analysis of executable object or binary code. Interestingly, it also concentrates on .NET programs, where most other works on the subject avoid getting into the Windows environment, with its enormous program files. Part one contains foundational material on low-level code and programming. Chapter one defines reversing in more detail, introduces the tools and concepts used, and has an interestingly extended discussion of the legal ramifications of the practice. A rather generic description of the activities of programming (in both high level languages and assembler) is given in chapter two. A review of basic internal concepts in the Windows operating system is in chapter three. Chapter four describes the various tools needed for reversing. Part two demonstrates how to use reverse engineering in different situations. Chapter five covers reversing as a tool for finding out how to make a given piece of software work cooperatively with another, or how to use it most effectively, and manipulates the Windows "generic table" API for this purpose. Another mission for reverse engineering is to find out how file formats are written, as is explained in chapter six. Bugs, particularly those that can be used as security vulnerabilities, are covered in chapter seven as another task. This is extended in chapter eight to examine malware, which might be seen as a kind of program that is all bug. Part three deals specifically with piracy and copy protection. Chapter nine reviews copy protection concepts and history. Various means of preventing reverse engineering are presented in chapter ten. Some simplistic examples of breaking copy protection are given in chapter eleven (with programs written specifically for the exercise). Part four addresses more advanced topics: The Microsoft .NET framework in chapter twelve, and decompilers in chapter thirteen. The book does provide a reasonable overview, although it certainly does not teach reverse engineering as such. Teaching machine language programming would occupy a work all of its own, but the material that Eilam presents is demanding enough to ensure that if you have the background to understand the text, you probably don't need the explanations of concepts it provides. It is nice to see some up-to- date topics being addressed, but many of the subjects, such as object orientation, really have little to do with reverse engineering. The text is a welcome addition to the very limited amount in the field of software analysis, but certainly is no breakthrough. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2005
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Book description:

Beginning with a basic primer on reverse engineering-including computer internals, operating systems, and assembly language-and then discussing the various applications of reverse engineering, this book provides readers with practical, in-depth techniques for software reverse engineering. The book is broken into two parts, the first deals with security-related reverse engineering and the second explores the more practical aspects of reverse engineering. In addition, the author explains how to reverse engineer a third-party software library to improve interfacing and how to reverse engineer a competitor's software to build a better product. * The first popular book to show how software reverse engineering can help defend against security threats, speed up development, and unlock the secrets of competitive products * Helps developers plug security holes by demonstrating how hackers exploit reverse engineering techniques to crack copy-protection schemes and identify software targets for viruses and other malware * Offers a primer on advanced reverse-engineering, delving into "disassembly"-code-level reverse engineering-and explaining how to decipher assembly language