Implementing Reverse Engineering: The Real Practice of X86 Internals, Code Calling Conventions, Ransomware Decryption, Application Cracking, Assembly Language, ... Open Source Tools (English Edition)

875 Pages·2021·30.667 MB·

by  Jitender Narula

Implementing
Reverse
Engineering
The Real Practice of x86 Internals, Code Calling
Conventions, Ransomware Decryption, Application
Cracking, Assembly Language, and Proven
Cybersecurity Open Source Tools
Jitender Narula
www.bpbonline.com
FIRST EDITION 2022
Copyright © BPB Publications, India
ISBN: 978-93-91030-377
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any
means or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the
prior written permission of the publisher with the exception to the
program listings which may be entered, stored and executed in a
computer system, but they can not be reproduced by the means
of publication, photocopy, recording, or by any electronic and
mechanical means.
LIMITS OF LIABILITY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
The information contained in this book is true to correct and the
best of author’s and publisher’s knowledge. The author has made
every effort to ensure the accuracy of these publications, but
publisher cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage
arising from any information in this book.
All trademarks referred to in the book are acknowledged as
properties of their respective owners but BPB Publications cannot
guarantee the accuracy of this information.
sanet.st
www.bpbonline.com
Dedicated to
My parents
Always seen God in them
About the Author
Jitender Narula is an experienced Cyber Security Specialist currently
associated with International Institute of Cyber Security having over
18 years of industry experience. He has many years of cyber
security experience with governments and corporate world. In
India, he has worked with government entities like Delhi Police,
ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India), Delhi University
and other private organizations.
He has worked on the projects of AT&T, Citrix, Google, Conexant,
IPolicy Networks (Tech Mahindra now), Narus (a wholly owned
subsidiary of The Boeing Company) and HFCL. Apart from this,
he has conducted training programs for various corporate and
government officials in India and Mexico.
He has published articles, research information and interviews in
the area of cyber security for Information Security Newspaper
Noticias de seguridad informática Cibertip - Noticias de Hacking
Exploit One iicybersecurity blog and also contributed to the
Vishvas News, which is part of Dainik Jagran (Indian language
daily newspaper).
About the Reviewer
Sanil Nadkarni is CISO /CRO/DPO in an MNC. He has worked
for organizations and clients such as Microsoft, Symantec,
MphasiS, Capita, SLK and has supported International Banks and
Financial Organizations.
He is an international speaker, author and trainer. Sanil has
published over 100 articles online and also for various magazines.
His certifications include CFE, CISSP, CISA, CISM, Security+, ISO
27001 LA, ISO 22301 LA, A+, N+, MCP, MCSA, CCNA, SCSA, ISO
10012 (GDPR), RHCE, CEH,CBCP, ISO 31000 Risk and Microsoft
Azure Architect.
Sanil has received honors and awards such as CISO TOP 100
Award, Dynamic CISO Award, Top 100 CIO award and many
more.
He has published a book on Fundamentals on Information
Security which is available on Amazon.
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, praises and thanks to my Dad, Mom and God
for showering blessings throughout my work to complete the book
successfully.
I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to Atul
Narula, my colleague at International Institute of Cyber Security,
Mexico for helping with the review process of this book. I am
extremely grateful for what he has offered me. I would also like to
thank him for his friendship, empathy and great sense of humor.
I am extremely grateful to my parents (Ramesh Narula and
Mohini Narula) for their love, prayers, care and sacrifices for
educating and preparing me for my future. I am very much
thankful to my wife and son for their love, understanding, prayers
and continuing support to complete this book. Also, I would like
to express my thanks to Dr. Shilpi Sahi and Om Narula for their
support and motivation throughout this process of writing. Once
again, I would like to thank my family for putting up with me
while I was spending many nights writing—I could have never
completed this book without their support.
Finally, I would like to thanks BPB Publications for giving me the
opportunity to write my first book for them.
Preface
Reverse Engineering (RE) is an art of understanding any program
code when no source code is available. This book provides step-
by-step explanation of the essential concepts and practical
examples to understand and implement Reverse Engineering. It will
enable the readers to understand the application code flow to
identify vulnerabilities and bugs in the application.
This book is for the readers who want to start learning Reverse
Engineering from basics in a step-by-step manner. The book is
divided into three parts:
Exploring Reverse Engineering
Reverse Engineering Applications
Real World Examples with Solutions
The first part Exploring Reverse Engineering starts with the basic
concepts of Computing System and Data Building Blocks of the
Computing System. This part also enlists open-source tools
required for RE applications and the programming instructions of
RE. The second part Reverse Engineering Applications walks us
through the different applications/programs to understand the
implementation of RE. This part covers various practicals, which
give the users a hands-on experience. All the
applications/programs mentioned in this part are aligned in a
systematic manner; from reverse engineering of basic C/C++
programs to complex C/C++ programs. In the third part Real
World Examples and Solutions of this book, RE of well-known
Windows application along with different exercises are
demonstrated in a step-by-step manner. Over the 18 chapters in
this book, you will learn the following:
PART 1: Exploring Reverse Engineering
In this part, the readers will understand the impact of RE on
industry, building blocks of x86 computing system and the role of
each in the overall functioning of x86 system.
Chapter 1 talks about the impact of RE on IT industry and how it
originated as an area.
Chapter 2 talks about the building blocks of a computing system
and the role of each building block in the overall functioning of
the system. This chapter is important in order to understand the
core concept behind the working of x86 computing systems.
Chapter 3 focuses on the open-source tools used in RE and how
these tools are used for debugging and analysis. These tools will
be used in all illustrations shown in this book.
Chapter 4 explains about the major assembly instructions used
and also about how different instructions are segmented in
various sections for easy understanding along with examples.