A Task Analysis of Static Binary Reverse Engineering for Security
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2022-01-04
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Software is ubiquitous in society, but understanding it, especially without access to source code, is both non-trivial and critical to security. A specialized group of cyber defenders conducts reverse engineering (RE) to analyze software. The expertise-driven process of software RE is not well understood, especially from the perspective of workflows and automated tools. We conducted a task analysis to explore the cognitive processes that analysts follow when using static techniques on binary code. Experienced analysts were asked to statically find a vulnerability in a small binary that could allow for unverified access to root privileges. Results show a highly iterative process with commonly used cognitive states across participants of varying expertise, but little standardization in process order and structure. A goal-centered analysis offers a different perspective about dominant RE states. We discuss implications about the nature of RE expertise and opportunities for new automation to assist analysts using static techniques.
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Cyber Deception and Cyberpsychology for Defense, cybersecurity, reverse engineering, cognitive process, automation
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10 pages
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Proceedings of the 55th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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