Department of Computer Science

Ghosts of Reverse Engineering: Past, Present, and Future

Have you ever been intrigued by what lies beneath the surface of your favorite applications or games? If so, you're in good company. This curiosity is the essence of reverse engineering of executables (RE)—an important process not only for satisfying our innate curiosity but also for addressing significant professional challenges. Whether it's decrypting the secrets of malware to recover from a ransomware attack or uncovering vulnerabilities in proprietary software, RE plays an important role in computer science.

In this presentation, we'll embark on an exploratory journey starting with a gentle overview of reverse engineering. I'll introduce the essential tools and methodologies that have shaped RE for years, including the roles of disassemblers and decompilers. However, our voyage doesn't end in the past; we will also survey the exciting work being shaped by integrating AI into RE.  Our voyage will end with addressing the ongoing challenges in RE, offering insights into future research directions and the potential for further integration of AI technologies.

   

  

  

Edward J. Schwartz is a Senior Researcher at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute, where he has focused on binary analysis for the past eight years.  Prior to that, he earned his BS in Computer Science from Millersville University, and earned his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab in 2014, where he maintained the Binary Analysis Platform for performing semantic analysis of executables. His dissertation examined the performance benefits of recovering abstractions from executables. He publishes regularly in academic computer security conferences and has received several awards for his publications. More recently, he has been collaborating with other researchers at CMU on a multidisciplinary effort to apply advances in machine learning to reverse engineering and binary analysis.

 

For further information contact Dr. Gary Zoppetti

Gary.Zoppetti@ millersville.edu

717-871-4309