Halvar Flake: RE 2006: New Challenges Need Changing Tools

Abstract: Reverse Engineering has come a long way?what used to be practiced behind closed doors is now a mainstream occupation practiced throughout the security industry. Compilers and languages are changing, and the reverse engineer has to adapt: Nowadays, understanding C and the target platform assembly language is not sufficient any more. Too many reverse engineers shy away from analyzing C++ code and run into trouble dealing with heavily optimized executables. This talk will list common challenges that the reverse engineer faces in the process of disassembling nowadays, and suggest some solutions. Furthermore, a list of unsolved problems will be discussed. Bio: Halvar Flake is SABRE Labs' founder and Black Hat's resident reverse engineer. Originating in the fields of copy protection and digital rights management, he gravitated more and more towards network securityover time as he realized that constructive copy protection is more or less fighting windmills. After writing his first few exploits he was hooked and realized that reverse engineering experience is a very handy asset when dealing with COTS software. With extensive experience in reverse engineering, network security, penetration testing and exploit development he recently joined Black Hat as their main reverse engineer.