Practical Reverse Engineering: x86, x64, ARM, Windows Kernel, Reversing Tools, and Obfuscation

by Bruce Dang, Alexandre Gazet, Elias Bachaalany

Analyzing how hacks are done, so as to stop them in the future Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing hardware or software and understanding it, without having access to the source code or design documents. Hackers are able to reverse engineer systems and exploit what they find with scary results. Now the good guys can use the same tools to thwart these threats. Practical Reverse Engineering goes under the hood of reverse engineering for security analysts, security engineers, and system programmers, so they can learn how to use these same processes to stop hackers in their tracks. The book covers x86, x64, and ARM (the first book to cover all three); Windows kernel-mode code rootkits and drivers; virtual machine protection techniques; and much more. Best of all, it offers a systematic approach to the material, with plenty of hands-on exercises and real-world examples. Practical Reverse Using x86, x64, ARM, Windows Kernel, and Reversing Tools  provides crucial, up-to-date guidance for a broad range of IT professionals.

Genres: Programming, Hackers, Computer Science, Technology, Computers, Engineering, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Hussain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do not be fooled by the name of the book or even the reviews you read, this book is entirely for people who are semi-experienced in Reverse-Engineering, if you are a novice trying to learn about Reverse-Engineering this is not the book for you.

[Machnaoui Abdellatif · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books regarding Reverse Engineering. It's definitely not for beginners ( for those I'd suggest Practical malware analysis) and should be reread but despite all it was really a great journey

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely overrated book.
The authors expect the reader to read 10 more books in order to be able to read this one, they list these books in the Introduction and then in the very first chapter, they assume the reader already has all the knowledge from the books listed.
Completely new terms and ideas are thrown at the reader as if it was something obvious.
Code fragments are vague so I expect them to be explained thoroughly, instead the "explanation" is usually what confuses me even more, throwing bunch of new terms yet again.

The Assembly chapter (first one) is ridiculous.
It starts from the basic instructions so the authors assume the reader doesn't necessarily have experience in this field.
Then, they casually add more and more unclear constructs without ANY explanation.
It makes me feel like I should have known them for a long time already even though they didn't get a single mention earlier in the book.

The book contains a lot of technical information and the language is very raw, absolutely overwhelming for not only beginners but also intermediates.

Actually, I'm not sure who is this book for.
Seems like it attempts to explain everything from the basics but in the most complex way possible.

Totally not what I was looking for, I'm disappointed and don't recommend the book.

[Sofat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't normally give book reviews but after seeing the horrible reviews, I decided to post a review. This book is NOT for beginners. Most of the 1-star reviews are from frustrated beginners. This is hands down, one of the two best reverse engineering books out there, The IDA Pro book being the other. I don't know how very technically light books on reverse engineering that are useless get praises while solid books get horrible reviews. My only complaint is that the authors should make the samples used in the book more accessible, I had to hunt them down using the hashes and couldn't find some of them.

[Tuan · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's a really interesting book. I'd love its obfuscation chapter, it summarized all obfuscation techniques with the familiar words so it's good for all new reverser like me!

[Tahir Özdilek · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, the book is absolutely not for beginners. For being able to gain some benefit from the book first you need an extensive knowledge about assembly languages and things related to it such as cpu instructions, registers, memory operations etc. One chapter of the book is about assembly debuggers, but it doesn’t teach how to debug assembly code instead, it assumes you are already familiar with debugging assembly by using tools such as IDA Pro, OllyDbg etc. It gives information about how assembly debugging can be done in an advanced level by writing scripts for automated debugging, programming plugins for achieving your specific goal and so on.
Main reader target of the book could be IT professionals apart from whom aim dirty works such as cracking, hacking etc. Security tool developers can extend their knowledge in detecting technics of malwares with examination of executable files. Secure software developers can improve their skills with assembler debuggers and can recognize vulnerabilities such as memory leaks, buffer overflows etc. in their code.

The book has been written by 3 authors. Both background and current position of authors are amazingly successful. I think this is a good reason to have a look at the book.

Lastly, to mention about negative sides of the book: It requires too much prior knowledge. Book contains too many exercises without their solutions. Too much theoretic information rather than practical as claimed in the title of the book.

[Gazimagomed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should say that I enjoyed the book, and am definitely sure that it should be re-read. As has already been stated in the comments, the book is by no means a beginner-friendly guide to reverse engineering -- you should be well prepared should you wish to at least finish it.

[Abdullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for learning, The book assumes a lot and does list pre-req's in intro. If you are a beginner or total newbie, this certainly is not the right starting point. Most negative reviews are from those who assumed it to a beginner's introduction.

[Jason Copenhaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Love the fact that there are exercises at the end of each chapter.

[Graziano Misuraca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty horrible. I was really looking forward to this book, and I bought it as soon as it was released. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. There's a trend in tech books to put 'the art of...' or 'practical...' in the title, but never have I seen the word 'practical' used so inappropriately. This book has a lot of information in it, but it's not presented in a way that's practical at all. Practical Malware Analysis, a book I have been working through for over a year now is how you do this right: They provide samples to work through that progress in difficulty and included very good write-ups (which take up almost 40% of the pages). This book, on the other hand, throws in a ton of questions with no provided answers, nothing to set up (other than some binaries samples) and no real progression. The book was riddled with mistakes (I found one per page for the first few pages) which really makes you hesitant to rely on it ever as a reference. The authors know what they're talking about, they just don't know how to write a useful book.