Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering

Beginning with a basic primer on reverse engineering-including computer internals, operating systems, and assembly language-and then discussing the various
applications of reverse engineering, this book provides readers with practical, in-depth techniques for software reverse engineering. The book is broken into two parts, the first deals with security-related reverse engineering and the second explores the more practical aspects of reverse engineering. In addition, the author explains how to reverse engineer a third-party software library to improve interfacing and how to reverse engineer a competitor's software to build a better product.
* The first popular book to show how software reverse engineering can help defend against security threats, speed up development, and unlock the secrets of competitive products
* Helps developers plug security holes by demonstrating how hackers exploit reverse engineering techniques to crack copy-protection schemes and identify software targets for viruses and other malware
* Offers a primer on advanced reverse-engineering, delving into "disassembly"-code-level reverse engineering-and explaining how to decipher assembly language

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource

By Russell G. Osterlund Jr. "Russ Osterlund" - June 4, 2005

This book is a very good introduction and instructional manual on a subject that is both relevant and shadowy. Uttering the

phrase, "reverse engineering", these days conjures up visions of crackers and other criminals breaking into websites and stealing private information. But for anyone serious about improving their programming skills, "Reversing - Secrets of Reverse Engineering" is a must read. For example, debugging and reversing activities are very close kin; you will improve your skill in tracking down and understanding bugs in your code by learning some of the techniques presented in this book.

The highlight of the book (for me) was Chapter 11 where the author presents step-by-step sessions in reversing progressively more difficult protection schemes. If you feel uncomfortable with this activity, rest assured that the author has neatly sidestepped some murky legal issues by using Internet examples created for this purpose and his own program, designed... read more

Pure perfection.

By Pavel Pruzhansky - April 11, 2010

I am sorry for having written this review so late. This book is a true gem; a must-have for any serious software engineer. Understanding how software works under the hood is key to writing code properly -- and this book provides an insight on that topic in an absolutely BRILLIANT MANNER.

Having a fair bit of reverse engineering experience myself, I have found this book to be extremely concise and detaild -- and I have learned a fair bit of new material while reading it.

There is no dull moment in this book. The author (who is clearly a gifted writer) explains reverse-engineering-related topics in a fascinating and unique manner, and, within this work, he actually cements the way in which reverse engineering should always be taught. Written by a true master, the book is very pedagogic; every chapter is accompanied by detailed examples -- which make the discussed topics crystal-clear.

I would have given this book more than five stars, had I been able to... read more

Extremely didactic and well written, but . . .

By Marco De Vivo "Mr. TCP/IP" - April 18, 2005

This is an extraordinarily didactic book. If you want jump inside this field ("secure code"), then take the book by the hand and go ahead.

Well written and very pedagogic, the book is useful even for experts. The only limitation (clearly stated in the back cover) is the full orientation toward the Microsoft's .NET platform (and of course the Windows/Intel realm).

Some chapters should be more deeply analyzed and the chapter 8 (Reversing Malware) is somewhat naive.

Even so, overall . . . 5 stars.

If you are in "secure code", this book is a MUST.

p.s. As an added value the book is so self-contained (no external sources needed) and so complete, that can be used as a quick but sufficient introduction to computer system architectures. To know more about the book try the "Search Inside" feature in this same page.

AVAILABILITY
Merchant	Format	Price
Amazon US	Paperback	$17.85 - $40.00
eBooks.com	Digital (PDF)	$40.00
BookByte	Paperback	$52.44
eCampus	Paperback	~~$27.91~~ discount!