Next Generation Software Reverse Engineering Tools

The products of this SBIR effort, Phase I through Phase III, will comprise a broad trajectory within the state of the art in next-generation software reverse engineering (SRE). Our Reverse Engineering Advancement Lab (REAL), will perform security auditing; serve as a obfuscator benchmark tool for testing new software protection technologies; recover source (or near source) code from binary executable files on a variety of platforms, from a variety of languages; enable understanding of both the static and dynamic properties of software systems; and be flexible and extensible enough to support defeating protection schemes not currently envisioned. Our team of SRE theorists and practitioners will create this family of tools by hybridizing the best reverse engineering techniques [not tools] of the current generation. We will then develop our next-generation tools based on the hybridized techniques, as described in the proposal. We will create new user interfaces (UIs) necessary to support the extensive user/tool interaction that is [proved] essential for successful attack on complex, real world software - see proposal for discussion of this significant issue. Our Phase I effort will exceed the SBIR requirements by providing OSD with an initial set of REAL functional tools.