Exetools - What is the best book or guide to learn reverse engineering?

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What is the best book or guide to learn reverse engineering?

Hello!

I'm new in this forum and I'm studying "Java" in college, but I also want to learn reverse engineering. What book or guide recommend me?

Hi,

This ebook is good to start learning: "Reversing: Secret of Reverse Engineering". Link:

Code:

http://www.federaljack.com/ebooks/Computers%20-%20Informatin%20Technology/Assembly%20,%20reverse%20engeniering%20and%20Computer%20Architecture%20books/Reverse%20Engeniering/2005/Wiley/Reversing%20-%20Secrets%20of%20Reverse%20Engineering.pdf

And also a collection of Lena's Tutorials available:

Code:

https://tuts4you.com/download.php?list.17

Take a look at R4ndom's Beginning Reverse Engineering Tutorials, i think these tutorials are awesome, too:

Code:

https://tuts4you.com/download.php?view.3554

You should learn about Assembly Language, which will help you a lot. These books, i think they're good to learn:

Code:

http://it-ebooks.info/book/1731/

http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?ebook=4042

http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/details.php?ebook=1865

There are many more tutorials available on the internet, just google and find out which is suitable for you.
Regards,
Levis

Yup, basically everything that @Levis posted, specially "Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering". I have that book and it's really great. This week I also found on ExeTools this one: Practical Reverse Engineering (http://forum.exetools.com/showpost.php?p=90796&postcount=676). It's a really good written book, with lots of examples and useful stuff you will probably like.

Thank you very much!. I Always look on internet but sometimes are too advanced for me and I don't understand jeje :(

No problem. ;-) Aside from books I would recommend you to compile small hello world programs or something really simple and load them with some debugger (I personally love OllyDbg). Then go slowly through the instructions and note all the changes in the memory and the registers and try to understand their relationship with the stuff you wrote. :D

Although rather old.. still much to learn from this...

Code:

http://speedy.sh/jK9rE/Fravias-Pages-Of-Reverse-Engineering.rar

These books will help you learn reverse engineering code, you should read in the following order:
Practical Malware Analysis
IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition
Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering
Practical Reverse Engineering: x86, x64, ARM, Windows Kernel, Reversing Tools, and Obfuscation

For reference while you read those books:
Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer Manuals
AMD Developer Guides & Manuals

I'd like to share the books in which I picked and started learning with ZERO prior coding knowledge. (I'm very good with computers but I didn't code, so take it as you will)

I know that the PDF's to hundreds of books are available but I prefer a hard copy. That's just my own personal preference, so I will be posting amazon links and a pdf link underneath....I do buy the books that I will study intensively. I recommend you do as well.

First, the 2 books you HAVE to get, the books we all have on our desk somewhere,

The IDA Pro Book: The Unofficial Guide to the World's Most Popular Disassembler [2nd Ed]
by Chris Eagle

Amazon Link: HERE
PDF Link: HERE

Quote:

No source code? No problem. With IDA Pro, the interactive disassembler, you live in a source code-optional world. IDA can automatically analyze the millions of opcodes that make up an executable and present you with a disassembly. But at that point, your work is just beginning. With The IDA Pro Book, you'll learn how to turn that mountain of mnemonics into something you can actually use.

Hailed by the creator of IDA Pro as "profound, comprehensive, and accurate," the second edition of The IDA Pro Book covers everything from the very first steps to advanced automation techniques. You'll find complete coverage of IDA's new Qt-based user interface, as well as increased coverage of the IDA debugger, the Bochs debugger, and IDA scripting (especially using IDAPython). But because humans are still smarter than computers, you'll even learn how to use IDA's latest interactive and scriptable interfaces to your advantage.

Save time and effort as you learn to:

Navigate, comment, and modify disassembly
Identify known library routines, so you can focus your analysis on other areas of the code
Use code graphing to quickly make sense of cross references and function calls
Extend IDA to support new processors and filetypes using the SDK
Explore popular plug-ins that make writing IDA scripts easier, allow collaborative reverse engineering, and much more
Use IDA's built-in debugger to tackle hostile and obfuscated code

Whether you're analyzing malware, conducting vulnerability research, or reverse engineering software, a mastery of IDA is crucial to your success. Take your skills to the next level with this 2nd edition of The IDA Pro Book.

Next is another staple that we all got...or should have :)

Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering
by Eldad Eilam

Amazon Link: HERE
PDF Link: HERE

Quote:

From the Back Cover
Sometimes, the best way to advance is in reverse
If you want to know how something works, you take it apart very carefully. That's exactly what this book shows you—how to deconstruct software in a way that reveals design and implementation details, sometimes even source code. Why? Because reversing reveals weak spots, so you can target your security efforts. Because you can reverse-engineer malicious code in order to neutralize it. Because understanding what makes a program work lets you build a better one. You'll learn how here.

Learn to read compiler-generated assembly language code for IA-32 compatible processors
Decipher an undocumented file format or network protocol
Understand when reverse engineering is legal, and when—and why—it may not be
See how hackers use reversing to defeat copy protection technology
Find out how to pull the plug on malicious code
Determine how to prevent others from reversing your code, and find out how effective such steps can be
Explore reverse engineering on the .NET platform and its assembly language, MSIL
Observe the dissection of a real-world malicious program and see how the attacker used it to control infected systems

And of course you need to learn programming before you can really truly dive into those books so some recommendations are Head First C# by Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene (If you don't love learning from a textbook this is your gig, it's got pictures, projects they call "adventures" and stuff but it is NOT a kids book in any way, shape or form.) Another good primer is C++ Programming in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath, it's a tiny book but will give you the basics you need of C++ in order to move on to the other books I pointed out above.

Besides that, follow the advice of everyone above me with the free tutorials from tuts4you and stuff, there's a series that's like 100 parts and you really need the patience to do it. That's it. I know you're intelligent enough!

I came across this thread by searching for something else. Nevertheless, also a very good online source is Phrack Magazine: http://phrack.org

RICARDO NARVAJA leçons its not bad to beginning

Quote:

http://www.ricardonarvaja.info/

english version:

Quote:

Here

Practical Reverse Engineering -> Best book ever
Reverse engineering for Beginners by Dennis Yurichev -> http://beginners.re/
IDA Pro Book 2nd Edition
For Malware Reversing -> http://fumalwareanalysis.blogspot.ch/p/malware-analysis-tutorials-reverse.html

Your brain, only this, good luck

Sorry, but such an answer is completely useless - why even write that?

Ross P. Nelson
The 80386 Book: Assembly Language Programmer's Guide

Quote:

Originally Posted by wilson bibe (Post 103239)

Your brain, only this, good luck

everyone has a brain, the question was how to use it :) the book may helps
someone once said to me "forget about books & tutorials, what you need is to know the tools, use the tools, make the tools".