Software Reverse Engineering

Question

I am an Master's Student and i am learning Software Reverse Engineering. I am looking for softwares which can be legally reverse engineered. i looked on the net, but i am unable to find any..:( Do you any softwares which can be legally reverse engineered. I am not allowed to use Open source softwares.

Answer 1

Maybe any .net software?

Answer 2

I'm not a lawyer but i think that you, on your computer, at home, can reverse all the software you want, you can start with calc.exe :)

There are basically 2 way of reversing:

• Reverse binary and get ASM
• Reverse a fake binary (Java, .NET) with the right software you will get a user-friendly code, and on .NET also the comments ;)

So now you have to answers: for what propose you want reverse ? What do you want reverse ?

Answer 3

The Coin3D project is an interesting example of reverse engineering. Coin3D was released by SIM (Systems in Motion) and ws written in a clean room fashion from scratch, sharing no code with the original SGI Inventor library, but implementing the same API for compatibility reasons.

Reverse engineering in clean room design avoids some copyright and trade secret issues and is a defense against copyrigh and trade secret infringement because it relies on independent invention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design

Answer 4

I understand that this software should not be open source because that would simplify the RE part quite a bit.

You don't seem to be aware of it, but there is a thing which is called a "crackme": closed source software (freeware) which was specifically written to be reverse engineered for educational purposes. These crackmes usually differ in complexity. For example, see: http://f0dder.reteam.org/crackmes.htm

Such programs are commonly made available by reverse engineering communities. See for example http://www.crackmes.de/ or http://tdhack.com/

There are even some competitions about reverse engineering: http://www.reteam.org/crackmes.html

I know what we used to do on Windows to get started, is to simply take command.com or notepad.exe and try to add functionality, such as for example line numbers or basic syntax highlighting for notepad or new behavior for the command/cmd shell.

There is a series of articles about starting reverse engineering on Windows (including crackmes) here: http://www.tuts4you.com/download.php?list.17

You might want to take a look at the following links (all of which are legal):

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crackme

• http://www.crackmes.de/

• http://www.openrce.org/

• http://www.codebreakers-journal.com

• http://www.antionline.com/

• http://www.reverse-engineering.net/viewforum.php?f=3

• http://www.reverse-engineering.net

• http://www.asmcommunity.net/

• http://www.masm32.com/board

• http://www.woodmann.com/fravia/

Another thing worth looking into (because it can be highly educational and has a real purpose) is reverse engineering malware, a friend of mine did that in university and was hired right away by a major antivirus company. You will want to do this by using virtualization to run and reverse engineer the malware/virus. There is also excellent information available on line on reverse engineering some of the major internet worms (i.e. code red).

• http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Reverse-Engineering-Malware-Part1.html
• http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/reverse-engineering-hostile-code

Answer 5

I dont know what you want to do with your reversing skills but http://www.crackmes.de/, might be a good point for training.