3 ms·

This is really cool - how did you develop the background knowledge to solve this? I'm trying to learn more about low-level stuff and I would have no idea how to

This is really cool - how did you develop the background knowledge to solve this? I'm trying to learn more about low-level stuff and I would have no idea how to approach solving a problem like this

spuz 6y ago
I'd recommend searching HN for threads about learning reverse engineering. Here are a few that I've found: Reverse Engineering Course: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061842 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061842 Reverse Engineering For Beginners: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21640669 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21640669 Introduction to reverse engineering for beginners: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16104958 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16104958
- the_only_law 6y ago
  I love it but I don’t have the focus or patience to ever do anything more than basic analysis. A lot of the reverse engineers I know seemingly have deep platform knowledge and can do things like cite Win32 docs from memory.
  - mmastrac 6y ago
    I was a reverse engineer for years and never was able to do anything like quoting docs. I'd be constantly googling or using reference material. The only real attribute I'd suggest is tenacity.
    - Graziano_M 6y ago
      Tenacity is everything. Both when looking at a particular problem, but also in sticking to RE in general for long enough to pick up the skills and tricks that make you quick. There are countless tricks you pick up that cleave off huge amounts of time that would otherwise be wasted.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    The number one way to get the patience to do this is to have impatience for software that is slow.
    - meibo 6y ago
      And with most RE software(especially the mentioned inaccessible interactive disassembling tool) you'll get that by default, waiting for a 70mb binary to analyze isn't fun :)
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        Fortunately, software engineers can be bad at making time value judgments ;)
waterheater 6y ago
Here's a good book on software reverse engineering (SRE): https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Reverse-Engineering-Reversing-Obfuscation/dp/1118787315 https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Reverse-Engineering-Reversi... It won't help you with PowerPC, but the chapter list is: x86 and x64, ARM, The Windows Kernel, Debugging and Automation, and Obfuscation. The book was written in 2014, so it should be reasonably relevant for modern purposes, and especially so if digging into any software older than 2014.

This is really cool - how did you develop the background knowledge to solve this? I'm trying to learn more about low-level stuff and I would have no idea how to approach solving a problem like this

spuz 6y ago

I'd recommend searching HN for threads about learning reverse engineering. Here are a few that I've found: Reverse Engineering Course: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061842 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22061842 Reverse Engineering For Beginners: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21640669 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21640669 Introduction to reverse engineering for beginners: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16104958 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16104958

the_only_law 6y ago
I love it but I don’t have the focus or patience to ever do anything more than basic analysis. A lot of the reverse engineers I know seemingly have deep platform knowledge and can do things like cite Win32 docs from memory.
- mmastrac 6y ago
  I was a reverse engineer for years and never was able to do anything like quoting docs. I'd be constantly googling or using reference material. The only real attribute I'd suggest is tenacity.
  - Graziano_M 6y ago
    Tenacity is everything. Both when looking at a particular problem, but also in sticking to RE in general for long enough to pick up the skills and tricks that make you quick. There are countless tricks you pick up that cleave off huge amounts of time that would otherwise be wasted.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  The number one way to get the patience to do this is to have impatience for software that is slow.
  - meibo 6y ago
    And with most RE software(especially the mentioned inaccessible interactive disassembling tool) you'll get that by default, waiting for a 70mb binary to analyze isn't fun :)
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      Fortunately, software engineers can be bad at making time value judgments ;)

waterheater 6y ago

Here's a good book on software reverse engineering (SRE): https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Reverse-Engineering-Reversing-Obfuscation/dp/1118787315 https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Reverse-Engineering-Reversi... It won't help you with PowerPC, but the chapter list is: x86 and x64, ARM, The Windows Kernel, Debugging and Automation, and Obfuscation. The book was written in 2014, so it should be reasonably relevant for modern purposes, and especially so if digging into any software older than 2014.