This article provides an in‑depth overview of the ELF file format, describing its headers, section and program tables, symbol structures, and demonstrates how to use this knowledge to locate and hook functions in Android native libraries such as libmedia.so.
This article presents a detailed overview of Android app security threats, the essential components of an Android project, the full APK build and decompilation process, and a range of reverse‑engineering tools and protection strategies—including Smali analysis, SO manipulation, and signing bypass—to help developers safeguard their applications against piracy and data tampering.
This article introduces the ELF file format used in Linux and Android, explains its three main types, compares it to Windows PE, and outlines how linkers and loaders interpret ELF headers, sections, and segments for native development and reverse engineering.
This article introduces the macOS vmmap utility, explains why a lightweight version was re‑implemented for iOS, and details the step‑by‑step code that obtains task handles, region data, dyld image information, formats and prints memory maps to aid reverse‑engineering on iOS devices.
This article examines the current Android security landscape, outlines the platform's security model, discusses program, data, and system vulnerabilities, analyzes a tampered APK case study, and presents comprehensive protection techniques such as obfuscation, shelling, and integrity verification.
This article explains the Lua 5.2 bytecode format, details each field of the Luac file header and function prototypes, and shows how to create a 010 Editor binary template to parse and edit Luac files for reverse‑engineering and security analysis.
This article examines why an inline hook created with Substrate on ARM Thumb crashes, detailing the hook mechanism, the offending PC‑relative ADR instruction, and the necessary instruction fixes to prevent control‑flow errors.
This article walks through extracting the hidden ID from Battle of Balls' short share URL, decoding the base64 parameters, and using the revealed ID to request dragon eggs (or lollipops) automatically with a Python script.
This article reverse‑engineers a single‑line JavaScript snippet that creates a 128‑byte ray‑tracing demo, explains how the code works, refactors it for readability, and analyses the underlying arithmetic and bitwise operations that produce the patterned output.
This article compiles a comprehensive list of 123 Python-based penetration testing tools, covering network utilities, debugging and reverse‑engineering frameworks, fuzzing platforms, web testing kits, forensic analysis utilities, malware analysis helpers, PDF inspection modules, miscellaneous libraries, recommended books, talks, and additional resources for security professionals.
This article walks through the reverse‑engineering of a compact JavaScript one‑liner that draws a patterned image, refactors it into readable modules, explains each transformation—including variable renaming, loop conversion, ternary expansion, bitwise operations, and switch‑case replacement—while illustrating the underlying math with graphs and code snippets.
This article presents a comprehensive list of Python-based tools covering network packet analysis, debugging, reverse engineering, fuzzing, web testing, forensics, malware analysis, PDF inspection, and various miscellaneous utilities useful for security professionals and researchers.
This article provides a step‑by‑step tutorial on setting up the development environment, installing essential tools, and performing APK reverse engineering and security analysis on Android applications, covering JDK, SDK, NDK, Apktool, Dex2jar, JD‑GUI, IDA, WinHex, and Eclipse.
This article outlines a systematic approach to onboarding and training new Site Reliability Engineers, covering trust building, readiness assessment, diverse learning methods, structured curricula, on‑call milestones, project‑focused work, reverse‑engineering skills, statistical thinking, and improvisation techniques to develop high‑performing SRE teams.
The article outlines common Android security vulnerabilities such as unprotected resources, easily decompiled Java and native code, and proposes protection measures like resource obfuscation, code encryption, native code hardening, and introduces the Qotector platform for APK analysis and reinforcement.
A programmer hired to fix a quirky questionnaire program on an old 3B2 machine discovers that the source code repeatedly reverts, the curses library is tampered, and ultimately a malicious compiler injects backdoor code, leading to a multi‑day forensic investigation and replacement of the toolchain.
This article dissects Qingting FM’s Android app, revealing how it spawns multiple background services, launches invisible activities, and uses hidden WebViews to fake daily active users and ad impressions, while providing step‑by‑step reverse‑engineering instructions for developers.
A user received a suspicious SMS with a malicious app link, prompting an analyst to download, decompile, and dissect the Android malware, revealing hidden Device Admin permissions, obfuscated code, DES-encrypted credentials, and the attacker’s email address, ultimately exposing how the trojan steals personal data.
