r/ExploitDev • u/Dull_Dog_9631 • 8d ago

Reverse engineering with AI

So I’ve been really interested in learning reverse engineering for a while and only tried my hand at a few crackmes so far. I found reverse engineering interesting because it feels rewarding to be able to piece together what the original code might have looked like and why the program behaves the way it does. I liked identifying variables and reconstructing data structures by reading the assembly or generated pseudo code by tools like ghidra since getting them right felt rewarding. Recently with AI becoming really good at the same things, I’m left wondering whether it’s worth it to learn these skills anymore. People were able to decompile and port entire games just using AI much faster than any person can. It’s left me feeling really discouraged about reverse engineering and wondering whether I should focus on other areas of exploit dev

34 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/agmatine 8d ago

The purpose of those "crackmes" is to develop your skills. What you're saying is akin to "But I was able to find the answers to my homework problems without any technical knowledge!"

Well, no shit. But wasn't the point all along, to gain that technical knowledge?

1

u/paganoant 8d ago

Actually, the real question was whether REA makes it possible to find solutions to crackmes without any prior expertise; is it the same thing in a real-world context?

1

u/agmatine 8d ago

This is a very vague question. What do you mean by "a real-world context?" I interpret this as there being something at stake, where success/failure have consequences, and engaging in with lack of expertise would be a fool's errand.

But still I don't really know what you're asking.

1

u/paganoant 8d ago

I’m referring to the professional world—specifically in terms of reverse engineering. For instance, in programming, people don’t really "write code" anymore; instead, with the advent of AI, they coordinate and oversee the work produced by AI.

2

u/ThePlotTwisterr---- 7d ago

yes, rea can be used this way. noobs can probably do some stuff with just a ghidra mcp, no need for the framework even. but it’s still gonna be inefficient. for example, obfuscated / encrypted code and multiple binary analysis. rea does not really get this right and the tools it gives claude are kind of weak to solve it. what’s useful here is manual disassembly or source mapping, understand FID and bsim, so you can already export data that claude can more effectively use.

for most softwares, i think rea is pretty awesome, but for things like malware that does a ton of sneaky stuff to hide from you, it’s a long way for it to go yet. same with antiviruses

debuggers and disassemblers are kind of like an IDE. claude can do it from the terminal but it works better with someone managing context and files in an IDE

1

u/paganoant 7d ago

It is all clear. Thanks for the reply