20 Facts About Reverse engineering

Reverse engineering is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accomplishes a task with very little insight into exactly how it does so.

Reverse engineering is applicable in the fields of computer engineering, mechanical engineering, design, electronic engineering, software engineering, chemical engineering, and systems biology.

Reverse engineering has its origins in the analysis of hardware for commercial or military advantage.

Software reverse engineering can help to improve the understanding of the underlying source code for the maintenance and improvement of the software, relevant information can be extracted to make a decision for software development and graphical representations of the code can provide alternate views regarding the source code, which can help to detect and fix a software bug or vulnerability.

Reverse engineering can help to detect and to eliminate a malicious code written to the software with better code detectors.

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Reverse engineering is being used in cryptanalysis to find vulnerabilities in substitution cipher, symmetric-key algorithm or public-key cryptography.

Reverse engineering is used by businesses to bring existing physical geometry into digital product development environments, to make a digital 3D record of their own products, or to assess competitors' products.

Value Reverse engineering, a related activity that is used by businesses, involves deconstructing and analyzing products.

Reverse engineering of printed circuit boards involves recreating fabrication data for a particular circuit board.

Reverse engineering is a process of examination only, and the software system under consideration is not modified, which would otherwise be re-engineering or restructuring.

Reverse engineering can be performed from any stage of the product cycle, not necessarily from the functional end product.

The Working Conference on Reverse Engineering has been held yearly to explore and expand the techniques of reverse engineering.

Software anti-tamper technology like obfuscation is used to deter both reverse engineering and re-engineering of proprietary software and software-powered systems.

Binary reverse engineering is performed if source code for a software is unavailable.

One famous case of reverse engineering was the first non-IBM implementation of the PC BIOS, which launched the historic IBM PC compatible industry that has been the overwhelmingly-dominant computer hardware platform for many years.

Reverse engineering is an invasive and destructive form of analyzing a smart card.

Reverse engineering is often used by people to copy other nations' technologies, devices, or information that have been obtained by regular troops in the fields or by intelligence operations.

Reverse engineering concepts have been applied to biology as well, specifically to the task of understanding the structure and function of gene regulatory networks.

Reverse engineering applies primarily to gaining understanding of a process or artifact in which the manner of its construction, use, or internal processes has not been made clear by its creator.

Indeed, one common motivation of reverse engineering is to determine whether a competitor's product contains patent infringement or copyright infringement.