Sometimes, the best way to advance is in reverse If you want to know how something works, you take it apart very carefully. That's exactly what this book shows youhow to deconstruct software in a way that reveals design and implementation details, sometimes even source code. Why? Because reversing reveals weak spots, so you can target your security efforts. Because you can reverse-engineer malicious code in order to neutralize it. Because understanding what makes a program work lets you build a better one. You'll learn how here.

Learn to read compiler-generated assembly language code for IA-32 compatible processors

Decipher an undocumented file format or network protocol

Understand when reverse engineering is legal, and whenand whyit may not be

See how hackers use reversing to defeat copy protection technology

Find out how to pull the plug on malicious code

Determine how to prevent others from reversing your code, and find out how effective such steps can be

Explore reverse engineering on the .NET platform and its assembly language, MSIL

Observe the dissection of a real-world malicious program and see how the attacker used it to control infected systems