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reAnalyst : scalable annotation of reverse engineering activities☆

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Abstract
This paper introduces reAnalyst, a framework designed to facilitate the study of reverse engineering (RE) practices through the semi-automated annotation of RE activities across various RE tools. By integrating tool-agnostic data collection of screenshots, keystrokes, active processes, and other types of data during RE experiments with semi-automated data analysis and generation of annotations, reAnalyst aims to overcome the limitations of traditional RE studies that rely heavily on manual data collection and subjective analysis. The framework enables more efficient data analysis, which will in turn allow researchers to explore the effectiveness of protection techniques and strategies used by reverse engineers more comprehensively and efficiently. Experimental evaluations validate the framework's capability to identify RE activities from a diverse range of screenshots with varied complexities. Observations on past experiments with our framework as well as a survey among reverse engineers provide further evidence of the acceptability and practicality of our approach.
Keywords
SOURCE CODE OBFUSCATION, Reverse engineering tools, Software protection, Man-at-the-end attacks, Empirical studies, Analysis tools, Image analysis

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Citation

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MLA
Zhang, Tab, et al. “ReAnalyst : Scalable Annotation of Reverse Engineering Activities☆.” JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE, vol. 229, 2025, doi:10.1016/j.jss.2025.112492.
APA
Zhang, T., Taylor, C., Coppens, B., Mebane, W., Collberg, C., & De Sutter, B. (2025). reAnalyst : scalable annotation of reverse engineering activities☆. JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE, 229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112492
Chicago author-date
Zhang, Tab, Claire Taylor, Bart Coppens, Waleed Mebane, Christian Collberg, and Bjorn De Sutter. 2025. “ReAnalyst : Scalable Annotation of Reverse Engineering Activities☆.” JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE 229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112492.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Zhang, Tab, Claire Taylor, Bart Coppens, Waleed Mebane, Christian Collberg, and Bjorn De Sutter. 2025. “ReAnalyst : Scalable Annotation of Reverse Engineering Activities☆.” JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE 229. doi:10.1016/j.jss.2025.112492.
Vancouver
1.
Zhang T, Taylor C, Coppens B, Mebane W, Collberg C, De Sutter B. reAnalyst : scalable annotation of reverse engineering activities☆. JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE. 2025;229.
IEEE
[1]
T. Zhang, C. Taylor, B. Coppens, W. Mebane, C. Collberg, and B. De Sutter, “reAnalyst : scalable annotation of reverse engineering activities☆,” JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE, vol. 229, 2025.
@article{01KBPZ8B4F66DKZBF45C9982Y8,
  abstract     = {{This paper introduces reAnalyst, a framework designed to facilitate the study of reverse engineering (RE) practices through the semi-automated annotation of RE activities across various RE tools. By integrating tool-agnostic data collection of screenshots, keystrokes, active processes, and other types of data during RE experiments with semi-automated data analysis and generation of annotations, reAnalyst aims to overcome the limitations of traditional RE studies that rely heavily on manual data collection and subjective analysis. The framework enables more efficient data analysis, which will in turn allow researchers to explore the effectiveness of protection techniques and strategies used by reverse engineers more comprehensively and efficiently. Experimental evaluations validate the framework's capability to identify RE activities from a diverse range of screenshots with varied complexities. Observations on past experiments with our framework as well as a survey among reverse engineers provide further evidence of the acceptability and practicality of our approach.}},
  articleno    = {{112492}},
  author       = {{Zhang, Tab and Taylor, Claire and Coppens, Bart and Mebane, Waleed and Collberg, Christian and De Sutter, Bjorn}},
  issn         = {{0164-1212}},
  journal      = {{JOURNAL OF SYSTEMS AND SOFTWARE}},
  keywords     = {{SOURCE CODE OBFUSCATION,Reverse engineering tools,Software protection,Man-at-the-end attacks,Empirical studies,Analysis tools,Image analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{17}},
  title        = {{reAnalyst : scalable annotation of reverse engineering activities☆}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112492}},
  volume       = {{229}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

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