A Cognitive Approach to Improving Binary Reverse Engineering with Immersive Virtual Reality

TL;DR

This paper explores how immersive virtual reality can enhance binary reverse engineering by applying embodied cognition principles, offering new affordances for analyzing complex binary programs.

Contribution

It introduces a structured cognitive approach to mapping reverse engineering tasks onto VR affordances, advancing the use of VR in analytical problem-solving.

Findings

VR system facilitates discovery of binary features

Practitioner feedback informs system development

Preparing for effectiveness evaluation study

Abstract

Through its affordances, immersive virtual reality (VR) offers a means to apply embodied and external cognition from the physical realm to solving analytical problems that are typically only conceptual. We present an example of executing a structured analysis following the tenets of cognitive systems engineering to derive immersive affordances applicable to a difficult analytical problem, in our case, reverse engineering (RE) binary programs. We conducted a basic cognitive task analysis of the problem to reveal features of its cognitive model and their associated fundamental cognitive phenomena, and then we mapped those concepts to immersive affordances associated with those concepts. We implemented a subset of those affordances in a VR system facilitating discovery of features of a binary program. Feedback from RE practitioners drove the initial development of the system and we are preparing for a formal effectiveness study to inform the direction of future research.