Learning reverse engineering can be a daunting task, but with the right tools and resources, you can make significant progress. Here are some of the best tools recommended by Redditors for beginner reverse engineers:

Essential Tools for Reverse Engineering

Disassemblers and Decompilers

• Ghidra: A free, open-source reverse engineering tool suite developed by the NSA. It includes a decompiler that can convert machine code back into a high-level language like C. "Get ghidra. Go to github and find a project on the platform you want to target like windows/linux/osx. Build the project and load the bin into ghidra and work on understanding and documenting the bin."

• IDA Pro: A commercial disassembler and debugger that is widely used in the industry. It offers extensive features for analyzing binaries. "Learn c and use ghidra or ida to get decompiled code in C"

Debuggers

• x64dbg/x32dbg: Free and powerful debuggers for Windows. They support both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. "Debugger: x64dbg/x32dbg - Free, powerful, slightly esoteric at first and hard on the eyes. Watch some tutorials."

• WinDbg: A debugger from Microsoft that is often used for kernel-level debugging on Windows. "I’ve spent some time in WinDbg or IDA but that is not a core skill and I would like to strengthen that a bit to go work towards fuzzing and vulnerability research."

Binary Instrumentation Tools

• Frida: A dynamic code instrumentation toolkit that allows you to inject JavaScript snippets into native apps on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and QNX. "Binary Instrumentation: Frida - Python and JavaScript API's. I use this literally all the time to trace functions, to output parameters passed to them as well as return values."

Memory Scanners

• Cheat Engine: A free and open-source memory scanner, debugger, and disassembler. It is often used for creating cheats for video games but can be a great tool for learning memory manipulation. "Memory Scanning: Cheat engine - Free, comprehensive and the most user friendly memory scanner I've yet to find. Especially for beginners."

Learning Resources

Online Courses and Tutorials

• Pwn.college: A free and comprehensive platform for learning cybersecurity, including reverse engineering. "Pwn.college is free, fun and challenging"

• Guided Hacking: A good starting point for learning reverse engineering, especially for game hacking. "This forum a good starting point: guidedhacking.com"

• 0xinfection.github.io/reversing: A basic tutorial that should give you an idea of how reverse engineering works. "Here is a tutorial, it's pretty basic, but should get you an idea of how it works."

Books and Blogs

• "Practical Reverse Engineering": A highly recommended book for understanding the theoretical aspects of reverse engineering. "I’d really recommend „Practical Reverse Engineering” book. That is for theory."

• "From Day Zero to Zero Day": A great book for learning about low-level attacks and reverse engineering. "I am currently reading from day zero to zeroday book and it is great"

Practice and Challenges

Crackmes and CTFs

• Crackmes: Small programs designed to be reverse engineered. They are a good way to practice your skills. "Do crackmes, follow tutorials, read stuff even if you dont understand it yet."

• CTFs (Capture The Flag): Competitive cybersecurity challenges that often include reverse engineering tasks. "hackthebox Reversing challenges (and similar) might be a path to start with easy and work your way up."

Real-World Practice

• Game Decompilation: A fun way to get practical experience by recreating the original C source code from assembly. "Its hard to get practical experience in reverse engineering but a fun thing i do recently is game decompilation."

• Reversing Your Own Programs: Write simple programs in C or C++ and then reverse engineer them to understand how they work at a low level. "Write code in C, now you have to debug it because your code sucks - switch to the assembly view in the debugger and look around."

Additional Tips

• Learn Assembly and C/C++: A strong understanding of these languages is crucial for reverse engineering. "Learn assembly and C/C++. Create simple programs and start reverse engineering them to gain a good understanding of the basics."

• Use Compiler Explorer: This tool allows you to see the assembly output of your C/C++ code in real-time. "you can use a compiler explorer for that"

• Practice Regularly: Consistency is key. Keep practicing with crackmes, CTFs, and real-world examples. "It sounds stupid, but to get good at something you need to start doing it and then don’t quit."

Subreddits for Further Questions

• r/ExploitDev

• r/HowToHack

• r/AskReverseEngineering

• r/ReverseEngineering

These communities are great places to ask for help, share your progress, and find more resources. Good luck on your reverse engineering journey!