Disassembly

Disassembly converts a compiled binary’s machine code into assembly instructions. It preserves low-level detail and is essential for instruction-level analysis…. Translating raw opcodes into assembly mnemonics, registers, and constants.

Uses:

  • Vulnerability research (ROP gadgets, calling conventions)
  • exploit dev
  • Bit-level and flag behavior analysis

Workflow (?)

  1. Input: Binary executable or library
  2. Engine: Opcode decoder + CPU architecture spec
  3. Output: Linear or graph-based assembly listing
  4. Analyst effort: Requires assembly knowledge

Output example 

0x401000 <main>:
    push   rbp
    mov    rbp, rsp
    sub    rsp, 0x20
    mov    DWORD PTR [rbp-0x4], 0

Pros & cons

Aspect Pros Cons
Accuracy Exact translation of bytes Low readability without expertise
Detail Shows flags, registers, ops No high-level constructs
Automation Deterministic, fast Limited context inference

Tools

  • OSS: radare2, objdump
  • Commercial: IDA Pro Disassembler

See tools section.