Static Analysis

Static analysis is the subset of reverse engineering that involves examining code or binaries without execution. Objectives:

  • Map control flow and logic
  • Identify potential vulnerabilities (e.g., buffer overflows, unsafe function calls)
  • Interpret disassembled or decompiled output
  • Extract strings, symbols and data structures

Examples

  • Using IDA Pro for disassembly and decompilation
  • Running otool to inspect Mach-O headers
  • Employing class-dump to view Objective-C class structures