Empirical studies in reverse engineering: state of the art and future trends

Starting with the aim of modernizing legacy systems, often written in old programming languages, reverse engineering has extended its applicability to virtually every kind of software system. Moreover, the methods originally designed to recover a diagrammatic, high-level view of the target system have been extended to address several other problems faced by programmers when they need to understand and modify existing software. The authors’ position is that the next stage of development for this discipline will necessarily be based on empirical evaluation of methods. In fact, this evaluation is required to gain knowledge about the actual effects of applying a given approach, as well as to convince the end users of the positive cost–benefit trade offs. The contribution of this paper to the state of the art is a roadmap for the future research in the field, which includes: clarifying the scope of investigation, defining a reference taxonomy, and adopting a common framework for the execution of the experiments.     

Model-driven reverse engineering

Reverse engineering is the process of comprehending software and producing a model of it at a high abstraction level, suitable for documentation, maintenance, or reengineering. But from a manager's viewpoint, there are two painful problems: 1) It's difficult or impossible to predict how much time reverse engineering will require. 2) There are no standards to evaluate the quality of the reverse engineering that the maintenance staff performs. Model-driven reverse engineering can overcome these difficulties. A model is a high-level representation of some aspect of a software system. MDRE uses the features of modeling technology but applies them differently to address the maintenance manager's problems. Our approach to MDRE uses formal specification and automatic code generation to reverse the reverse-engineering process. Models written in a formal specification language called SLANG describe both the application domain and the program being reverse engineered, and interpretations annotate the connections between the two. The ability to generate a similar version of a program gives managers a fixed target for reverse engineering. This, in turn, enables better effort prediction and quality evaluation, reducing development risk.     

Query reverse engineering

In this paper, we introduce a new problem termed query reverse engineering (QRE). Given a database \(D\) and a result table \(T\) —the output of some known or unknown query \(Q\) on \(D\) —the goal of QRE is to reverse-engineer a query \(Q'\) such that the output of query \(Q'\) on database \(D\) (denoted by \(Q'(D)\) ) is equal to \(T\) (i.e., \(Q(D)\) ). The QRE problem has useful applications in database usability, data analysis, and data security. In this work, we propose a data-driven approach, TALOS for Tree-based classifier with At Least One Semantics, that is based on a novel dynamic data classification formulation and extend the approach to efficiently support the three key dimensions of the QRE problem: whether the input query is known/unknown, supporting different query fragments, and supporting multiple database versions.     

Integrated reverse engineering and rapid prototyping

Reverse engineering is a methodology for constructing CAD models of physical parts by digitizing an existing part, creating a computer model and then using it to manufacture the component. When a digitized part is to be manufactured by means of rapid prototyping machines such as stereolithography apparatus (SLA) and selective laser sintering equipments (SLS), etc., it is not necessary to construct the CAD model of a digitized part. This will be described by the proposed novel method which can construct STL file (the de facto file format for rapid prototyping machines) directly from digitized part data. Further more, the STL file can even be constructed in a way that significant data reduction can be achieved at the users' discretion.     

Recent trends in legal bibliographical documentation

We discuss the development of factual and bibliographical databases and database systems, including management systems and information retrieval systems. Special reference is made to the International Bibliography on Computers and Law, with respect to both the current situation and future plans. Rosa Maria Di Giorgi has, since 1982, been a researcher at the Instituto per la Documentazione Giuridica of Florence of the Italian National Research Council. She took her degree in Letters and Philosophy at the University of Florence in 1979 and has completed an advanced course in computer applications. Her research activity concentrates on legal informatics and on advanced automated legal documentary systems and advisory legal expert systems. She is an editor of Informatica e Dirrito and of the International Bibliography on Computers and the Law.     

Recent trends in flexible automated manufacturing

In recent years, an important change in developing and implementing manufacturing systems can be observed in all industrialized countries. Due to intense international competition and the growth of personnel costs, companies are forced to use systems with a higher level of automation. At the same time, an increasing number of product variation—caused by adapting the products to customer requirements—demand more flexibility of machine tools and manufacturing systems.Basic types of computer-controlled flexible automated manufacturing systems will be shown and characterized by their special ranges of application. A planning procedure is presented which includes selecting a suitable systems structure such as; transfer line or flexible manufacturing system or automated manufacturing cell, and for determinating every single machine tool within the system. Examples of several new computer-controlled manufacturing systems which have been planned by the above planning procedure are presented with special regard to the evaluation of the system's economic performance.Finally, some rules are given for measuring the economic performance of automated manufacturing or assembly systems including automation of the handling functions.     

The case for reverse engineering

It may seem hard to choose between two software products, but studying their databases can reveal a clear winner and save you years of grief. The most productive way to reverse engineer a database is to build a model that conveys the software's scope and intent. For a clean database, you'll most likely want to prepare a model; for a flawed and poorly documented database, it may be best to stop after studying the style and quality of the database structure. At OMT Associates, we generally construct models-usually expressed as Unified Modeling Language (UML) object models. We typically organize reverse engineering into three phases-implementation recovery, design recovery, and analysis recovery. Reverse engineering is more than just a process for studying databases; it has profound implications for software development in general. You might view the reverse engineering of vendor databases as a creative response to the so-called software crisis. The current approach of preaching methodology and discipline isn't working, Software quality and development productivity still badly lag behind our desires. Database reverse engineering gives us both a carrot and a stick. The flaws and excellence of various products become more obvious and more heavily influence product success and failure. For a large corporation, the cost of the evaluation (as little as a few person-weeks) is trivial compared to the millions spent buying and deploying new software     

Recent trends in image processing and pattern recognition

Multimedia Tools and Applications -     

On reverse engineering in the cognitive and brain sciences

Various research initiatives try to utilize the operational principles of organisms and brains to develop alternative, biologically inspired computing paradigms and artificial cognitive systems. This article reviews key features of the standard method applied to complexity in the cognitive and brain sciences, i.e. decompositional analysis or reverse engineering. The indisputable complexity of brain and mind raise the issue of whether they can be understood by applying the standard method. Actually, recent findings in the experimental and theoretical fields, question central assumptions and hypotheses made for reverse engineering. Using the modeling relation as analyzed by Robert Rosen, the scientific analysis method itself is made a subject of discussion. It is concluded that the fundamental assumption of cognitive science, i.e. complex cognitive systems can be analyzed, understood and duplicated by reverse engineering, must be abandoned. Implications for investigations of organisms and behavior as well as for engineering artificial cognitive systems are discussed.     

Recent trends of manufacturing technology in Japan

Japanese industries have advanced manufacturing technology for thorough rationalization of manufacturing processes. This paper describes the historical background which brought the advancement of the Japanese manufacturing technology and the present status of the manufacturing technology in the automotive industry and the precision industries which are the leading industries in Japan at present. The Kanban system of Toyota Motor Co., automatic assembly and inspection line for watch production developed by the Seiko group and automatic mask aligner of Canon Inc. are explained in more detail. As for automatic machining technology and the automatic material handling technology, the present status of the NC machine tools and the robots is described. With respect to the research and development for the future, the project research of Flexible Manufacturing System Complex Provided with Laser and the VLSI Technology Research Association are introduced.     

逆向工程发展现状研究

随着软件产业的发展,越来越多的遗产系统需要维护和改善,逆向工程已经成为遗产系统维护与演化的关键技术之一。介绍了逆向工程的定义,综述了逆向工程的研究进展。通过对现有工具的分析探讨了逆向工程研究中的不足之处,给出了未来的发展趋势。     

Technology-supported learning:status, issues and trends

Abstract  Higher education is facing a broad range of challenges upon entering the new millennium with shifts in technology, paradigms and resources for learning. In response to these challenges, teachers are broadening their range of instructional methods. One area that is seeing increased attention is the provision of instructional support for 'self-accessed' learning. This paper examines the status, issues and trends of multimedia instructional support. Examples associated with the development of CD-ROMs and interactive web sites are presented to illustrate important considerations for such development. It is hoped that these considerations will result in greater educational support for individualised learning.     

加密通信协议的一种逆向分析方法

研究未知通信协议逆向解析技术在网络安全中具有重要意义,现有方法局限于分析明文的通信协议。基于此,提出一种基于动态污点分析的加密通信协议逆向分析方法,以动态二进制插桩平台Pin为支撑,跟踪记录程序的指令轨迹,采用数据流分析构建指令级和函数级的污点传播流图,再根据解密过程的特征定位数据包解密后的明文,最后解析协议明文的格式。实验表明,该方法能够准确定位加密协议数据解密后的明文,还原加密协议原有的格式。