Reverse Engineer Anything Project Brings AI Agents to Binary Analysis

Reverse Engineer Anything (REA) is an open-source project with over 200K GitHub stars that connects coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex to reverse-engineering tools like Ghidra, Hopper, and IDA. The project lets developers inspect compiled binaries, trace function calls, and investigate how applications implement specific features.

REA uses MCP servers to expose reverse-engineering tools to agents, which can query disassemblers, inspect functions and cross-references, trace program behavior, and iteratively test hypotheses against the binary. The tool also supports static analysis of JavaScript and Electron applications and .NET assemblies, using the results to guide further investigation. REA runs locally and does not claim to recover the original source code.

Source: REA project on GitHub

The showcases on GitHub demonstrate how REA can trace Notion’s Electron clipboard implementation, reconstruct a sound-panning function from the classic game DX-Ball with tests matching all 3205 original x86 cases and all 63 compiled function bytes, and recover bullet-ring angle calculations from the 16-bit code of the DOS game Touhou 4.

On Hacker News, some practitioners question what the project adds beyond asking an AI coding agent to install and use Ghidra, an open source tool developed by the NSA to analyze compiled programs. Others report better results than in their previous attempts to use reverse-engineering tools through an AI agent. Hacker News user revelationnow writes instead:

I feel this is going to accelerate big tech moving apps to the cloud, at least one channel of reverse engineering will be cut off if there are no binaries.

REA is not limited to Ghidra: it also supports Hopper, a native macOS disassembler and reverse-engineering tool, and IDA, a disassembler and debugger for analyzing executable code across multiple processor architectures and platforms. JavaScript and .NET inspection can run without a native analysis engine.

On Reddit, some independent developers fear that AI-assisted reverse engineering could make it easier to copy their games and applications, bypass paid features, and exploit their work commercially without permission. Others discuss which hardware they would like to reverse engineer and what they might build with the results. Sreekanth Pannala, director at AMD, notes:

What a difference a decade makes! We’ve gone from an era when software was king and hardware was a commodity to one where hardware is king and proprietary software is becoming increasingly replaceable.

Released under the permissive MIT license, REA supports legitimate reverse engineering, research, analysis, and reconstruction. Users are responsible for obtaining the necessary authorization and complying with applicable laws. Cleverson Santos, creator of the Persistent Intelligence Project, warns on LinkedIn:

That is a murky boundary! I don't view crossing those lines favorably—and this is just the beginning; everything created to help human beings ends up being used against them in some way! I hope I’m not being too extreme, and this isn't a criticism—just an observation regarding the limits of what should or shouldn't be crossed.

The author, who uses the handle morluto and whose real name has not been publicly identified, also published Awesome Reverse Engineering, a list of reverse-engineering tools and learning resources covering binaries, apps, firmware, file formats, and protocols.