Hello word! I'm sorrow a new user, i'm new in reversing but i can program in C and a bit in Perl. I'd like to start with the reversing...but...which are the
Prerequisites? have i to know asm? plz tell me ALL the prerequisites to start
Thanks a lot!

P.S. I'm not english so maybe i writ wrong, plz correct if so!

Hi Sorrow. Welcome to the board.
The single most important prerequisite is will and patience to learn. It will not happen in a day, and you will have to take it one step at a time.

About ASM: You need to be able to read and understand asm, learn the concept of CPU registers memory addresses. You at least initially don't have to know how to write code in ASM, just one or two instructions

You will have to familiarize yourself with the tools, starting with a a debugger, and a disassembler.

Learn how to search for tutorials, Tuts4you and Krobar's are good repositories for newbies. Lena's video tuts are very well explained.

There are several good collections of tutorials available in the links at the bottom of these Forums also.

The second most important skill set is learning how to search for information you are interested in finding. You will find an entire website devoted to that skill created by the original creator of these Forums, +Fravia, also linked at the bottom of these Forums, it is called "Searchlores."

Good luck and happy reversing.

Regards,

There is always my site for video tutorials.
http://video.reverse-engineering.net

Now with over 200 videos including Lena's and my own.

Videos are really good for starters, since they directly show where to click and what to do, showing you reversing habits that are not always described in paper tutorials.

TiGa

I keep two reference books beside my computer for reversing. One is the Microsoft Assembler reference for assembler instructions/opcodes (I actually bought MASM before it became freely available on the net) and it has a good ASCII chart in the book. You'll need that at times. The other is a book I picked up in a discount technical book store. It's called the Win32 Programming API Bible, and although it's aimed at Win 95, most of the functions covered are still apllicable today. It explains most of the functions you'll ever encounter while reversing.

Get a debugger and a disassembler, load a program and start tracing. When you find an instruction you don't understand, or a function, like MessageBoxA, use the reference books to help you understand. If you don't find it in the books, you have that huge reference called the internet.

Oh...and don't forget to read the FAQ at the bottom of the page.

ok thank you! I'll start soon! Are GA useful for reversing? and another thing..could you gimme the name of some good debugger and reverser's tools?
thank you

Sorrow:

We have a new Library associated with these Forums which your should become familiar with. It's called the "Collaborative RCE Tool Library" and it will identify many of the potential and useful tools for you. We also have a Forum called "Tools of the Trade" where such tools, and their use are discussed.

Now it's time for you to stop asking to be spoon feed all the "useful" information you, yourself, should acquire by actually "spending the time" actually reading some of the information available on these Forums. If you actually do that, YOU will find the answers to the questions you have posed and actually DOING the research, yourself, is part of that "patience and determination to learn" which was mentioned to you by nadies, in that first response to your original post.

This is not a kindergarden, where someone takes you by the hand and leads you down the path to becoming a reverser. Start reading, and/or watching, some of the tuts you have been directed to examine and "pay attention" to the tools they are using to do the actual work of reversing.

In "other words," stop asking people to feed you and go out there and start getting your own "food."

Regards,

Welcome and hope you are here for a long stay.

... and hoping you don't get easily discouraged.

Have Phun

Alternatively, if you're not a fan of physical books and would prefer to use the most up-to-date references, you can use http://msdn.microsoft.com for looking up API functions.