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Autos, Alcohol, Blood, Sweat, & Creative Reversing Obfuscated Car Modding Tool

Atlas

Creative reverse engineering techniques used to defeat layered anti-debugging, packing, and code obfuscation in automotive tuning software.

Summary

The Challenges of Heavily Obfuscated Code

reversing can feel uber powerful... like you hold God's honest truth within your hands... most humans don't understand what you can see and comprehend.

Analyzing Protective Layers in Tuning Software

until someone tries to hide the truth from you... limit your knowledge... keep you from your glorious purpose!

Creative Deobfuscation and Unpacking

obfuscated code can be a real downer.

this talk focuses on the story of how i took on an interesting obfuscated target (an automotive modder's tool with ability to flash firmware and tweak engines), in fun and exciting ways.

we'll discuss several problems with obfuscated code, an approach i took (and tooling), playing in the guts of machine code, and customizations to binary analysis tools that came out of the journey...

there will be much hex, disassembly, green on black, total carnage.

you will walk away with powerful ideas and new tools to help you in your pursuit of truth. you will be entertained, enriched, educated, and hopefully inspired. instead of thinking that "atlas is smart" my goal is you feeling, and being, more powerful.

come with Vivisect installed to follow along!

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Main Stage·14 min

  • DEF CON
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  • Date: Aug 2025
  • Location: Las Vegas

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