Systematization of Knowledge: How "unreadable" code can be made "readable"

What is it about?

Executable code can be analysed and a human-readable form can be created. Developers sometime want to prevent this and thus obfuscate code, making it unreadable. Reason include protecting their IPRs or authors of malware want anti-virus engines to not detect the functions of their malware. Deobfuscation strives to make obfuscated code readable again.

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Why is it important?

This work is important to understand how obfuscated code can be analysed. In particular virtual machines can be effectively used to obfuscate code.