2025 01 13

    Looks like I’ve already broken my promise. The server went kapoot so I didn’t have much time to spare. Also doesn’t help that my life isn’t too exciting anyways. Hopefully starting now I can keep an upload rate of 2/week at least.
    I am starting to get the hang of Z3. I still have much to learn enough for practical use in reverse engineering, but I am sure (cope) that it will happen. The guide I followed explained enough that I understand the inner workings superficially. It being a symbolic variable reminds me of how Java handles data. Now I need to practice using it in x86, as well as familiarize myself with simplifiying all machine arithmetic to properly evaluate. I wouldn’t want a solvable chall to return an unsat. For example, I wonder if branching & looping complicates the problem to becoming unsat, & if I need to linearize the process I am trying to evaluate. This tool also feels like a very handy aid in proofs classes, & am definitely looking forward to abusing this (I will still write the proofs myself though, will merely use z3 to validate my answers. Besides, who knows if I am proficient enough to employ it in such scenarios). Furthermore, I wonder if I will be able to integrate this with sage in the future. How powerful will that be.
    I’ve continued learning malware analysis, & boy this rabbit hole seems deep. I’ve continued from setting up my test environments & into my first detonation. Systems really are complex, & investigating how malware interacts with systems is quite laborous work. It is still very much fun though. It does feel slightly different to all the RE I’ve done thus far, but nothing too shocking. Those sentiments mostly stem from the surplus of new tools, however. The static analysis portion which I currently am learning through is pretty much spot on nature wise with that I’ve done. Viewing hex dumps, extracting strings, etc. is still familiar territory. But as always, the fundamentals are critical. I am definitely looking forward to learning new techniques in dynamic analysis, as I reckon there will be some novelty exclusive to malware analysis. Inspecting how the malware interacts with networks seems interesting too.
    I’ve finished Mayu’s route recently. It was good, but nothing to write home about. The researcher & secret agent dynamic was interesting, though how that relationship progressed leaves much to be desired. Much of the appeal must also be credited to Mayu, who was a great heroine. The childhood cliche definitely felt suffocating (I literally just finished hoshimemo, sorry), but I found a novel appreciation of the “no regrets” facet. I strangely found myself empathetic towards it. However, I felt that the writers pushed that motive excessively, causing the end to be rushed. Kotori’s circumstance definitely felt like deus ex machina although the explanation was sound. On a final note regarding Mayu’s route: Mayu+glasses=peak. With that done & over with, I am now currently reading through Chisaki’s route. So far it feels like a sweet & wholesome, or as I like to call it, diabetic, route. But I enjoy that, to an almost frightening degree. Fuck denpa & depression. I wish the writer would not suddenly turn her dumb to force progression though, given it feels very inconsistent to her established persona everywhere else. As it stands, it is very enjoyable, & am expecting the high quality diabetes to keep coming.