- Published on
Reverse Engineer Anything Project Brings AI Agents to Binary Analysis
- Authors
- Name
- DeepHorus
Reverse Engineer Anything (REA) is an open-source project with over 200,000 GitHub stars. It connects AI coding agents like Claude Code and Codex to reverse-engineering tools such as Ghidra, Hopper, and IDA. Released under the MIT license, it runs locally and does not recover original source code.
REA uses MCP servers to expose these tools to agents. Agents can query disassemblers, inspect functions, trace behavior, and test hypotheses against binaries. It also supports static analysis of JavaScript, Electron, and .NET assemblies. JavaScript and .NET inspection can run without a native analysis engine.
GitHub showcases show REA tracing Notion’s Electron clipboard. It reconstructed DX-Ball’s sound-panning function, matching all 3,205 x86 cases and 63 compiled bytes. It recovered bullet-ring angle calculations from Touhou 4’s 16-bit DOS code.
The tool raises concerns about copying games, bypassing paid features, and commercial exploitation. On Reddit, independent developers expressed these fears. REA’s MIT license permits legitimate research, but users must obtain authorization and comply with laws. The project supports legitimate reverse engineering, research, analysis, and reconstruction.
On Hacker News, some question REA’s value beyond asking an AI agent to use Ghidra. Others report better results than previous attempts. User revelationnow warns it may accelerate big tech moving apps to the cloud, cutting off reverse engineering if no binaries exist. Sreekanth Pannala, AMD director, notes a shift from software to hardware dominance.
Cleverson Santos calls the boundary murky, observing tools meant to help can be used against users. The author, handle morluto, also published Awesome Reverse Engineering, a list of tools and resources. REA signals growing integration of AI agents into binary analysis, potentially reshaping reverse engineering.
