Modern Exploits - Do You Still Need To Learn Assembly Language?


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Modern Exploits - Do You Still Need To Learn Assembly Language?

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Source: DarkNet - Posted by Bill Keys

This is a fairly interesting subject I think as a lot of people still ask me if they are entering the security field if they still need to learn Assembly Language or not? For those that aren’t what it is, it’s pretty much the lowest level programming languages computers understand without resorting to simply 1’s and 0’s. This article asks the question do security experts still need to learn assembly programming? What do you think?

Read this full article at DarkNet

Comments

ASM fundamentals

Written by Armin Costa on 2008-09-25 09:27:04

Of course a basic knowledge in assembly is required to gather insight in security issues. At least one should know how higher level code is translated into assembly and vice versa.
Happy :Day

Fluency in low-level languages.

Written by /. on 2008-09-27 13:08:02

Yes. As cliche as it may be I will quote Ken Thompson. "The moral is obvious. You can't trust code that you did not totally create yourself. No amount of source-level verification or scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code. In demonstrating the possibility of this kind of attack, I picked on the C compiler. I could have picked on any program-handling program such as an assembler, a loader, or even hardware microcode. As the level of program gets lower, these bugs will be harder and harder to detect. A well installed microcode bug will be almost impossible to detect." An expert in security should not only be fluent in low level languages, but binary as well. When much of the open-source software is being viewed, compiled, and re-distributed by Russia and China, an in-depth examination of any application you did not create is imperative to security. Paranoid? Probably, but compromising is never an option.

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