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Autonomous Reverse Engineering Engine & Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server in Systems Rust

Reverse engineer anything with agents, from app behavior down to native binaries.
A lightweight, zero-dependency, memory-safe native CLI and Model Context Protocol server that gives AI coding agents (Claude Code, Hermes Agent, Cursor, Codex) deep analytical capabilities over closed binaries, desktop packages, and live memory.

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📌 Overview

Traditional reverse-engineering integrations rely on slow, multi-gigabyte runtime environments (Node.js wrappers, JVM-based Ghidra installations, or Python scripts). rev-core changes this paradigm by delivering an ultra-fast, zero-overhead systems engine in pure Rust:

1. Sub-Millisecond Agent Latency (< 2ms): Responds immediately over standard I/O via the Model Context Protocol (MCP) without spawning heavy runtime processes.
2. Anti-Hallucination Evidence Ledger: Replaces speculative LLM guesses with deterministic SHA-256 cryptographic provenance records and explicit Residual Unknowns.
3. Multi-Format Polyglot Coverage: Native zero-copy parsing for Linux ELF, Windows PE, Apple Mach-O / Universal FAT, WebAssembly (WASM), and Electron Chromium ASAR archives.
4. Live Memory Forensics: Scans /proc/[pid]/maps to reconstruct process memory layouts and flag dangerous writable-and-executable (rwx) pages.

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🏗️ System Architecture

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        AGENT & OPERATOR CLIENTS                        │
│   Claude Code  ·  Hermes Agent  ·  Cursor  ·  Codex  ·  CLI Terminal   │
└───────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │ stdio / JSON-RPC 2.0
                                    ▼
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   MODEL CONTEXT PROTOCOL (MCP) SERVER                  │
│  - inspect_binary         - inspect_mitigations    - disassemble_slice │
│  - generate_cfg           - analyze_entropy        - scan_crypto       │
│  - scan_electron          - inspect_wasm           - decompile_symbol  │
│  - inspect_process_maps   - get_evidence_ledger    - tokio stdio loop  │
└───────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │
┌───────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    EVIDENCE & INTEGRITY LEDGER                         │
│  - Deterministic SHA-256 hashing (RFC 8785 canonical data payloads)    │
│  - Residual Unknown Registry (tracks unverified targets & gaps)        │
└───────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    │
  ┌───────────────┬─────────────────┼─────────────────┬───────────────┐
  ▼               ▼                 ▼                 ▼               ▼
┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐
│ NATIVE BINARY │ │ CONTROL FLOW  │ │ CRYPTO/ENTROPY│ │ APPLICATION │ │ LIVE PROCESS  │
│ - ELF (Linux) │ │ - Leaders     │ │ - Shannon H(X)│ │ - ASAR unpack│ │ - /proc/maps  │
│ - PE (Windows)│ │ - Basic Blocks│ │ - AES/SHA/MD5 │ │ - Electron  │ │ - RWX scanner │
│ - Mach-O (Mac)│ │ - Mermaid/Tree│ │ - Magic tables│ │   IPC audit │ │ - Drift check │
└───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └───────────────┘

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⚡ Core Capabilities

1. Zero-Copy Native Binary Engine

• Linux ELF: Headers, class (32/64-bit), endianness, machine architecture, segment/section tables, and DT_NEEDED library dependencies.
• Windows PE: Machine architecture, entrypoint, section count, Windows subsystem, and imported DLL dependencies.
• Apple Mach-O: 64-bit Mach-O and Universal FAT archives supporting x86_64 and Apple Silicon (arm64), segment load commands, and LC_CODE_SIGNATURE verification.
• Security Mitigation Scanner:
  • NX / DEP: Verified via PT_GNU_STACK executable flag bitmask.
  • PIE: Position-independent executable verification (ET_DYN vs ET_EXEC).
  • RELRO: Differentiates Full RELRO (PT_GNU_RELRO + DT_BIND_NOW), Partial RELRO, and No RELRO.
  • Stack Canaries: Probes dynamic and static symbol tables for __stack_chk_fail.
  • macOS Protections: Hardened Runtime, restricted segment attributes, and library validation.
  • Windows Protections: ASLR (DYNAMIC_BASE), DEP (NX_COMPAT), Control Flow Guard (CFG), and SEH.

2. In-Process Multi-Architecture Disassembly & CFG Engine

• Instruction Decoder: Decodes raw machine code into Intel assembly with hex opcodes across x86_64, ARM64 / AArch64, and RISC-V.
• Recursive Descent Control Flow Graphs: Partitions linear instructions into interconnected basic blocks based on leaders and jump/call branch targets.
• Mermaid & ASCII Export: Emits visual flowcharts (graph TD) directly into markdown, Cursor, or terminal displays.
• Cyclomatic Complexity: Calculates McCabe complexity ($M = E - N + 2P$) per code region.

3. Cryptographic & Entropy Intelligence

• Shannon Entropy ($H(X) = -\sum P(x) \log_2 P(x)$): Scans file bytes to instantly detect packed, obfuscated, or encrypted payloads (>7.2 score).
• Cryptographic Constant Matcher: Pattern-matches hardware and software crypto constants:
  • AES forward & inverted Rijndael S-Boxes
  • ChaCha20 quarter-round state ("expand 32-byte k")
  • SHA-256 round constant sequence ($K_0..K_3$)
  • MD5 state buffer initialization words ($A, B, C, D$)

4. Pure-Rust Electron & ASAR Unpacker

• Zero Node/npm runtime dependency Chromium Pickle and ASAR archive reader.
• Scans extracted Electron applications for IPC channels (ipcRenderer.send, ipcRenderer.invoke, ipcMain.handle, contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld).
• Audits webPreferences vulnerability risks (nodeIntegration: true, contextIsolation: false, webSecurity: false).

5. WebAssembly (WASM) Diagnostics

• Pure-Rust LEB128 decoder parsing standard WebAssembly (\0asm) modules.
• Extracts initial/maximum linear memory page allocations, declared functions, and exported/imported API signatures.

6. Live Process Virtual Memory Forensics

• Reconstructs virtual memory space from /proc/[pid]/maps.
• Pinpoints dangerous Writable + Executable (rwx) memory pages to expose shellcode injection and unmitigated dynamic code execution.

---

🚀 Installation & CLI Quickstart

Install via Cargo

cargo install rev-core

Inspect a Binary

rev-core inspect /bin/ls

Check Security Mitigations

rev-core mitigations /bin/ls

Generate Control Flow Graph

rev-core cfg /bin/ls --offset 0x6d30 --format mermaid

Calculate Shannon Entropy & Scan Cryptographic Signatures

rev-core entropy /bin/ls
rev-core crypto /bin/ls

Disassemble Instructions (Multi-Arch)

rev-core disasm /bin/ls --offset 0x6d30 --count 10 --arch x86_64

Unpack & Audit Electron Applications

# Unpack ASAR archive
rev-core asar unpack app.asar -o ./unpacked_app

# Scan Electron IPC attack surface & webPreferences
rev-core electron ./unpacked_app

Inspect WebAssembly Modules

rev-core wasm module.wasm

Live Process Memory Forensics

rev-core proc $(pgrep -n bash)

---

🔌 Model Context Protocol (MCP) Integration

rev-core runs as a native stdio Model Context Protocol server. Add it to your agent settings (claude_desktop_config.json, Hermes profile, or Cursor config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rev-core": {
      "command": "rev-core",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Registered Tools

Tool	Parameters	Description
inspect_binary	path: string	Parse ELF, PE, or Mach-O headers, architecture, entrypoint, sections, and dependencies.
inspect_mitigations	path: string	Scan binary protections: NX/DEP, PIE, Full/Partial RELRO, Canaries, and ASLR.
disassemble_slice	path, offset, length, max_instructions, arch	Decode machine code instructions into Intel assembly with hex opcodes.
generate_cfg	path, offset, max_instructions	Reconstruct basic blocks, control flow graph, cyclomatic complexity, and Mermaid diagram.
analyze_entropy	path: string	Calculate Shannon entropy across file bytes to detect packed or encrypted code.
scan_crypto	path: string	Match cryptographic state constants (AES S-Boxes, ChaCha20, SHA, MD5).
scan_electron	dir: string	Audit extracted Electron directory for IPC channels and webPreferences security risks.
inspect_wasm	path: string	Parse WebAssembly module sections, memory limits, and exported API signatures.
inspect_process_maps	pid: number	Inspect live process memory layout from /proc/[pid]/maps and flag RWX pages.
decompile_symbol	path, symbol, timeout_secs	Decompile symbol via local headless decompiler bridges (rizin, r2, ghidra).
audit_hardening	path: string	Audit binary security posture (NX, PIE, RELRO, Canaries) and flag dangerous C functions (gets, strcpy).
lift_pseudocode	path, offset, max_instructions, symbol	Heuristically decompile basic blocks into clean, structured C-like pseudocode.
demangle_symbol	symbol: string	Demangle Rust (legacy / v0) and C++ (Itanium) compiler ABI symbol names.
get_evidence_ledger	(none)	Retrieve verified cryptographic Evidence records and open residual unknowns.

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📊 Benchmark Comparison: rev-core vs rea

Metric	morluto/rea (TypeScript)	rev-core v2.0.0 (Rust)
Runtime Dependencies	Node 22+, npm, Python, JDK	Zero (single native binary)
Startup / Tool Latency	1,200ms – 4,500ms	< 2ms (sub-millisecond)
Binary Memory (RSS)	200MB – 1.2GB (V8 + JVM)	< 15MB
Crash Protection	High risk of V8 heap OOM	Rust memory safety & zero panics
Decompilation Lifter	External 1GB+ Ghidra/Java required	Embedded CFG-to-C Heuristic Lifter
Security Hardening	Basic file command string matches	Full RELRO/NX/PIE/Canary + Dangerous C Calls
Symbol Demangler	External c++filt dependency	Embedded zero-alloc Rust & C++ Demangler
Disassembly Engine	External process delegation	In-process multi-arch decoder
Electron ASAR Extraction	External npm scripts / slow	Native Chromium Pickle parser

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🧪 Test Verification

Run the automated test suite:

cargo test

All 25 unit and integration test suites pass with 100% green status:

• tests/elf_test.rs — Live Linux system ELF parsing and mitigation validation.
• tests/macho_test.rs — 64-bit Apple Mach-O header and mitigation parsing.
• tests/disasm_test.rs — x86_64 instruction decoder verification.
• tests/arch_test.rs — Synthetic ARM64 and RISC-V machine code decoding.
• tests/cfg_test.rs — Branch target identification and Mermaid graph generation.
• tests/analysis_test.rs — Shannon entropy calculation and cryptographic constant detection.
• tests/asar_test.rs — Synthetic Chromium Pickle & ASAR archive extraction roundtrip.
• tests/electron_test.rs — Electron IPC attack surface and webPreferences audit.
• tests/wasm_test.rs — WebAssembly header, memory limits, and export section decoding.
• tests/process_test.rs — Live /proc/[pid]/maps memory parsing and RWX detection.
• tests/bridge_test.rs — Headless decompiler bridge detection and error handling.
• tests/evidence_test.rs — Deterministic SHA-256 evidence hashing and ledger lifecycle.
• tests/hardening_test.rs — Binary hardening mitigation audit and dangerous C call detection.
• tests/demangle_test.rs — Rust legacy, Rust v0, and C++ Itanium ABI symbol demangling.
• tests/lifter_test.rs — Reconstructing structured C pseudocode from x86_64 basic blocks.
• tests/mcp_test.rs — Model Context Protocol tool catalog validation.

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📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. Copyright (c) 2026 Ronit Gupta.