DFA and code control flow obfuscation: a real-world example
2021-09-02, 15:00–15:40, Main track

We analyze code control flow obfuscation, based on deterministic finite automata (DFA), in a third-party iOS application downloaded from AppStore.


The talks consists of five parts:

  1. Intro. Hello everyone, blah-blah-blah. No special background needed (5min or less)
  2. Math. DFA definition, state transition table. Set theory background needed (~10 min)
  3. Reversing the obfuscated code. Reversing the iOS app, detailed analysis of the machine code. ARMv8a/iOS internals background needed (~15 min)
  4. Putting the math and the code together Representation of the reversed code as DFA and vise versa. Beautiful of DFA states -> code calls (~10 min)
  5. Summary A quick summary with some useful/interesting links (~5min)

Not too public person :)