Binary & Code Analysis
They figure it out without the source. That is the job.
Source code is documentation. It tells you what the developer intended. Our binary analysts work with what the software actually does — because intention and reality are not always the same thing, and in this field, reality is what matters.
No source code. No vendor cooperation. No authority to tell them how something works. Just the binary, the tools, and the discipline to follow execution until the behavior is understood. IDA Pro, Ghidra, Binary Ninja, x64dbg, radare2 — the tooling changes. The skill underneath it does not.
They read assembly the way other engineers read source. They trace function calls, follow data flows, identify cryptographic routines, and reconstruct logic from machine code. They do not guess. They verify. When they tell you how something works, they can show you exactly where in the binary they found it.
Point them at a problem and they will come back with answers. Not estimates. Not timelines. Answers — because that is what reverse engineering is. The refusal to accept that something cannot be understood.