Topic created on: September 10, 2013 02:15 CDT by hassaanshakil .

Hi,
Kindly allow me to explain the problem that I am facing (this post may become long so apologies in advance). Basically the problem is a part of my MS thesis and I want to know if reverse engineering can be used to solve it.

I have implemented different algorithms in C++ and generated executable files (using MS Visual Studio). I am not using any DLLs and the implementations are single threaded/process.

I need to extract following information from these executable files
1) Total number of operations/instructions in the code.
2) Length of the critical path i.e. longest sequential chain of instructions in the code.  

Let me give an example to clarify things

1. a = b + C;
2. c = d + e;
3. f = a + d;
4. g = c + f;

The program flow would be (1,3,2,4)
1 -> 3 ->
                 \
                4
                /
      2 ->

So there are four instructions in all and the critical path (longest sequential chain) is 3 instructions long (1, 3 & 4). Is it possible to do a similar analysis using disassembled executable?


Reverse engineering is not my forte but I am willing to put in required effort if the experts (being you guys) tell me that it can get the job done. I have strong programming skills so programming is not an issue.

Thanks.