Cody Pierce: PyEmu: A multi-purpose scriptable x86 emulator

Black Hat Briefings, USA 2007 [Audio] Presentations from the security conference.

Processor emulation has been around for as long as the processor it emulates. However, emulators have been difficult to use and notoriously lacking in flexibility or extensibility. In this presentation I address these issues and provide a solution in the form of a scriptable multi-purpose x86 emulator written in Python. The concept was to allow a security researcher the ability to quickly integrate an emulator into their work flow and custom tools. Python was chosen as the development language for multiple reasons, mainly to leverage the benefits of existing Python libraries such as PaiMei/PyDbg and IDApython. With obvious uses in reverse engineering, vulnerability research, and malware analysis PyEmu is a very valuable addition to any security researchers repertoire.