Behind the Binary by Google Cloud Security

Josh Stroschein
  • 5.0 (6)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Welcome to Behind the Binary, the podcast that introduces you to the fascinating people, technology, and tools driving the world of reverse engineering. Join your host, Josh Stroschein, a reverse engineer with the FLARE team at Google, and someone passionate about sharing knowledge and shedding light on the art of reverse engineering, as he sits down with intriguing guests to explore the human side of this profession. Behind the Binary goes beyond the code, sharing the stories, motivations, and unique perspectives of the individuals who dedicate their lives to unraveling the complexities of technology. We'll hear about their journeys into the field, the challenges they face, and the impact their work has on securing our digital world. Whether you're a seasoned malware analyst, a software developer, a security researcher, or just someone curious about the world of reverse engineering, Behind the Binary offers insightful and engaging conversations for everyone interested in this fascinating field.

  1. 2D AGO

    EP25 The Future of Debugging: A Paradigm Shift with Xusheng Li

    "TTD is a paradigm shift in the way you interact with the target... Potentially, five years from now, when we talk about debugging, we will just by default go to TTD." In this episode, we are joined by Xusheng Li, a debugger architect and reverse engineering expert, to explore the evolution of Time Travel Debugging (TTD). While traditional debugging has remained largely stagnant for decades, TTD introduces a novel new way to debug by recording and replaying execution traces with total precision. Xusheng takes us behind the scenes of how this technology solves the "granularity problem" in malware analysis—moving from a high-level API overview down to instruction-level "ground truth" without ever needing to re-run the program. We break down the engineering required to record billions of instructions into a manageable trace, the power of querying execution data like a searchable database, and how a "sealed" execution history is changing the workflow for both software developers, malware analysts, and vulnerability researchers. THE SESSION: The Deterministic Leap: How TTD avoids the overhead of recording every single instruction by focusing only on non-deterministic events—like file reads, CPU ID calls, and system inputs—allowing billions of cycles to be reconstructed from a fraction of the data.The Death of "Step-Over": Why the future of debugging lies in querying an execution database rather than manually stepping through code, enabling researchers to instantly find every moment an API was called or a specific memory address was modified.Solving the Granularity Problem: How a single trace file provides a "safety net" for analysis, allowing researchers to start with a broad triage of behavior and then use a "microscope" to dig into specific crypto functions or obfuscated payloads later.Data Flow vs. Code Flow: A look at the shift toward "concrete data flow analysis," where researchers focus on the movement of sensitive buffers and keys rather than getting lost in the mental overhead of complex instruction sets and registers.The Mystery of the i9 Crash: A real-world troubleshooting case where TTD was used to identify a hardware-level microcode bug in a modern CPU that would have been nearly impossible to pinpoint with traditional tools.The AI Connection: Why the "fixed world" of a TTD trace is the ideal training ground for LLM-assisted analysis, providing a secure, deterministic environment for AI to solve intermediate-level reverse engineering challenges.Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    57 min

  2. APR 1

    EP24 The Glupteba Takedown: What Happens When Botnet Operators Show Up in Court with Pierre-Marc Bureau

    "I thought that we would never hear about these people after they were named. But what was a surprise is that they actually hired a lawyer in New York... and they were like, 'Yeah, we're going to be taking part in this trial." In this episode, we are joined by Pierre-Marc Bureau from Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) to unpack the unprecedented takedown of the Glupteba botnet. Active since 2011, Glupteba infected roughly 1 million Windows devices before Google launched a coordinated technical and legal strike. Pierre-Marc takes us behind the scenes of an investigation that evolved from reverse engineering binaries to a surreal showdown in a New York civil court. We break down how a single hardcoded string unraveled a massive criminal enterprise, the mechanics of using the Bitcoin blockchain for resilient command and control, and the bizarre moment when Russian cybercriminals actually hired a US lawyer to fight back. THE SESSION: The Blockchain Fallback: How Glupteba operators hid AES-encrypted blobs inside Bitcoin transactions, creating an un-takable backup C2 infrastructure if their primary domains went down.The Fatal OpSec Flaw: How one mistake—leaving the string get.voltronwork.com in a Go module—allowed Google to connect the botnet to Russian developer shops and Delaware shell companies.The Corporate Cyber-Cartel: Why the group operated like a legitimate tech startup, openly selling end-to-end "services" like proxy networks and compromised Google and Facebook accounts on the open web.The Extortion Twist: The surreal courtroom drama where the malware operators tried to extort Google for $1 million per defendant in exchange for private keys—a move that ended with the judge sanctioning their lawyer for $250,000.Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    55 min

  3. MAR 4

    EP23 Immutable C2: How EtherHiding and Frontend Attacks are Weaponizing the Blockchain

    In this episode, we are joined by Robert Wallace, Joseph Dobson, and Blas Kajusner to dissect the new "Hybrid Heist." The panel argues that the era of isolated crypto-theft is over; sophisticated actors are now targeting the Web2 layer—the frontends, the developer workstations, and the cloud infrastructure—to bypass the immutability of the chain itself. We also break down "Ether Hiding," a technique where attackers store malware payloads directly on the blockchain to create an unstoppable Command & Control (C2) infrastructure that cannot be taken down by traditional authorities. THE SESSION: Immutable C2 (Ether Hiding): How threat actors are updating smart contract state variables to serve second-stage malware payloads, effectively turning the blockchain into a "dead drop resolver" that ignores domain blocks and takedown requests.The Hybrid Attack Surface: Why the massive Bybit heist wasn't a failure of cryptography, but a Web2 frontend attack on the "Safe Wallet" interface that tricked users into signing transactions they couldn't see.The "OpSec" Crisis: Why smart contract developers are the new "Domain Admins," and how simple phishing campaigns against personal devices are leading to nine-figure losses.The "Choke Point" Vulnerability: Why the decentralized ecosystem is still entirely dependent on centralized on-ramps and off-ramps, and how this dependency creates a "kill chain" that defenders can disrupt.Governance Attacks: The shift from exploiting code to exploiting consensus—how attackers are buying enough tokens to legally vote themselves the contents of a project's treasury.Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    41 min

  4. FEB 4

    EP22 Jailbreaking, Prompt Injection, and the "Agentic" Flaw in MCP with Kevin Harris

    "Skilled adversaries have a 100% success rate against all of the defenses that we know about." In this episode, Kevin Harris defends that claim. We move past the standard "AI Safety" talking points to distinguish between the two attack vectors confusing the industry: Prompt Injection (an application-layer failure) vs. Jailbreaking ("gaslighting" the model via context shifting). Kevin argues that we haven't actually invented AI yet—we've just built a mirror that reflects our own intelligence (and psychosis) back at us. We also dissect the new model context protocol (MCP) and why giving "discretion" to agents that cannot think is potentially repeating the security mistakes of Web 2.0. THE SESSION: The "Pirate" Jailbreak: Why telling a model to be a pirate isn't just a party trick—it's a method of shifting the context window to bypass refusal patterns.The 100% Failure Rate: Why current defenses are only speed bumps for skilled adversaries, and why you are attacking the application, not the model."There Is No AI": Kevin’s theory on why LLMs are just "predictive text made 3 orders of magnitude better" and the danger of "AI-induced psychosis".The Agentic Threat (MCP): A deep dive into the model context protocol. Why client-side authorization is the new "Browser Security" battleground, and why we are handing "table saws" to users who don't know how to use them.The Fix: Why "Attention Functions" are the key to understanding (and securing) the future of these models.Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    57 min

  5. JAN 14

    EP21 From HITB Origins to Agentic AI: Web3, Music & The Future of Hacking with Dhillon Kannabhiran

    In this episode, Dhillon Kannabhiran shares the gritty origin story of Hack in the Box (HITB), detailing how he dug a $20k financial hole to launch the first event in Malaysia before building it into a global brand. The conversation moves beyond conferences to explore the cutting edge of technology and creativity. Dhillon explains why "agentic" systems (like Xbow) signal the end of hand-built exploits and discusses the unique challenges of securing Web3 smart contracts. We also dive into the intersection of math and music, how AI tools like Suno are changing art, and why the "hacker ethos" applies to everything from bug bounties to content creation. Get the latest from FLARE's community efforts: Email flare-external@google.com to join our mailing list for important announcements. Your information will not be shared and is used only for this purpose. Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    1h 2m

  6. 12/10/2025

    EP20 Windows Under the Hood: Kernel Design, EDRs, and the Shift to VBS with Pavel Yosifovich

    In this episode, we get a unique look at the history of Windows through the eyes of one of its leading experts, Pavel Yosifovich. We delve into his fascinating origin story, including the "fluke" that led him to become the author of the legendary Windows Internals series, and why he describes himself as a developer who "hates security." The conversation explores the most significant foundational changes in Windows kernel design, specifically the architectural shift toward Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) and the long-term strategy behind the "Secure Kernel." We discuss the ever-evolving landscape of EDRs, the reality of kernel-level threats, and the impact AI and memory-safe languages like Rust will have on future development. This episode offers valuable insights for reverse engineers and developers interested in the big-picture trends that have shaped—and will continue to shape—the world of operating system design. Get the latest from FLARE's community efforts: Email flare-external@google.com to join our mailing list for important announcements. Your information will not be shared and is used only for this purpose. Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    1h 10m

  7. 11/19/2025

    EP19 The Art of Deconstructing Problems: Tools, Tactics, and the ScatterBrain Obfuscator with Nino Isakovic

    In this episode, we’re joined by Nino Isakovic, a long-time low-level security expert, for a thought-provoking conversation that spans the foundational and the cutting-edge. Nino discusses the art of deconstructing problems—sharing insights on how to learn effectively, the building blocks of a robust RE toolkit, and the critical shift required in our analytical approach. We then transition into the front lines of threat intelligence, where Nino discusses the specific challenges of analyzing sophisticated adversary tools. This includes systems like ORB Networks and a detailed look at his discovery of the ScatterBrain obfuscating compiler. Tune in for a full-spectrum discussion on what it takes to thrive in reverse engineering. ScatterBrain blog post: https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/threat-intelligence/scatterbrain-unmasking-poisonplug-obfuscator?e=48754805 Get the latest from FLARE's community efforts: Email flare-external@google.com to join our mailing list for important announcements. Your information will not be shared and is used only for this purpose. Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    1h 53m

  8. 11/05/2025

    EP18 10,000 DLLs and Too Much Math - Wrapping Up FLARE-On 12 with the FLARE Team

    In this episode, we sit down with Nick Harbour, Blas Kojusner, Moritz Raabe, and Sam Kim — members of the FLARE Team and some of this year’s challenge authors — for a deep dive into the design and execution of FLARE-On 12. The team discusses the complexity and intent behind this year's challenges, including how Sam created his grueling final challenge, "10,000," which featured 10,000 individual DLLs to force competitors toward automation. Sam reveals that solving the final puzzle required deep knowledge of both reverse engineering and group theory concepts like topological sorting and modular exponentiation of a matrix. Blas Kojusner explains his approach to challenge design, detailing how he blended modern Web3 concepts into a classic reverse engineering scenario with his ransomware chat client challenge, while Moritz shares that his Challenge 7 used obfuscation based on an actual malware sample he analyzed earlier in the year. The conversation then turns to the competition's impact and future. The authors confirm the community's primary feedback was a clear call for more malware-focused challenges. The strong participation and the constant flow of feedback directly influences the next iteration of the event, giving the team the motivation and data needed to improve. The FLARE Team confirms they are planning for FLARE-On 13 in 2026, driven by the community's enthusiasm to tackle new technical hurdles like Rust binaries. Tune in to hear the creators discuss the effort that goes into writing puzzles that truly test the world's best reverse engineers. Get the latest from FLARE's community efforts. Email flare-external@google.com to join our mailing list for important announcements. Your information will not be shared and is used only for this purpose. Join the Community Research Hub: Threat research, training events and news: https://cloud.google.com/security/flareThe FLARE Insider: Get community updates and announcements. To subscribe, email flare-external@google.comFOLLOW THE SHOW: Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

    48 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Welcome to Behind the Binary, the podcast that introduces you to the fascinating people, technology, and tools driving the world of reverse engineering. Join your host, Josh Stroschein, a reverse engineer with the FLARE team at Google, and someone passionate about sharing knowledge and shedding light on the art of reverse engineering, as he sits down with intriguing guests to explore the human side of this profession. Behind the Binary goes beyond the code, sharing the stories, motivations, and unique perspectives of the individuals who dedicate their lives to unraveling the complexities of technology. We'll hear about their journeys into the field, the challenges they face, and the impact their work has on securing our digital world. Whether you're a seasoned malware analyst, a software developer, a security researcher, or just someone curious about the world of reverse engineering, Behind the Binary offers insightful and engaging conversations for everyone interested in this fascinating field.

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