A Hybrid Transformer–LLM Pipeline for Function Name Recovery in Stripped Binaries
Recovering meaningful function names from stripped executables is a difficult challenge in reverse engineer- ing and security analysis. Without debug symbols, functions receive generic names, complicating both manual and automated analysis. Building on AsmDepictor [1], we propose architectural refinements to reduce repetitive and ambiguous predictions, along with API-based integration of a Large Language Model for enhanced name suggestions. We evaluate our approach on a dataset of 26 million functions, extracted from roughly 6800 open-source Windows binaries, compiled with MSVC $2017-2022$ for both X86 and X86_64 architectures. Preliminary evaluations incorporating the LLM model show notable reductions in repeti- tive naming errors. The overall approach highlights the potential to restore relevant semantic information in stripped binaries, promoting more efficient reverse engineering, malware analysis, and software composition analysis.
Authors
- Camelia Lemnaru (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4901-9808)
- Remus M. Petrache
Institutions
- Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (RO)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-08-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/csr64739.2025.11130025
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Data Storage Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.97