Vector35 / Vector35/binaryninja-api

Dead code elimination: dead branches

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Component: Core Core: HLIL Effort: High Impact: High
Dominant language
C++
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
5d 5h
Merged PRs (30d)
19

Description

Followup from https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/issues/2074#issuecomment-748552911

Sometimes branches get incorrectly marked as never taken, and eliminated from HLIL. There should be some display of these branches so users can tell that the code exists.

Potential design: if (false) { ... } and the user can manually expand to see the code

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the linked follow-up from issue 2074 and the existing HLIL handling for branches that are marked never taken. Define how dead branches should be displayed and manually expanded, then verify that users can distinguish and inspect code currently eliminated from HLIL.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
reverse-engineering
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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