[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-echo-decompiler-verifies-recovered-code-by-recompiling-it":10,"sections":35},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":24,"tags":25,"sources":30,"feedback":34,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":34,"total_tokens":34},6634,"echo-decompiler-verifies-recovered-code-by-recompiling-it","Echo Decompiler Verifies Recovered Code by Recompiling It","A new research system checks decompiled code by recompiling it and comparing the resulting assembly, beating GPT-5.6 and Codex on a real malware sample.","Researchers built a decompiler that checks its own work by recompiling the code it produces.\n\nThe system, called Echo, tackles a known weak spot in AI decompilers: their output can look like plausible source code while still being wrong. Echo generates candidate source code and compiler settings with a specialized model, recompiles the candidates, and measures how closely the resulting assembly matches the original binary. When there's a mismatch, it repairs the code through a mix of rule-based rewriting and neural and reasoning-based refinement, then tries again. The researchers tested Echo on function-level benchmarks and on the Mirai botnet malware binary.\n\nOn Mirai, Echo matched 2.75 times as many functions as GPT-5.6 and 7.4 times as many as Codex, and it produced 2.43 times more exact matches than the strongest baseline overall. For security researchers who reverse-engineer malware for a living, the difference between code that looks right and code that provably recompiles to the same binary is the difference between a hunch and evidence.\n\nIt's a narrow fix, verified matching only works when a working compiler and configuration exists to test against, but it's a rare case in AI-assisted reverse engineering where the tool has to show its work before you trust it.","[\"decompilation\",\"malware\",\"reverse-engineering\",\"ai\"]","2026-09-17T04:00:00.000Z","2026-09-18T03:36:37.416Z","2026-09-18T03:36:49.334Z","published",null,[],"security",[26,27,28,29],"decompilation","malware","reverse-engineering","ai",[31],{"name":32,"url":33},"arXiv cs.AI","https:\u002F\u002Farxiv.org\u002Fabs\u002F2609.18706",0,{"sections":36},[37,41,44,49,54,58,62,67,72,76,81,86,91,96],{"name":38,"slug":29,"count":39,"latest_published_at":40},"AI",3852,"2026-09-17T08:27:09.000Z",{"name":42,"slug":24,"count":43,"latest_published_at":18},"Security",648,{"name":45,"slug":46,"count":47,"latest_published_at":48},"Policy","policy",338,"2026-09-11T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":50,"slug":51,"count":52,"latest_published_at":53},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":55,"slug":56,"count":57,"latest_published_at":18},"Hardware","hardware",154,{"name":59,"slug":60,"count":61,"latest_published_at":18},"Science","science",114,{"name":63,"slug":64,"count":65,"latest_published_at":66},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",99,"2026-09-09T17:27:33.000Z",{"name":68,"slug":69,"count":70,"latest_published_at":71},"Software","software",75,"2026-09-10T20:41:21.000Z",{"name":73,"slug":74,"count":75,"latest_published_at":18},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",73,{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Startups","startups",55,"2026-09-09T23:14:29.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Gaming","gaming",43,"2026-09-10T12:18:06.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"General","general",41,"2026-09-08T01:57:23.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]