reverser-virtualized-protectors

name	reverser-virtualized-protectors
description	VMProtect, VMP2, Themida, and CodeVirtualizer reversing workflow using Radare2/Ghidra facts and Back Engineering Labs research guidance.
metadata	{"subdomain":"reverse-engineering","when_to_use":"VMProtect VMP2 VMProtect2 Themida CodeVirtualizer virtualized protector devirtualization VMEnter VMEXIT VIP handler table","upstream_ref":"Back Engineering Labs vmp2, vmhook, and Static Devirtualization of Themida research"}

VMProtect / VMP2 / Themida Workflow

Use this for VMProtect 2, VMP2 tooling questions, Themida, CodeVirtualizer, and other VM-based protectors. Do not promise automatic devirtualization. Most wins come from disciplined recovery of VM control-flow facts.

Source Guidance

Back Engineering Labs' public VMP2/Themida work points to one durable rule: Avoid brittle VM-handler pattern matching. Handler layouts, opcode tables, and dispatch glue change too easily. Prefer incremental lifting and control-flow recovery with as little VM-specific logic as possible.

Loop

1. bin_identify and bin_packer first; record format, arch, entropy, and protector strings.
2. Use bin_r2_script or Ghidra to locate VMEnter stubs, handler-table references, VM context/virtual stack sections, and suspicious indirect dispatch loops.
3. Recover VIP movement. For VMProtect 2, track bytecode/module loads feeding the indirect jump. For Themida, expect branch state in VM context and trace the branch-taken flag through the VPC update.
4. Classify VMEXIT behavior: return to native epilog, call-shaped exit, or unsupported-instruction exit. Record stack displacement evidence.
5. Prefer trace/lift plans that run simple optimizations to convergence: constant promotion over VM-private ranges, constant folding, instruction combination, branch folding, dead-store/dead-dependency cleanup, and stack pointer rewrite.
6. If using VMP2-style tooling, treat vmemu/vmprofiler/vmprofiler-cli outputs as evidence, not ground truth. Re-check recovered paths in r2/Ghidra.
7. Write findings with exact addresses, section names, vmenter candidates, VMEXIT classification, VIP source, and unresolved symbolic branches.

Report Shape

• Protector: VMProtect / VMProtect 2 / Themida / CodeVirtualizer / unknown
• Entrypoints: candidate VMEnter addresses and why
• Dispatch: handler-table location, decrypt/transform clues, indirect jump path
• VIP: source load or Themida branch flag/VPC update evidence
• VMEXIT: stack displacement and native continuation/call target
• Recovery plan: trace, lift, or manual simplification; no fake devirt claims