Lightweight Structured Visualization of Assembler Control Flow Based on Regular Expressions

Abstract

RegVIS is a tool for viewing directed graphs with start and end nodes. It applies a new visualization technique, which uses regular expressions as a meta-representation of all the paths in an input graph, the result is a containment-based and structured visualization of that graph. The tool can be configured to derive these regular expressions from the input graph using either the Brzozowski algebraic method or the transitive closure method. Regvis can be used in combination with the binary code analysis tool IDA (Interactive Disassembler), either integrated or standalone, to view the control flow graph (CFG) of assembler code. The resulting visualization, which restructures the control flow and can thus help reduce program comprehension efforts, is called control flow blocks (CFB). In this paper, we present the workings of regVIS and evaluate the new CFB visualization it produces against the traditional CFG visualization in an explorative user study. The study suggests that the CFB is better for analyzing and navigating along specific execution paths, while the CFG is better for getting an overview of the overall control flow.