Software Engineer Morluto Builds REA Tool to Let AI Agents Reverse Engineer Devices
Artificial intelligence agents can now pull apart compiled software and rewrite it using Reverse Engineer Anything (REA), a tool created by a pseudonymous software engineer named Morluto. Scientific American reported that the tool equips AI with pipelines to orchestrate decompilers like Ghidra and Kuna, lowering the technical barrier for modifying devices ranging from televisions to smart rings.
Person who is reverse engineering his tv gets banned from OpenAIYou aren't allowed to stop your tv from spying on your family. You have to ask for permissionOr, maybe, maybe we accelerate https://t.co/GOrbKmfQPU
For decades, altering the compiled binary code of consumer gadgets required extensive manual effort from specialists. Morluto built REA to bypass this friction, amassing more than 400,000 stars on GitHub and drawing users to an active Discord community. The project allows everyday users to examine closed software systems and customize hardware electronics.
Cornell Tech Expert James Grimmelmann Warns of Copyright and Trade Secret Crisis
James Grimmelmann, a law professor at Cornell Tech, told Scientific American that the tool will pose a crisis for trade secret and copyright law.
University of Georgia Researcher Zion Basque Examines Scaled Decompilation Limits
Zion Basque, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia who studies reverse engineering, told Scientific American that nearly anyone can now participate. Basque’s research group developed Kuna, one of the specialized decompilers that REA integrates into its automated pipelines.
According to him, the type of reverse engineering he currently observes people carrying out via REA was previously possible, but lacked this magnitude.
Technologist Joey Castillo Tests Smart Ring Modifications Using Claude and Open-Weight Models
Joey Castillo, an open-source developer and technologist in residence at Cornell Tech, used Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5.5 to examine a smart ring purchased in Shenzhen, China. Castillo told Scientific American that the AI model successfully reverse engineered the device while explaining the process to him simultaneously, highlighting how users can take direct control of purchased hardware.
these blocks are mostly accidental and a result of difficult decision boundaries; there is no prohibition against reverse engineering with codex. it's getting fixed
As an alternative, Castillo relies on GLM-5.3, an open-weight model produced by Z.ai, a Chinese enterprise. He stated that if Anthropic and OpenAI decide they are going to ban his account for reverse engineering, he is going to fire up GLM-5.3 and reverse engineer the smart ring.
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