The process followed in order to find difficult, unknown, and hidden…

Answer: Reverse Engineering

Definition: Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing a software system to identify its components, interrelationships, and extract design, requirements, or other hidden information that is not readily available from documentation.

• Key characteristic: Aimed at discovering undocumented or hard-to-find information about existing software.

• Purpose: Understand legacy systems, recover lost design, enable maintenance, or analyze behavior.

• Distinction: Different from software re-engineering, which focuses on modifying and improving the system; reverse engineering focuses on discovery and understanding.

Common steps in reverse engineering:

1. Collect artifacts: Gather source code, binaries, configuration, documentation, and runtime traces.

2. Static analysis: Examine code or disassembled binaries to identify structure and dependencies.

3. Dynamic analysis: Run the system, monitor behavior, and collect runtime information to understand actual behavior.

4. Reconstruct models: Build higher-level artifacts such as architecture diagrams, data models, or requirements from the findings.

5. Document results: Produce documentation and specifications to support maintenance, re-engineering, or compliance.

Note: Always consider legal and ethical implications—reverse engineering may be restricted by license agreements or law in some contexts.