Files
Mergen/docs/SCOPE.md
T
naci babe982b65 docs: correct SCOPE loop-header generalization status (#117)
Line 28 read 'Temporarily disabled while the team keeps required VMP 3.8.x targets on the safe high-budget path'.  That is stale relative to the current code: canGeneralizeStructuredLoopHeader (lifter/core/LifterClass.hpp) gates generalization on path-solve context plus nine operational guards, and the corresponding loop_generalization_* microtests pass on main.  Describe the actual gating and point readers at docs/LOOP_HANDLING.md.

Co-authored-by: yusufcanislek <yusuf.canislek@meetdandy.com>
2026-04-22 23:06:47 +03:00

3.4 KiB

Scope

This file owns the support matrix and quality contract. For pipeline order and invariants, use ARCHITECTURE.md. For build/test workflow, use docs/BUILDING.md and docs/REWRITE_BASELINE.md.

Purpose

Mergen is a function-level LLVM IR lifting engine for deobfuscation and devirtualization of x64 protected functions. It lifts one target function from a PE binary into LLVM IR so downstream optimization and analysis can recover readable control flow and semantics.

Supported

Area Details
Architecture x86-64 PE binaries
Instruction set 119 handlers covering general-purpose integer ops, BMI1/BMI2, bit manipulation, string ops, conditional moves, flag manipulation, and SSE2 integer XMM ops (MOVDQA, MOVQ, PUNPCKLQDQ, PAND, POR, PXOR)
Control flow Linear flow, 2-way branches, direct jumps, call/ret, and tested multi-target jump-table shapes (absolute qword, RIP-relative dword offset, shifted-base, shared-target)
Output LLVM IR text suitable for LLVM optimization passes
Call-boundary model Cross-ABI framework for x64 MSVC and x86 cdecl/stdcall/fastcall; strict is the operational default, compat remains available as a diagnostic fallback
Determinism Canonical naming and golden-hash verification are part of the current contract

Unsupported / Known Limitations

Limitation Status
Floating-point / wider SSE / AVX outside the listed SSE2 integer ops Not lifted
Self-modifying code Not supported
Whole-binary lifting Out of scope; Mergen is function-level
Non-PE formats Not supported
32-bit x86 lifting Not supported
ARM / RISC-V / other architectures Not supported
Jump-table IR quality Supported shapes still dispatch on concrete target addresses, not logical case indices
Loop-header generalization Gated by path-solve context: allowed for ConditionalBranch and DirectJump, and for IndirectJump only when the target is already resolved concretely; Ret never generalizes. See docs/LOOP_HANDLING.md.

Current Development Focus

  • Near term: broaden control-flow recovery and IR quality for loops, jump tables, indirect branches, and VM-style dispatcher shapes.
  • Later: expand 128-bit register/instruction coverage beyond the current SSE2 integer XMM subset once the control-flow path is stable enough to carry the added surface area.

Tested Protectors

  • VMProtect — examples exist; reliability varies by protection level
  • Themida — examples exist; reliability varies by protection level

Quality Contract

  • Handler coverage: 115/119 handlers covered by the full-handler oracle suite, with 4 intentional skips (cpuid, rdtsc, ret, scasx)
  • Active regression corpus: 33 semantic samples / 177 runtime semantic cases in CI; calc_sum_to_n, calc_fib, calc_sum_array, stack_vm_loop, and calc_cout are all active under the current safe path
  • Determinism: golden IR hashes are enforced for tracked outputs
  • CI gates: register/flag correctness, rewrite baseline, semantic regression, and Windows build lanes
  • Targeted VMP gate: python test.py vmp must keep required 3.8.x targets at blocks_completed > 0; VMP 3.6 remains best-effort only

Non-goals

  • General-purpose decompilation
  • Multi-function whole-program recovery
  • Broad architecture expansion before x64 protected-function reliability improves
  • Broad 128-bit register/instruction expansion before control-flow reliability improves