Carl Marnewick

25 papers Journal 17Unranked 7
YearRankTypeTitle / Venue / Authors
2025 J jnl
Electron. J. Inf. Syst. Dev. Ctries.
Ntombiyokusa Nyoni, Stella Bvuma, Carl Marnewick
2025 J jnl
Int. J. Serv. Sci. Manag. Eng. Technol.
Letlhogonolo Marumolwa, Carl Marnewick
2023 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Rito Miyen, Carl Marnewick
2022 conf
ISD
Josef J. Langerman, Carl Marnewick
2022 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Moketo Ephraim Bogopa, Carl Marnewick
2021 J jnl
IEEE Softw.
Carl Marnewick, Josef J. Langerman
2021 conf
CENTERIS/ProjMAN/HCist
A. J. Gilbert Silvius, Carl Marnewick
2021 J jnl
Complex.
Nazeer Joseph, Carl Marnewick
2021 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Nazeer Joseph, Carl Marnewick
2020 J jnl
IEEE Access
Elizabeth Mkoba, Carl Marnewick
2020 J jnl
IEEE Access
Annlizé Marnewick, Carl Marnewick
2020 J jnl
IEEE Trans. Engineering Management
Carl Marnewick, Annlizé Marnewick
2020 J jnl
Educ. Inf. Technol.
Chelma Sliep, Carl Marnewick
2020 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Lucas Khoza, Carl Marnewick
2019 conf
XP Workshops
Yvan Petit, Carl Marnewick
2019 conf
IEEM
Derek Clark, Annlizé Marnewick, Carl Marnewick
2018 J jnl
Inf. Technol. Manag.
Nazeer Joseph, Carl Marnewick
2017 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Carl Marnewick, Duncan Coulter
2017 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Grant Clinning, Carl Marnewick
2016 conf
SAICSIT
Elizabeth Mkoba, Carl Marnewick
2016 ed.
SAICSIT
Frans F. Blauw, Marijke Coetzee, Duncan Anthony Coulter, Elize M. Ehlers, Wai Sze Leung, Carl Marnewick, Dustin van der Haar
2013 J jnl
South Afr. Comput. J.
Carl Marnewick
2012 conf
SAICSIT
Carl Marnewick
2005 J jnl
Inf. Manag. Comput. Security
Carl Marnewick, Les Labuschagne
2005 conf
ISSA
Carl Marnewick, Les Labuschagne
redb/extractors/decompiler/apk/smali_normalization.py
← Index redb/extractors/decompiler/apk/smali_normalization.py python
"""Semantic normalization of Dalvik/smali instructions.

Analogous to Binary Ninja's LLIL normalization: strips register allocation
noise and instruction encoding variants while preserving semantic operations.

Three normalization levels (most aggressive to most detailed):
  - 'category':    semantic category only (MOV, ALU, CALL, ...)
  - 'opcode':      base opcode, width-invariant (add, sub, invoke, ...)
  - 'opcode_api':  opcode category + API method/field references for
                   invoke/field/alloc instructions (default for MinHash)

References:
  - Smali+ 12-category reduction (Canfora et al.)
  - MOSDroid opcode family grouping
  - DroidSIFT/DroidSim API-sensitive similarity
"""

import re
from typing import List

# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Dalvik opcode -> semantic category mapping
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Prefix-matched against instruction opcodes. Order matters for overlapping
# prefixes (longer/more-specific prefixes should come first in iteration,
# but since we use startswith and break on first match, we order by
# specificity within the list).

OPCODE_CATEGORIES = {
    # Arithmetic/logic
    "add": "ALU", "sub": "ALU", "mul": "ALU", "div": "ALU",
    "rem": "ALU", "and": "ALU", "or": "ALU", "xor": "ALU",
    "shl": "ALU", "shr": "ALU", "ushr": "ALU", "neg": "ALU",
    "not": "ALU",
    # Data movement
    "move": "MOV", "const": "CONST",
    # Memory access (field/array)
    "iget": "LOAD", "sget": "LOAD", "aget": "LOAD",
    "iput": "STORE", "sput": "STORE", "aput": "STORE",
    # Invocations
    "invoke": "CALL",
    # Control flow
    "if": "BRANCH", "goto": "JMP",
    "switch": "SWITCH",
    "return": "RET",
    # Object/type
    "new": "ALLOC", "check": "TYPE", "instance": "TYPE",
    # Array
    "fill": "ARR", "array": "ARR",
    # Comparison
    "cmpl": "CMP", "cmpg": "CMP", "cmp": "CMP",
    # Exception / synchronization
    "throw": "EXC", "monitor": "SYNC",
    # Conversion (int-to-long, float-to-int, etc.)
    "int-to": "CONV", "long-to": "CONV", "float-to": "CONV",
    "double-to": "CONV",
}

# Pre-compiled regexes for operand extraction
_METHOD_REF_RE = re.compile(r"(L[\w/$]+;->[\w<>]+\(.*?\)[\w/$;\[]*)")
_FIELD_REF_RE = re.compile(r"(L[\w/$]+;->[\w]+:[\w/$;\[]+)")
_CLASS_REF_RE = re.compile(r"(L[\w/$]+;)")
_CONST_STRING_RE = re.compile(r'^const-string(?:/jumbo)?\s')


def categorize_opcode(opcode: str) -> str:
    """Map a Dalvik opcode to its semantic category.

    Prefix-matched: 'add-int/2addr' matches 'add' -> 'ALU'.
    Returns 'OTHER' for unrecognized opcodes.
    """
    for prefix, cat in OPCODE_CATEGORIES.items():
        if opcode.startswith(prefix):
            return cat
    return "OTHER"


# Mapping from semantic categories to the ACFG feature vector indices
# used by Binary Ninja's build_block_features (cfg_features.py).
# This enables cross-platform ACFG feature comparison.
CATEGORY_TO_ACFG_INDEX = {
    "ALU": 0,       # CAT_ARITHMETIC
    "CONV": 0,      # arithmetic-adjacent
    "CMP": 4,       # CAT_COMPARISON
    "MOV": 2,       # CAT_TRANSFER
    "CONST": 2,     # transfer-adjacent (loading constants)
    "LOAD": 5,      # CAT_MEMORY
    "STORE": 5,     # CAT_MEMORY
    "CALL": 3,      # CAT_CALL
    "BRANCH": 1,    # CAT_LOGIC (conditional logic)
    "JMP": 1,       # CAT_LOGIC
    "SWITCH": 1,    # CAT_LOGIC
    "RET": 2,       # CAT_TRANSFER
    "ALLOC": 5,     # CAT_MEMORY (heap allocation)
    "TYPE": 6,      # CAT_OTHER
    "ARR": 5,       # CAT_MEMORY
    "EXC": 6,       # CAT_OTHER
    "SYNC": 6,      # CAT_OTHER
    "OTHER": 6,     # CAT_OTHER
}


def normalize_instruction(line: str, level: str = "opcode_api") -> str:
    """Normalize a single smali instruction line.

    Args:
        line: A single smali instruction (whitespace-stripped).
        level: Normalization level:
            'category'   - most aggressive: just semantic category
            'opcode'     - base opcode only, width/addressing-mode invariant
            'opcode_api' - category + API references for invoke/field/alloc
                          (default, best for MinHash similarity)

    Returns:
        Normalized instruction string, or empty string for non-instructions.
    """
    stripped = line.strip()
    if not stripped:
        return ""

    parts = stripped.split(None, 1)
    opcode = parts[0]
    operands = parts[1] if len(parts) > 1 else ""

    if level == "category":
        return categorize_opcode(opcode)

    if level == "opcode":
        # Strip type/width suffixes for invariance:
        # add-int, add-long, add-float -> 'add'
        # add-int/2addr -> 'add'
        base = re.split(r"[-/]", opcode)[0]
        return base

    if level == "opcode_api":
        # const-string: preserve string content (encrypted strings are a
        # key malware indicator)
        if _CONST_STRING_RE.match(stripped):
            # Extract the string literal
            str_match = re.search(r'"(.*)"', operands)
            if str_match:
                return f"CONST_STR \"{str_match.group(1)}\""
            return "CONST_STR"

        # invoke-*: preserve method reference
        if opcode.startswith("invoke"):
            ref = _METHOD_REF_RE.search(operands)
            if ref:
                return f"CALL {ref.group(1)}"
            return "CALL"

        # Field access: preserve field reference
        if opcode.startswith(("iget", "iput", "sget", "sput")):
            ref = _FIELD_REF_RE.search(operands)
            if ref:
                cat = "LOAD" if "get" in opcode else "STORE"
                return f"{cat} {ref.group(1)}"
            # Fallback: try space-separated format from androguard
            # e.g. "iget v0, p0, Lcom/Foo;->field Ljava/lang/String;"
            space_ref = re.search(
                r"(L[\w/$]+;->[\w]+)\s+([\w/$;\[]+)", operands
            )
            if space_ref:
                cat = "LOAD" if "get" in opcode else "STORE"
                return f"{cat} {space_ref.group(1)}:{space_ref.group(2)}"
            cat = "LOAD" if "get" in opcode else "STORE"
            return cat

        # new-instance: preserve allocated type
        if opcode.startswith("new-instance") or opcode == "new-array":
            ref = _CLASS_REF_RE.search(operands)
            if ref:
                return f"ALLOC {ref.group(1)}"
            return "ALLOC"

        # Everything else: just the category
        return categorize_opcode(opcode)

    # Unknown level: return raw opcode
    return opcode


def normalize_method_body(
    body: str, level: str = "opcode_api"
) -> List[str]:
    """Normalize all instructions in a smali method body.

    Filters out directives (.), labels (:), comments (#), and blank lines.
    Returns a list of normalized instruction strings.

    Args:
        body: Raw smali method body text.
        level: Normalization level (see normalize_instruction).

    Returns:
        List of normalized instruction strings (no empty strings).
    """
    normalized = []
    for line in body.split("\n"):
        stripped = line.strip()
        # Skip non-instructions
        if not stripped:
            continue
        if stripped.startswith((".",":", "#")):
            continue
        result = normalize_instruction(stripped, level)
        if result:
            normalized.append(result)
    return normalized