Neal Reeves

13 papers A 2B 1Journal 9
YearRankTypeTitle / Venue / Authors
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Marisa Ripoll, Neal Reeves, Anelia Kurteva, Elena Simperl, Albert Meroño-Peñuela
2025 A conf
Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (Companion Volume)
Catia Prandi, Christothea Herodotou, Mara Dionisio, Neal Reeves, Lizette Reitsma, Simone Mora
2025 J jnl
CoRR
Neal Reeves, Elena Simperl
2025 J jnl
Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact.
Neal Reeves, Elena Simperl
2024 J jnl
CoRR
Neal Reeves, Wenjie Yin, Elena Simperl
2023 J jnl
J. Web Semant.
Elisavet Koutsiana, Gabriel Maia Rocha Amaral, Neal Reeves, Albert Meroño-Peñuela, Elena Simperl
2023 J jnl
ACM Trans. Intell. Syst. Technol.
Eddy Maddalena, Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Neal Reeves, Elena Simperl
2021 J jnl
Data Technol. Appl.
Dumitru Roman, Neal Reeves, Esteban González, Irene Celino, Shady Abd El Kader, Philip Turk, Ahmet Soylu, Óscar Corcho, Raquel Cedazo, Gloria Re Calegari, Damiano Scandolari, Elena Simperl
2019 J jnl
Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact.
Neal Reeves, Elena Simperl
2019
Neal Reeves
2018 B conf
HCOMP
Neal Reeves, Peter West, Elena Simperl
2018 J jnl
ACM Trans. Soc. Comput.
Elena Simperl, Neal Reeves, Chris Phethean, Todd Lynes, Ramine Tinati
2017 A conf
CSCW
Neal Reeves, Ramine Tinati, Sergej Zerr, Max Van Kleek, Elena Simperl
redb/extractors/js_extractors/scripts/js-xray-runner.js
← Index redb/extractors/js_extractors/scripts/js-xray-runner.js javascript
#!/usr/bin/env node
// Bridge between the Python JS pipeline and @nodesecure/js-x-ray.
//
// Usage: node js-xray-runner.js <path-to-js-file>
//   stdout  one JSON object: {"obfuscator": <name|null>, "warnings": [...]}
//   stderr  human-readable error on failure
//   exit 0  analysis ran (the file may still be benign — see "obfuscator")
//   exit 1  the file could not be read or analysed
//
// Each warning is emitted as {kind, value} so the Python side can tag
// supporting signals (encoded-literal, short-identifiers, suspicious-literal,
// unsafe-stmt) without having to mirror js-x-ray's whole schema.
//
// js-x-ray ≥7 ships as an ES module, which CommonJS `require()` cannot load
// from a `.js` script — the dynamic `import()` below is what makes the
// bridge work without renaming the file to `.mjs` or adding `"type":
// "module"` to package.json (which would break tools that still
// `require()` from this directory).

const fs = require("fs");
const path = require("path");

function fail(msg) {
  process.stderr.write(msg + "\n");
  process.exit(1);
}

async function main() {
  const target = process.argv[2];
  if (!target) fail("usage: js-xray-runner.js <file>");

  let source;
  try {
    source = fs.readFileSync(target, "utf8");
  } catch (e) {
    fail(`read failed: ${e.message}`);
  }

  // The legacy `runASTAnalysis` function is deprecated (removed in v8); the
  // current API is the `AstAnalyser` class. Both produce a result with the
  // same `warnings` shape, so the rest of the bridge is unchanged.
  let AstAnalyser;
  try {
    ({ AstAnalyser } = await import("@nodesecure/js-x-ray"));
  } catch (e) {
    fail(`@nodesecure/js-x-ray not installed (run \`npm install\` in ${path.dirname(__filename)}): ${e.message}`);
  }

  // js-x-ray defaults to module-mode parsing, which rejects scripts that
  // (legally) use reserved words as identifiers, top-level `return`, etc.
  // A lot of real-world JS malware is script-style (WScript/HTA bodies,
  // pasted snippets) — retrying in script mode catches those without
  // pulling in a more lenient parser. Both attempts share the same
  // analyser; only the parse mode flips. If both fail, the original error
  // (module-mode) is reported because that's the more informative one for
  // genuinely broken sources.
  let result;
  const analyser = new AstAnalyser();
  let firstErr;
  try {
    result = await analyser.analyse(source, { module: true });
  } catch (e) {
    firstErr = e;
    try {
      result = await analyser.analyse(source, { module: false });
    } catch (e2) {
      fail(`js-x-ray analysis failed: ${firstErr.message}`);
    }
  }

  const warnings = (result.warnings || []).map((w) => ({
    kind: w.kind,
    value: w.value !== undefined ? w.value : null,
  }));

  // js-x-ray flags the obfuscator family in a warning whose kind is
  // "obfuscated-code" and whose value names the family (jsfuck, obfuscator.io,
  // freejsobfuscator, morse, jjencode, ...). Absent => not detected.
  const obfWarning = warnings.find((w) => w.kind === "obfuscated-code");
  const obfuscator = obfWarning ? obfWarning.value : null;

  // js-x-ray runs its own AST internally with a modern parser, so its
  // identifier-length average is the only path the Python pipeline has to
  // that signal on ES2015+ sources — pyjsparser is ES5.1-only and silently
  // drops to 0 the moment it hits destructuring, classes, optional chaining,
  // etc. Surfacing this lets the heuristic's `avg_identifier_length<2`
  // strong signal fire on real obfuscator.io output. `null` when the value
  // is missing or non-numeric (defensive — older js-x-ray builds may differ).
  const idsLengthAvg =
    typeof result.idsLengthAvg === "number" && !Number.isNaN(result.idsLengthAvg)
      ? result.idsLengthAvg
      : null;

  process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify({ obfuscator, warnings, idsLengthAvg }));
}

main().catch((e) => fail(e.message || String(e)));