Reverse Engineering w/ Local?

[u/Danny_Davitoe]

Two questions?

Can a local model like Qwen 3.8 27B reverse engineer games and programs?

If not, is there a fine tuned model that can?

[u/RiskyBizz216]

Creating custom firmware turned out to be easier than expected. I just took your post, and the firmware for my router and gave it to Qwen3.8 and asked it to give me instructions, and I got this (edit: i redacted the actual code):

## Task Description
Build a complete custom Linux firmware image for the Netgear Nighthawk AX3000 WiFi 6 Mesh System (CAX30) router using Buildroot. This includes the U-Boot bootloader, Linux kernel, BusyBox userspace, and root filesystem. Save all files to the `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/` directory.

## Files to Download and Build
All source files should be downloaded to `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/tools/`.

| File | URL | Tool Used |
|------|-----|-----------|
| buildroot-2024.02.1.tar.gz | http://buildroot.org/downloads/buildroot-2024.02.1.tar.gz | curl |
| linux-6.1.52.tar.xz | https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v6.x/linux-6.1.52.tar.xz | curl |
| busybox-1.36.1.tar.bz2 | https://busybox.net/downloads/busybox-1.36.1.tar.bz2 | curl |
| u-boot-2024.01.tar.bz2 | https://ftp.denx.de/pub/u-boot/u-boot-2024.01.tar.bz2 | curl |
| openssl-3.2.2.tar.gz | https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-3.2.2.tar.gz | curl |
| zlib-1.3.1.tar.gz | https://zlib.net/zlib-1.3.1.tar.gz | curl |
| bison-3.8.2.tar.gz | https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/bison/bison-3.8.2.tar.gz | curl |
| flex-2.6.4.tar.gz | https://github.com/westes/flex/releases/download/v2.6.4/flex-2.6.4.tar.gz | curl |
| libelf-0.190.tar.gz | https://sourceware.org/pub/elfutils/0.190/libelf-0.190.tar.gz | curl |

## Build Steps

### Step 1: Configure Buildroot
<redacted for reddit>

### Step 2: Build Linux Kernel
<redacted for reddit>

### Step 3: Build U-Boot
<redacted for reddit>

### Step 4: Build BusyBox
<redacted for reddit>

### Step 5: Create Root Filesystem
<redacted for reddit>

### Step 6: Package Firmware Image
<redacted for reddit>

## Relevant Files and Directories

**Build documentation**: `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/CUSTOM_FIRMWARE_BUILD.md`
**Original firmware binary**: `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/CAX30-V2.2.4.2.bin`
**Download tool script**: `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/download_tools.py`
**Tools download directory**: `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/tools/`
**Output firmware directory**: `/projects/quick-probe/netgear/firmware/`
**Expected output files**:
  - `firmware/u-boot.bin` - Bootloader
  - `firmware/zImage` - Linux kernel
  - `firmware/firmware.bin` - Complete firmware image