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diffing-binary-patches

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Locate the vulnerability a security patch fixes by diffing the pre- and post-patch binaries — using BinDiff, Diaphora, or ghidriff to find the changed functions, reading the added checks to recover the bug class, and reasoning back to a reachable pre-patch trigger for 1-day analysis. Use when comparing two versions of a DLL/ELF, extracting a Microsoft patch from an MSU/MSP for delta comparison, or turning a vague advisory into the exact code that changed.

secskills-core/skills/diffing-binary-patches/SKILL.md

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# Diffing Binary Patches

A security patch is a description of a vulnerability written in the vendor's own
code. Diffing the binary before and after the fix turns a one-line advisory into
the exact function, the exact check that was added, and — reasoning backward —
the input that reached the bug before the patch. This is the core of 1-day
analysis: the fix tells you where to look, the diff tells you what, and the
pre-patch reachability tells you how.

## When to Use

- Comparing two versions of the same binary (DLL, ELF, driver) to find what a
  security update changed
- Turning a CVE advisory or Patch-Tuesday bulletin into the specific vulnerable
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