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We are inviting you to participate in our study on the use of symbolic execution to solve CTF reversing challenges. The study will take place in a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) client in your browser. You will be asked to reverse two binaries, attempting to use the angr command-line tool first; however, you may use other tools as needed. In addition to angr, you will have access to IDA Free, Ghidra, and GDB (with the gef and pwngdb plugins installed). We ask that you do not use external sources or LLM-based assistants to help solve the tasks and instead rely only on the tools provided in the study environment.
We ask that you follow a think-aloud protocol during the study. This means that while working on the tasks, you should verbalize your thoughts, reasoning, and decision choices as they occur. For example, you may describe what you are trying to do, what you expect to happen, what you find confusing, or why you choose a particular approach. Formal explanations are not required—simply speak your thoughts naturally as you work. If at any time you feel uncomfortable speaking your thoughts aloud, you may pause or stop without penalty.
All actions performed within the VNC environment—including code, terminal output, and interactions with related tools—will be video-recorded during the session. Your voice will also be recorded; however, your face will not. Your browser will request permission to capture audio when your study workspace starts. You will be given a 24-hour window to complete the challenges. We will ask you to participate in a short interview (approximately 30 minutes) about your experience after completing the tasks.
Your participation is voluntary. You may skip any question or withdraw at any time without penalty. Upon completion of the study, you will receive a $75 Amazon gift card. We will ask for your email address solely to send you the gift card redemption code. You must be 18 years or older to participate.
Although there is no direct benefit to you, the results of this study may contribute to research on symbolic execution tools and expert problem-solving practices. Your data will be kept confidential. Your name will not appear in any publications, and all participant data will be anonymized. Only the research team will have access to the data.
If you have any questions concerning the study, please contact the research team [Dr. Yan Shoshitaishvili (yans@asu.edu), Dr. Tiffany Bao (tbao@asu.edu), Selina Li (yijouli@asu.edu), Irina Ford (iford3@asu.edu)]. For questions about your rights as a participant, contact the Chair of the Human Subjects Institutional Review Board through the ASU Office of Research Integrity and Assurance at (480) 965-6788.
By clicking the “I agree” you confirm that you have read this information and agree to participate; otherwise, you may close the site.