Now Copyright is a bit more difficult, because the process of reverse engineering code to fix a bug can also mean copyright can be discovered, ie learning how something works, like a driver for some hardware to work in an operating system or app.
Also, as far as copyright/patents are concerned those aren't a Problem with reverse engineering. If you reverse engineering something and you then discover copyrighted code while fixing a bug that's not a problem. Knowing of that code is not copying it.
If you were to copy that code or use knowledge you gained by reverse engineering to build your own product that would be an issue though.
> If you were to copy that code or use knowledge you gained by reverse engineering to build your own product that would be an issue though.
And thats the hard part, how do you prove a thought process existed before you had your thought confirmed by seeing it used in some code that you are reverse engineering? Even if I had written such thought down, proving the date & time on the piece of paper isnt back dated is also tricky.
Yep. AIUI doing such things as reverse-engineering to analyze malware (or to detect otherwise malicious behavior, such as breaches of GDPR) is not permitted.