What is "normal" time for reverse engineering/malware analysis to take? Of course I understand how it can vary, but say if a customer requests analysis of some run of the mill malicious exe, what kind of limits are reasonable? Several days? Several weeks? E.g. right now I hit the wall because the file I analyse is in visual basic and I don't know much about its structure so would like to dedicate a couple of days for learning about VB, which obviously extends the time until my report is done

Sorry to interrupt. This RE SE site doesn't show syntax highlighting with <!-- language:lang --> tag. Any suggestion?

@skooog Could be a couple of days to a month or two even, depending on the level of details required. It is probably be smart to thoroughly define requirement / goal and set the right expectations. Especially when working as a contractor/third party. You should also get a decent understanding of the customer's motivation for the reverse engineering effort. Sometimes the customer's goal can be met with a few hours work and some dynamic analysis using the right monitoring tool.