# SRE-Bench ![Category](https://img.shields.io/badge/Category-Agent%2FCybersecurity-1f6feb) ![Metric](https://img.shields.io/badge/Metric-%25%20Solved-2da44e) ![Saturation](https://img.shields.io/badge/Saturation-Medium-d29922) ![Created](https://img.shields.io/badge/Created-2026-555) > **Quick answer:** SRE-Bench measures whether AI models can reverse-engineer compiled software binaries — understanding a program's core logic without access to its source code. It first appeared publicly in OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra announcement (September 2026), where Astra solved 88.0% of tasks in a single attempt and 99.2% within four attempts, versus 55.9% and 68.7% respectively for GPT-5.6 Sol. ## At a Glance **What it tests:** Binary reverse engineering — recovering a compiled program's logic, control flow, and intent purely from its binary form, without source code, a core skill in security research, malware analysis, and vulnerability discovery. **Why it matters:** Reverse engineering is a bottleneck skill for both defensive security research (understanding malware, auditing closed-source software) and offensive capability (finding exploitable bugs in binaries). A model's SRE-Bench score is a proxy for how much of this traditionally expert-only skill can now be automated. **Known limitations:** Full methodology (task count, binary corpus composition, public availability) has not yet been documented in an independent paper as of this writing — currently known primarily through frontier lab technical reports. Reported scores include both single-attempt and multi-attempt (within-k) results, which should not be conflated. ## What SRE-Bench Measures SRE-Bench presents models with compiled software binaries and asks them to reverse-engineer the underlying logic without access to source code — a task traditionally requiring specialized human expertise in disassembly, decompilation, and program analysis. Results are reported both as a single-attempt solve rate and as a within-four-attempts solve rate, distinguishing models that get it right immediately from those that need iteration to converge on a correct understanding. ## Benchmark Specifications | Field | Value | |---|---| | Task category | Agent / Cybersecurity | | Metric | % solved, single-attempt and within-k-attempts | | Saturation | Medium — frontier scores now above 85% single-attempt | | Created by | OpenAI (introduced via GPT-6 Astra announcement) | | Public dataset | Not yet publicly released as of Sep 2026 | ## How SRE-Bench Is Scored Two scores are reported per model: the percentage of tasks solved correctly on the first attempt, and the percentage solved within four attempts total. The gap between these two numbers indicates how much a model benefits from iterative refinement versus getting the analysis right immediately. ## State-of-the-Art Results | Rank | Model | Single-Attempt | Within 4 Attempts | Source | Date | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | [GPT-6 Astra](/models/openai/gpt-6-astra) | 88.0% | 99.2% | [OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra](https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/) | 2026-09 | | 2 | [GPT-5.6 Sol](/models/openai/gpt-5-6-sol) | 55.9% | 68.7% | [OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra](https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/) | 2026-09 | | 3 | [Claude Opus 5](/models/anthropic/claude-opus-5) | 12.5% | — | [OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra](https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/) | 2026-09 | *Scores sourced from OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra announcement (September 2026). Leaderboard entries below reflect single-attempt scores for cross-benchmark consistency.* ## SRE-Bench on Benchgen > No Benchgen results yet — [be the first to run SRE-Bench](/benchmarks/sre-bench). ## SRE-Bench vs Other Benchmarks | Benchmark | What it tests | Saturation | |---|---|---| | **SRE-Bench** | Binary reverse engineering without source access | Medium | | [ExploitBench](/benchmarks/seunghyun-lee-david-brumley/exploitbench) | Offensive exploit construction (V8 bugs) | Low | | [SEC-Bench Pro](/benchmarks/sec-bench-pro) | Defensive security engineering | Medium | SRE-Bench sits between offensive and defensive security work — reverse engineering is a precursor skill useful for both finding new vulnerabilities and understanding existing malware. ## Run SRE-Bench on Your Model Benchgen lets teams track reverse-engineering capability across model versions over time, catching regressions a single vendor-reported snapshot would miss. ## Related Models & Benchmarks - Top performers: [GPT-6 Astra](/models/openai/gpt-6-astra) · [GPT-5.6 Sol](/models/openai/gpt-5-6-sol) - Related benchmarks: [ExploitBench](/benchmarks/seunghyun-lee-david-brumley/exploitbench) · [SEC-Bench Pro](/benchmarks/sec-bench-pro) ## Frequently Asked Questions

What is SRE-Bench?

A benchmark testing whether AI models can reverse-engineer compiled software binaries without source code access, introduced publicly via OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra announcement in September 2026.

What does a good SRE-Bench score look like?

As of September 2026, GPT-6 Astra leads with 88.0% solved on the first attempt and 99.2% within four attempts.

Who created SRE-Bench?

SRE-Bench was introduced by OpenAI, first publicly referenced in the GPT-6 Astra model announcement (September 2026).

--- *Benchmark definition based on OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra announcement. State-of-the-art scores sourced from the same and attributed inline. Last updated 2026-09-07.*

SRE-Bench — Results

SRE-Bench — Phases

SRE-Bench