I walk through a similar process here [1], using binwalk to extract the source-code from a firmware image, then running the insecure router software in a QEMU VM. Although the purpose in the linked instructions is to repair a different Netgear exploit from October 2013 by modifying the insecure binary executable (see [2] for information on the technique).
[1] http://eschulte.github.io/netgear-repair/INSTRUCTIONS.html
[2] http://eschulte.github.io/netgear-repair/