okay, i have an app on my computer and i wish to see it's source code, the codes you write on a compiler. Hex editor? sorry im a noob at these things
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okay, i have an app on my computer and i wish to see it's source code, the codes you write on a compiler. Hex editor? sorry im a noob at these things
You can't. Once it's compiled, the knowledge of the source code is lost.Quote:
Originally Posted by geniusisgenius
You can display it in assembly if you want, but I don't think this is 100% legal. Most companies try to make so-called reverse-engineering impossible to protect their programs from being cracked or copied.
brewbuck: lol @ your sig
oh ok thanks, so whats a hex editor??
Whether it legal kind of depends on your location. Companies often claim it's illegal, but in most circumstances it's perfectly legal to reverse engineer it (citation needed :P). I believe that in most countries/states it's even legal to crack the code and distribute and even use it - as long as it's used for legal purposes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brafil
Quote:
Originally Posted by geniusisgenius
Reverse engineering might be in violation of an EULA but it's not a "go to prison" crime or anything like that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brafil
As somebody whose job involves a lot of reverse engineering, I don't worry about it. We aren't stealing secrets, we're trying to get systems to interoperate with other systems (something which is explicitly allowed by the law)
Compiling a program is like baking a cake.
Once it's done you can't reduce it back into the flour, sugar, and butter etc that it was made from.
Yeah, entropy's a beach ain't it?Quote:
Originally Posted by iMalc
A hex editor is a program that reads ASCII from files and prints the hex code and the eight bits for each byte.Quote:
Originally Posted by geniusisgenius
Interesting to think about it from that perspective. Compilation is inherently an information-losing process, since multiple source level constructs could, in theory, map to identical machine code. But if information is actually lost, then this corresponds to a decrease in entropy, not an increase. At first glance, that is. I wonder if anybody has ever approached the topic of decompilation from an info-theoretic standpoint.Quote:
Originally Posted by hk_mp5kpdw
At least a fully optimized program should be very difficult to impossible to reverse-engineer.
Well, as brewbuck said, that looks as a decrease in entropy, but as far as I know this is impossible since entropy always increases or stays constant for a while. Actually it increases in general since the platform itself increases entropy at least by using electricity.
I fear that one day we will run out of order in the universe.