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May 3, 2005 at 4:25 pm #18152neo_ny_23Member
Hi,
when we try to open an .exe file using notepad, we see whole bunch of hex characters and all jibberish… Is there any software to decode whats written there into simple english or even the program it contains?Any help regarding this will be appreciated.
May 3, 2005 at 6:08 pm #120847TigerbladeParticipantno, i’m pretty sure that’s impossible. it’s to keep people from blatantly stealing the source and using it themselves.
May 3, 2005 at 7:12 pm #120849Ithaca1937MemberThere is decompiling software out there. I’ve never used any of it to know if it works, but if you google “decompile exe” comes up with this.
I think the chances that you will find what you are looking for isn’t good and even if you do I don’t know how legal it might be.
May 3, 2005 at 9:45 pm #120845MartinBradleyMemberIs it something in the field of reverse engineering?
In the terms and conditions of most programs, it states that unwrapping of their files is not allowed. Therefore you’d be violating terms of use.
Reverse engineering isn’t allowed anyway. I think its illegal.
May 4, 2005 at 6:09 am #120843DJHyperbyteMemberTigerblade wrote:no, i’m pretty sure that’s impossible. it’s to keep people from blatantly stealing the source and using it themselves.Actually, not really. What you see in Notepad when you open an executable file is machine code. A computer doesn’t understand ‘source code’ in any way. Only machine code.MartinBradley wrote:Reverse engineering isn’t allowed anyway. I think its illegal.Depends on what you do with the results. Copying CD’s is legal, as long as it’s for personal use. 🙂May 4, 2005 at 7:21 am #120848TigerbladeParticipantDJHyperbyte wrote:Actually, not really. What you see in Notepad when you open an executable file is machine code. A computer doesn’t understand ‘source code’ in any way. Only machine code.well yes, but that doesnt help you with anything. i imagine he wants to decode the gibberish machine code into something he would be able to use for his own stuff. source code would be more useful to him than machine code, but he can’t get that.
May 4, 2005 at 8:37 am #120852m3rcyMemberreverse engineering would only lead to binary wouldn’t it?
once havin binary, you could switch it to another language to understand it.
i have no clue but this is just a possibilty.i mean, this program your trying to view its source, could be in any language. im guessing if theres a program out there that can reverse engineer it, it would have to turn it into binary?
‘shrug’ lol
whos a leet programmer here? 😀
i only know vb and its not my strong point.May 4, 2005 at 12:59 pm #120844DavidParticipantIf you decompile the EXE, you can get it into assembly code, a quite complex language, but it’s something usable. You will not ever be able to compile it back to C++ though; you could only recode the application.
May 5, 2005 at 3:47 am #120850neo_ny_23Memberthere are two .exe files which are viruses on my computer and I just wanted to convert them back to orignal languages so that I could know what they possibly can do and potentially how dangerous they can be. anyways thanks everyone.
May 5, 2005 at 8:58 am #120846MartinBradleyMemberMay 10, 2005 at 2:18 am #120851SS_AntiHackerMemberHi everyone,
First of all, the gibberish you see in Notepad is not machine code. Secondly, it is possible to re-write almost everything in an .exe except in a few cases, which I do not want to list here. As for you Neo, it is not easy, you must know Assembly, and a thorough understanding of the binary and hex system. There are tools out there that help you, but it’s really hard to find. The best way is to create your own tools =)
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