Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Decompiler, was (uselessly) Re:
From: davidg () genmagic com (David Gillett)
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:31:25 -0700
On 19 May 99, at 11:23, Gilles wrote:
Does anyone here can post a simple C decompiler ? If i need to decompile my /bin/login in Linux Red Hat, is it what i need ?
The consensus used to be that such a beast did not, *could* not, exist. A rudimentary grasp of compiler technology clearly supports this conclusion. My attention was recently directed, however, to a web page of someone who appears to have made a bit of progress in this area. The thing is still clearly a grad-school research project, not ready for prime time. It works only on DOS executables. It works only on executables generated by a couple of compilers (perhaps specific versions!) for whom the researchers have been able to code recognition of calls to run-time libraries. It decodes all 'for' loops as the equivalent 'while' loops. Oh, and while the source it produces is probably acceptable to most coompilers, it may not be strictly legal. "Simple"? No. To the extent that decompiling C code is AT ALL practical, it will never be simple. David G
Current thread:
- [no subject] Gilles (May 19)
- Re: your mail Joseph S D Yao (May 21)
- Re: Bret (May 21)
- Decompiler, was (uselessly) Re: David Gillett (May 21)
- Re: Decompiler, was (uselessly) Re: Chuck Young (May 21)