Mastodawn

gedaliyah Jul 9, 2024

Why is it impossible to reverse-engineer closed source software?

Why is it impossible to reverse-engineer closed source software? - Lemmy.World

The first programs were written in binary/hexadecimal, and only later did we invent coding languages to convert between human readable code and binary machine code. So why can’t we just do the same thing in reverse? I hear a lot about devices from audio streaming [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/spotify-wont-open-source-car-thing-but-starts-refund-process/] to footware [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/immensely-disappointing-nike-killing-app-for-350-self-tying-sneakers/] rendered useless by abandonware. Couldn’t a very smart person (or AI) just take the existing program and turn it into code?

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FaceDeer Jul 9, 2024

As others have mentioned, it's possible but very complicated. Decompilers produce code that isn't very readable for humans.

I am indeed awaiting the big news headlines that will for some reason catch everyone by surprise when a LLM comes along that's trained to "translate" machine code into a nice easily-comprehensible high-level programming language. It's going to be a really big development, even though it doesn't make programs legally "open source" it'll make it all source available.

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Toes♀Jul 9, 2024

I have a bunch of 16-bit applications that I would love to be able to do that with. Mostly dos and windows 3.1 games.

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subignition

You might actually consider dipping your toes into trying to learn how to analyze/reverse those yourself. Relatively speaking, software that old can sometimes be easier to reverse.

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Toes♀Jul 9, 2024

Yeah I’m not unfamiliar (still a novice though) with the process and mostly used it circumvent something obnoxious or tweak save files. Just takes a lot of effort when you’re just looking to spend a couple hours playing a game before bed.

I’m currently experiencing a frustrating bug in dolphin and I’m being tempted to learn enough about it. My MIPS buddy won’t help me with it because he thinks it’s a waste of time.

I like LLMs for the time it saves you to do something laborious or mundane. One day we’ll have general ai fingers crossed

~Love the toes pun

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subignition Jul 9, 2024

My apologies for preaching to the choir. (And I didn't notice your username when I wrote that, LOL. Happy accident.)