if i have an executable, is it possible to ''decompile'' it so i end up with the source code? if it is possible how do i do it? can it be done with msvs6.0?? any help is greatly appreciated.

there are apps out there that will create C++ source from an executable (first asm, then C++), but all the symbol names will by garbage made up by the decompiler. If you were really clever you could turn it into something usable, but it''d probably be easier coding from scratch

It depends on what language the executable was written in. And what compiler was used. And what compiler settings were used when the executable was built. And the version number of the compiler. Other than that, decompiling is easy .

AFAIK, Java is able to be decompiled pretty easily, due to the fact that is basically an interpreted language. C++, on the other hand, is almost impossible. Even if you manage to decompile the .exe into C++, none of the function/variable/type names will make any sense, as that stuff is not stored in the executable.

-Mike

Unless you are decompiling something like Java you won''t get back the original source, however I have used/reviewed several advanced decompilers that can do a pretty good job at reverse engineering code into a mostly C format (it inserts the original assembly at the places it doesn''t understand, and uses numeric variable names and address). Of course even this type of intelligent decompiler is still not very good at decoding OO programs, as the number of pointers used is much higher.

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quote:Original post by prh99
Decompilers will go from executable to assembly.

That would be "disassemblers." MSVC has one (usually seen in action as the disassembly view in the IDE).

quote:Original post by Michalson
Unless you are decompiling something like Java you won''t get back the original source

You won''t get back the original source from Java bytecode either - there''s no direct mapping. You have more "metainformation" than you do in a C++ binary, but not enough to get the original source.

quote:Original post by Kippesoep
or the RTTI information (which could at least be used to restore the names of all the types, IMHO)?

There''s no guarantee that RTTI provides the names of types as they are given in the source code.