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- Path: redstone.interpath.net!mercury!softbase
- From: softbase@mercury.interpath.net (Scott McMahan - Softbase Systems)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
- Subject: Re: Secure from Decompiling??
- Date: 10 Feb 1996 14:17:08 GMT
- Organization: Interpath -- Providing Internet access to North Carolina
- Message-ID: <4fi9d4$g4l@redstone.interpath.net>
- References: <4djaq2$jd5@earth.superlink.net> <4e0e5iINN5qs@keats.ugrad.cs.ubc.ca> <4erfl3$oa2@homer.alpha.net> <31167bd7.15907136@netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov>
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-
- Kevin Quitt (kdq@emoryi.jpl.nasa.gov) wrote:
- : >ALL variable name would likely
- : >contain addresses for names (e.g. i2940). This would render the code
- : >useless from the start. Someone would spend more time reconstructing
- : >the code than purchasing the package.
-
- : Likely true, but decompilation can be much better than you think.
-
- Okay, so where's PROOF of this? I've only seen one "decompiler" (the
- one on the web page everyone always mentions as proof decompilers are
- bogus), and it supported the original statement (in spades!). Have you
- written a decompiler? Where is your decompiler that is much better?
-
- : >More importantly, the decompiler must decifer the library code from
- : >your source code...
- : Not at all difficult, and one of the first things a good decompiler does.
-
- Where's a "good decompiler" then!? I've only seen one decompiler ever,
- and it was not "good" by any stretch of the imagination. If a good
- decompiler can take an offset into memory and determine that a statically
- linked routine is a library function, it's pretty darn good.
-
- : >Imagine, trying to decompile a MS Windows program
- : >written with OWL or MFC, good luck.
- : Not particularly a problem.
-
- Okay, so where's the C++ decompiler that recognizes class libraries,
- then!?! You need to back up these wild claims with something
- concrete. How would a decompiler even KNOW that a class library
- was being used?!
-
- Scott
-
-