Reverse Engineer, Debugging & The Like

[uhme]

First, I want to point out I am not wanting to know HOW to do it, but wanting to know in what capacity does one learn to reverse engineer, debug, decompile, etc. I know to get YOUR software working correctly, you probably need to that but... as I read the EULA it always says we should never do that so I am sure it can be done (maybe not easily). i am just wanting to know is it more complicated than just to ask what does it actually mean w/out getting into semantics or technicalities and how to do it?

[mathgirl32]

Use these links for good not evil.

For learning about decompilers, disassemblers, and reverse engineering you may want to look at the following links:

Decompiler Bulletin Board

Looking for a C++ decompiler?

Disassembling

This page contains information about various commercial, shareware and freeware disassemblers, and tools for building disassemblers.

More Disassemblers

AiCE-51 - In-circuit-emulator for SIEMENS C500 Microcontrollers includes disassembler by Appliware.
Application-specific Decompilers - Catalog of decompilers.
AVATAR - A disassembler/patcher/code-explorer for PA-RISC based HP-UX systems, by Allegro Consultants, Inc.
the bastard disassembler - *NIX disassembler. Written in C on Linux for x86 ELF files; intended to support multiple CPUs, OSes, and file formats. Scriptable.
DASM1600 - An Intellivision Disassembler by Frank Palazzolo.
The dcc Decompiler - It decompiles small .exe files from the (i286, DOS) platform to C programs.
The Decompilation Page - Decompilers, resources, and history.
The Decompilation page - This is the Wiki version of the Decompilation page (originally by Frans Faase, then Cristina Cifuentes). Feel free to keep this page up to date; anyone can edit.
Decompiler.com - Online reverse engineering (decompiling) tools, documentation, discussion, downloads and software.
DISA - An OS/2 disassembler for OS/2 device drivers, by Abbotsbury Software.
DSP5600x - A 5600x disassembler by Miloslaw Smyk.
FARGDIS - Fargo Disassembler for TI-92 DOS versioin, by John Grafton.
High Level Assembler and Toolkit (HLASM) - System/390 assembler toolkit for MVS & VM & VSE (HLASM) including disassembler, by IBM.
IDA Pro - The multi-processor, multi-OS, interactive disassembler, by DataRescue.
MacNosy - Is a Mac application that disassembles the Macintosh ROM or any 68K or PowerPC codes, by Jasik Designs.
MELPS7700 Disassembler - By H.Kashima.
Misosys Disassembler - Tim Mann's TRS-80 Page includes Misosys Disassembler, aka PRO-DUCE.
palmdeMON - A win32-based disassembler and resource viewer for Palm Pilot applications. Links to other Palm tools.
PICE/WIN - Panasonic MN1500 Emulator Interface for Windows includes Disassembler for MN1500 by TransferTech.
Re39 - Interactive Disassembler for Rockwell C29/C39 (C40) code by Lewin A.R.W. Edwards.
Reverse Engineering Compiler - Program that tries to make source coden (C) from binary, multiplatform. There are MIPS disassembler too, by Giampiero Caprino.
SSEM - The World's First Stored Program Computer - disassembler included.
SST Global-Decompilers - Decompilers for IBM midrange systems.
This96 - 80196 disassembler by zartoven.
TRACE32 - Microprocessor Development Tools include multi processor emulators and disassemblers.
Transputer disassembler. - By Andy Rabagliati.
Universal Cross Disassembler - XDASM - DOS based cross-disassembler supports numerous processor types, by Data Sync Engineering.

[gamemaster6502]

Here are a couple of sites that will teach you how to reverse engineer.
http://protools.cjb.net/
http://neworder.box.sk/codebox.links.php?&key=cracking
http://www.reverse-engeneering.de/
http://members.aol.com/jpeschel/progver.htm

Please do not use this info for software cracking and stuff. This is supposed to be used for learning, and not malicious purposes.
~thanks

[souleman]

or you could learn binary and asm. Then take the binary code and convert it to asm. Then learn how the c compiler compiles everything, and convert from asm to c. It would be a lot more work and probably extreamly boring, but hey, you would learn a LOT in the process.

[uhme]

Many thanks for the prompt replies and help; apologies for the long wait 'ere the thank you.
I never got the idea to learn when i was younger so now I have to go thriough my arse to get to my elbow ( ia am in my mid 30's) to learn. The first two replies are relevant enough (read there is documentation for me to retrieve) but for asm and binary, which road do i need to embark on?
Also, i just received a book an C programming as well so i will be learning a lot.

[thread_killer]

I've been doing a fair bit of reverse engineering lately with the goal of building my own embedded devices/Real time OS's.

Though not strictly only reverse engineering, here's what I'm doing (though by no means am I an expert or even worthy of the title journyman):
1) I start with open source software that does something akin to what I want it to do.
2) I read the source code
3) I scratch my head and swear a lot, because I'm not a developer.
4) I ask someone who knows more than I do "What the hell do these 200 lines mean???"
5) I scratch my head and swear some more.
6) Finally, I get it......then I work on ways to improve it. I ask myself "What do I need, what is bloat?" If it's bloat, it goes. If it's not there and I want it I figure out what needs to be put in there.
7) I ask someone who knows more than I do "Why is my code so messed up?" They usually fix it for me, which is not my intent.
8) I then build the hardware. Lucky for me I studied electronics and have a shed full of crap hardware to play with. Caveat: Soldering burns are not fun.
9) I then end up repeating steps 4-7 several times because my code doesn't work with the Frankensteined hardware I've built.
10) I cuss a lot for not having the means to burn anything into a ROM chip and compromise by using Flash.
11) I repeat steps 4-7
12) I read in a magazine that someone has already come up with my idea, && put in features that I hadn't thought of.
13) I swear a lot and begin scratching my head thinking of the next idea.


Hope that helps.

[uhme]

rofl threadkiller sound like something i would/will do once the journey is embark. Prob being where I am at, I have noone to help me or bail me out. Informative and funny Ilike that... thanx again