Source code from EXE

[silverspear]

Is it possible to get the complete Source Code from an executable. The program was written in C ?

 

[FrustratedUser]

For a huge amount of money there are companies that can do that.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Not that can be useful

 

[silverspear]

This is important - Money is not an issue. Its for a Legal Case.

Can you point me in the right direction as to which companies will do this and would we get the complete code ?

Thanks

 

[JonnyBlaze]

you could try this

http://www.backerstreet.com/rec/recdload.htm

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: silverspear
Is it possible to get the complete Source Code from an executable. The program was written in C ?

Attacking the vendor - if not then for the right amount of $$, the vendor should be able to assist in providing the info desired.

Most S/w though has a disclaimer in that the vendor is not responsible for problems that the use of the S/W causes.

Unless you can show that the program is seriously flawed and the vendor should have either caught the problem and/or was made aware and became negligent; you may have a hard time.

Most disassemblers can identify library calls; however internal "pure code" and comments are not usually available. They will usually generate psuedo variable names. Interpreting the design from the generated code will also be time consuming.

 

[silverspear]

we are not attacking the vendor - the client was naive enough not to ask for the source code when the project was complete - he owns the program.

Is there any company that does this ?

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: silverspear
we are not attacking the vendor - the client was naive enough not to ask for the source code when the project was complete - he owns the program.

Is there any company that does this ?

Been in that situation - contracting officers do not realize that they could be left in the cold.

Unless the purchase contract specifies source code is to be delivered and/or made available; you are probably out of luck. May licenses will have a clause preventing reverse engineering of the application also.

Over the years, I have seen the Feds, a couple of State/Local governments and private companies get raked over the coals for $$ to get rights to the source.



Good Luck

 

[silverspear]

No no - you misunderstood me. This guy was just not knowledgable. We have seen all the contracts as such and thats why i am asking for advice.

We need proffecsionals to give us the source from the exe to copyright and other legal stuff.

So - Eagle, i am sure from your replies you have dealt with this... have you any recommendations for a compnay that does this wort of work.

 

[singh]

With today's modern compilers and the optimizations they're capable of, it is unlikely that the 'source code' you get back will look anything like the original. This is assuming that the program has been written in a language such as C or C++, that it is sufficiently complex and that you want to look at the program as a whole and not isolate a specific portion. Also, the 'source code' that you get back will be unusable for maintenance as a human being would have a tough time understanding it.

 

[Atheus]

you will be able to analyse the program but you will never be able to retrieve to original code.

Originally posted by: silverspear
We need proffecsionals to give us the source from the exe to copyright and other legal stuff.

So the author is using the code which is supposed to be owned by your client? If so you might be out of luck as it won't look much like the decompile... you might be able to prove it compiles into the same thing though...

 

[notfred]

No, you can't get back C code. You can get back assembly code, and you can even automatically generate C code that would create the given assembly code, however there's no guarantee that the C code automatically generated from the assembly code looks anything like the original C code created by the original programmer. The only guarantee is that they do the same thing.