Can you see the source code of an application?

Discussion in 'Mixed Languages' started by Jeslie Jovelle Sanchez, Nov 20, 2018.

  1. Jeslie Jovelle Sanchez

    Nov 19, 2018
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    #1 Jeslie Jovelle Sanchez, Nov 20, 2018
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2018
    I was just wondering if there are any possible ways for me to see the source code of an application? Specifically the microsoft toolkit? Thanks in advance!
     
  2. Muerto

    Muerto MDL Debugger

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    #2 Muerto, Nov 21, 2018
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  3. s1ave77

    s1ave77 Has left at his own request

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  4. Muerto

    Muerto MDL Debugger

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    #4 Muerto, Nov 21, 2018
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  5. kaljukass

    kaljukass MDL Guru

    Nov 26, 2012
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    So maybe you will reveal the secret of how to do it?
     
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  6. CHEF-KOCH

    CHEF-KOCH MDL Expert

    Jan 7, 2008
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    You can reverse engineer every application, however, that doesn't show the actual source code but it reveals how the actual program structure work.

    As far as I'm aware of it, MDL does not allow talking about such topics nor to give specific tutorials on this.
     
  7. Michaela Joy

    Michaela Joy MDL Crazy Lady

    Jul 26, 2012
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    The best thing to do is to ask the developer if you can take a look at the source.
    That shows respect. He / She may ask why, and what you plan to do with it.

    If you suggest a change that will benefit the user base at large, the dev may add the changes for you. :)

    When you "Reverse Engineer" an application, there are many things that you need to understand before
    starting an ambitious task like that.

    For one thing, what development system was used to build the original app?

    Is it a compiled language? An interpreted language? (older versions of Pascal used to use P-code, which was interpreted.)

    Is it .NET? A vast majority of the app code in .NET lives outside of the app itself. Typically in DLLs.

    At this point, the code will be x86 or x86_64 (Assembler)

    So you better know it like the back of your hand. ;)

    Good luck.
     
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  8. CHEF-KOCH

    CHEF-KOCH MDL Expert

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    The problem with source code is that the code must be "reproducible" otherwise each time you compile the app it might change the checksum. So even if the developer open source the app and provides the checksum, you never know if the checksums (provided on the server) are the correct ones. For example if an attacker attacks the server, manipulate the checksums to match the malware you can't verify anything and basically execute malware anyway, of course the attacker must get access to the entire website/server to replace the file and change the checksum, but it happened with, was it Linux Mint (?) already in the past. So this is not a theoretical problem.