Hello World to the Boomerang Decompiler

August 10, 2007 · Filed Under DVL E605, DVL Project 

I just have added a new short video at the DVL magazine (Tool usage) on how to use the Boomerang decompiler

This project is an attempt to develop a real decompiler for machine code programs through the open source community. A decompiler takes as input an executable file, and attempts to create a high level, compilable, possibly even maintainable source file that does the same thing. It is therefore the opposite of a compiler, which takes a source file and makes an executable. However, a general decompiler does not attempt to reverse every action of the decompiler, rather it transforms the input program repeatedly until the result is high level source code. It therefore won’t recreate the original source file; probably nothing like it. It does not matter if the executable file has symbols or not, or was compiled from any particular language. (However, declarative languages like ML are not considered.)

The intent is to create a retargetable decompiler (i.e. one that can decompile different types of machine code files with modest effort, e.g. X86-windows, sparc-solaris, etc). It was also intended to be highly modular, so that different parts of the decompiler can be replaced with experimental modules. It was intended to eventually become interactive, a la IDA Pro, because some things (not just variable names and comments, though these are obviously very important) require expert intervention. Whether the interactivity belongs in the decompiler or in a separate tool remains unclear.

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One Response to “Hello World to the Boomerang Decompiler”

  1. Hello World to the Boomerang Decompiler · Cheat Grabber News on August 12th, 2007 1:24 pm

    [...] A decompiler takes as input an executable file, and attempts to create a high level, […]Read More… [Source: Damn Vulnerable [...]

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