Reverse Engineering

[Petrizia]

Hi,

We've lost the source code for a VB program. How can we get the source code back?

Any ideas.....

[Dököll]

Hi,

We've lost the source code for a VB program. How can we get the source code back?

Any ideas.....

Petrizia,

You'll need to tell us a bit more. What does the application do?

Sorry for your troubles...

[Killer42]

What you need is a "decompiler" (possibly hyphenated). Try the search box, as I'm sure this topic has come up before. You can also try combining search terms such as "retrieve vb source".

Note, you will never get back the full source code with comments and so on, as a lot of information is (presumably) thrown away when compiling the code.

[cmrhema]

What you need is a "decompiler" (possibly hyphenated). Try the search box, as I'm sure this topic has come up before. You can also try combining search terms such as "retrieve vb source".

Note, you will never get back the full source code with comments and so on, as a lot of information is (presumably) thrown away when compiling the code.

This is for Killer42 Moderator

I may be wrong in understanding, but if someone has created a package and lost the source code wouldn't be it impossible to get it back

[cmrhema]

What you need is a "decompiler" (possibly hyphenated). Try the search box, as I'm sure this topic has come up before. You can also try combining search terms such as "retrieve vb source".

Note, you will never get back the full source code with comments and so on, as a lot of information is (presumably) thrown away when compiling the code.

Refer this link
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/VB/decompiler.htm

[Killer42]

Refer this link
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/VB/decompiler.htm

Interesting article, and I haven't had a chance to read all of it yet. But I have certainly heard of VB decompilers (don't recall what VB version).

Perhaps they're merely an urban myth, but I see no reason why it should not be possible. VB does not simply produce "a string of ones and zeroes". I believe the "object code" produced by VB bears a much closer relationship to the source code than one might expect. Have a browse through a VB exe sometime, and you'll see all sorts of hints.

Certainly a decompiler could not reproduce the information which is lost during compilation - comments would be a prime example. But I'm pretty sure it could produce something, which would be more useful than assembler code.

[Killer42]

Here is another interesting link. Apparently this company produces decompilers. Except that they're impossible, of course. ;)

[Killer42]

Not sure how relevant this one is.

[Killer42]

All in all, I'd suggest you go to Google and put in "vb6 decompiler". Out of the 121,000 hits you may find something useful.