On 04/01/2021 22:50, Dan Espen wrote:
> Pancho  writes:
>
>> On 04/01/2021 17:51, gareth evans wrote:
>>> On 04/01/2021 13:08, Pancho wrote:
>>>> On 04/01/2021 11:00, gareth evans wrote:
>>>>> Thinking back to my first job, nearly 50 years ago now,
>>>>> when I had to dis-assemble DEC's paper tape BASIC
>>>>> interpreter in order to enhance it, I guess that
>>>>> dis-assemblers and decompilers must now be ten-a-penny,
>>>>> especially for programs running under Windows where
>>>>> the structure of Windows programs is well-known with
>>>>> an assumption that C was the source language?
>>>>>
>>>>> But I wonder if Artificial Intelligence could, after
>>>>> being fed with numerous instruction sets, take a
>>>>> block of binary, and analyse its source without
>>>>> any prior knowledge of the instruction set?
>>>>>
>>>>> I am particularly interested in the Binary Blob
>>>>> provided for Raspberry Pi computers, with a view to
>>>>> getting detailed knowledge of the video processors
>>>>> employed therein.
>>>>>
>>>> I think a lot of the problem is defining the question.
>>>>
>>>> What do you want it to do?
>>>>
>>> I don't want it to do anything. I want to play at a low level
>>> with the thing ... large oaks from little acorns grow.
>>>
>>
>> Play with what thing? What is an instruction set, what is the Binary
>> Blob? Why do you need an AI?
>>
>> Most compilers leave fingerprints on executables you don't need an AI
>> to detect them. I remember decompiling in the early 80's but complex
>> modern code can often be a challenge to naively reverse engineer a
>> high level understanding from even if you do have source code. Take
>> away sensible variable and function names and you are stuffed.
>
> I've had more than one experience in putting those meaningful variable
> names right back.  It's actually pretty easy, a somewhat rote process.
> Find the read input instruction.  Since you know the layout of the input
> record, you now have labels to many of the references to that input
> area.
>
> I think you can work out how to proceed.
>
>
Without the source how do you know any meaningful variable names in the
first place?

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