3 ms·

Correct, though you can essentially edit the 'decompiled' code directly at low level (then put it back into a binary), and for some languages this is even toler

Correct, though you can essentially edit the 'decompiled' code directly at low level (then put it back into a binary), and for some languages this is even tolerable e.g. languages which compile to CIL. OP didn't do this, because as they said: "I don’t like writing assembly". Although what they did is arguably harder...which maybe was the point! After all they could've just hooked up an MCU to proxy the button press for a given duration, which would've taken a lot less time.

NobodyNada 2y ago
You can edit disassembled code in your decompiler, though I'm not aware of a decompiler that lets you edit decompiled code. And editing a disassembly is tricky because you need to make sure your patch is exactly the same size as the original code, otherwise the addresses won't line up. The usual approach for a non-trivial patch is exactly what the OP did here: put your patch somewhere in free space, and replace the original sequence of instructions with a jump to your patch.
- poincaredisk 2y ago
  >though I'm not aware of a decompiler that lets you edit decompiled code DnSpy lets you do this (that's why I was careful to prefix decompilers with "native"in my answer). You can edit snippets of decompiled C# code directly inside. But vm based runtimes are much easier to decompile/recompile, and it still may not work in the end. Though programs compiled to intermediate code are in general very different to analyze, so that's kind of nitpicking.
  - Karliss 2y ago
    For C# and Java sure. Those are relatively easy to decompile and the decompilers are quite reliable. With exception of features like generator functions and lambdas most of the languages map 1:1 from source to bytecode, type information is mostly maintained. With C and C++ things are a lot harder.

3 ms·

Correct, though you can essentially edit the 'decompiled' code directly at low level (then put it back into a binary), and for some languages this is even toler

by pockmarked19 2y ago

NobodyNada 2y ago
You can edit disassembled code in your decompiler, though I'm not aware of a decompiler that lets you edit decompiled code. And editing a disassembly is tricky because you need to make sure your patch is exactly the same size as the original code, otherwise the addresses won't line up. The usual approach for a non-trivial patch is exactly what the OP did here: put your patch somewhere in free space, and replace the original sequence of instructions with a jump to your patch.
- poincaredisk 2y ago
  >though I'm not aware of a decompiler that lets you edit decompiled code DnSpy lets you do this (that's why I was careful to prefix decompilers with "native"in my answer). You can edit snippets of decompiled C# code directly inside. But vm based runtimes are much easier to decompile/recompile, and it still may not work in the end. Though programs compiled to intermediate code are in general very different to analyze, so that's kind of nitpicking.
  - Karliss 2y ago
    For C# and Java sure. Those are relatively easy to decompile and the decompilers are quite reliable. With exception of features like generator functions and lambdas most of the languages map 1:1 from source to bytecode, type information is mostly maintained. With C and C++ things are a lot harder.