Dev.SN

Editing Binaries: Easier Than It Sounds

posted by janrinok on Monday March 24 2014, @04:51PM   
from the not-for-the-faint-hearted dept.

Anonymous Coward writes:

"Dan Luu, in his blog, suggests that editing binaries is something that we should consider from time to time. From that blog:

Editing binaries is a trick that comes in handy a few times a year. You don't often need to, but when you do, there's no alternative. When I mention patching binaries, I get one of two reactions: complete shock or no reaction at all. As far as I can tell, this is because most people have one of these two models of the world:

• There exists source code. Compilers do something to source code to make it runnable. If you change the source code, different things happen.
• There exists a processor. The processor takes some bits and decodes them to make things happen. If you change the bits, different things happen.

If you have the first view, breaking out a hex editor to modify a program is the action of a deranged lunatic. If you have the second view, editing binaries is the most natural thing in the world. Why wouldn't you just edit the binary?"

• Fond memories (Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Monday March 24 2014, @10:22PM

  by istartedi (123) on Monday March 24 2014, @10:22PM (#20698)

  Thanks for the memories. C=64 stuff where you input the code from Compute! Magazine. Microsoft's brief partnership with Apple during the 90s. You could tell it influenced their devs because for a while (IIRC, in Windows 98) they made it easy to find things in DLLs. You could explore the MS equivalent of a "resource fork" in Windows system files. I changed the error message dialog boxes a few times just for the heck of it. It was fun to do it on a co-worker's machine and have it say something like, "Rufus, you doofus".

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3