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Editing Binaries: Easier Than It Sounds

posted by janrinok on Monday March 24 2014, @04:51PM   Printer-friendly
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?"

 
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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 25 2014, @10:36AM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday March 25 2014, @10:36AM (#20965)

    I know that the online community made a patch for Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri to fix a few slightly crippling (for competitive play) bugs, and since the game is closed-source, I can only assume somebody went in with a hex editor. So yeah, in that case it's because they didn't have any choice.

    Those two viewpoints are mutually exclusive, either. I'm so glad I had to take that assembly course in college, as it really made the connection between what we do in C-like languages and how that ends up being bits. Not that I could translate compiled machine code even with a code table without going insane, but hey...

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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 25 2014, @10:39AM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday March 25 2014, @10:39AM (#20966)

    *aren't mutually exclusive. Whoops.

    --
    A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.