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Reverse Engineering an installed application

Written on Jun 16 2008
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2,730 views, 7 comments

by David Hudgens

In a recent session, Brian mentioned having run across a product that could reverse-engineer an installed application (couldn't remember the product or company names).  Such a product would have many practical applications but would be specifically useful to those who have inherited environments where little or no documentation exists with regards to installation and configuration of already-installed business-critical applications.  Brian mentioned that the company that created the product was originally small and recently acquired.  Does anyone know the product or company name?  Does anyone know of any product that can accomplish this?

Comments

Tim Mangan wrote ILDASM
on 06-16-2008 5:50 PM

Microsoft ships an executable with Visual Studio (or the SDK, I don't remember off the top of my head) that will reverse MSIL (contained in the exe of newer .net apps) back into C#.  It is called something like ILDASM.  As a result, .net developers use a tool to obfuscate the code before building the MSIL so that it is harder to understand the reverse engineered code.

This probably is not what Brian was referring to, but is the closest that I have heard of.

Mark Prigg wrote AppSense and another?
on 06-16-2008 6:05 PM

Brian mentioned two companies I think, when the discussion touched on the subject of only doing upgrades (as opposed new installations) because you don't know how to re-install the applications installed on your server.  Product names weren't mentioned though.  AppSense was mentioned, and another company which I can't recall, with regards people who can extract that details.

Tim Mangan wrote Re: AppSense and another?
on 06-17-2008 9:08 AM
Oh.  Maybe this.  There was a company in Florida, something like Aptivium.  They had software that would look at a system (like NT) and extract out the installed app and install it on another OS like 2000.  They were purchased by Microsoft in anticipation of Vista upgrades.  I don't know what happened to their work after purchase.
David Hudgens wrote Re: AppSense and another?
on 06-17-2008 10:58 AM

This sounds like what Brian was talking about.  He wasn't sure but thought they might have been purchased by Microsoft for what you describe.

Thanks Tim.

Gabe Knuth wrote Re: AppSense and another?
on 06-17-2008 11:30 AM

Here you go:  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/mar06/03-07ApptimumPR.mspx

Apptimum was the name.

Greg Spata wrote AppDNA?
on 06-17-2008 4:28 PM

Maybe you are referring to AppDNA?  www.app-dna.com  I'm told it can assess if an app can be migrated to Vista or Softgrid.  I've not used it myself, but sounds similar to what you are talking about.

Andrew Parry wrote Re: AppDNA?
on 06-25-2008 9:12 AM
Does anyone have any details on the pricing model App-DNA are using for Apptitude 2.5 (two main tools: Compatibility Manager for Vista migration and Virtualisation Manager for SoftGrid usage)

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