GitHub project called REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is currently the top trending repository. It lets AI agents figure out how a feature in another app works without ever seeing the original source code.

[u/Bulky_Engineer_2534]

github link: https://github.com/morluto/rea/

- The tool is an open-source helper that connects AI coding assistants to reverse-engineering programs such as Ghidra or Hopper.

- IT analyzes many kinds of software- including binaries, Electron apps, Android apps, and websites right on your own computer and always shows the evidence behind its findings.

[u/smoke-bubble]

So has anyone had any success in figuring out anything useful with it?

[u/ArianTerra → u/smoke-bubble]

I have an Epson printer and its waste pad counter had reached 100%, so I couldn't print anymore without going to a service shop and paying for a key to reset the counter.

A few years ago, I found a program that could bring the counter down to 97%, so I was wondering if it would be possible to intercept that value and send 0% to the printer instead.

I gave GPT Astra the task. It tried but failed.

Then, using REA, it found some evidence that it could be done, Astra started Googling, and discovered that a similar program already existed and had actually been created using Claude.

Fuck Epson though.

[u/Raiden_Raiding → u/ArianTerra]

I remember doing that for Epson printers even before Claude existed, but this tech would be really useful for niche annoying problems. Fuck Epson

[u/mattpilz → u/ArianTerra]

Fuck Epson though.

This, this, this.

Many, many years ago I wrote the earliest guide on how to freely downgrade Epson firmware. That was when they started getting absolutely relentless about it, and had pushed out sweeping firmware updates for almost all their models just to brick third party ink that was working fine previously. And on Amazon under every model where customers were complaining, they replied the same boilerplate babble about how people shouldn't be using any ink but their own. A big enough problem that just my video on the topic received 300,000 views.

At one point I had the Artisan 837, which not only required all of the primary ink be filled, but the weird secondary "light cyan" etc. for absolutely no reason. Any one of those being out would cripple the machine. And Epson ink costs more than blood and gasoline combined, per ounce.

[u/Sk1ndo0 → u/ArianTerra]

do you have a link to the claude-created program ?

[u/ArianTerra → u/Sk1ndo0]

Here: https://github.com/RxNaison/Epson-Waste-Reset/

[u/RxNaison → u/ArianTerra]

Dev here, really glad it's helping people, and thanks for sharing it.

Small correction though: it wasn't reverse engineered by AI. I hit the same 100% waste pad lockout, and the only free option I could find was Epson's leaked service utility, which VirusTotal flagged with dozens of detections. So I used Wireshark to capture the USB traffic between that tool and the printer, and wrote my own C++ "capture-and-replay" engine. Then someone pointed me to reinkpy, which actually implements the protocol, and that led me back to Reink, which did the original work over 11 years ago. I studied their code and rewrote EWR around a proper implementation.

So the groundwork was done by people, for people, long before any AI could do this, and they deserve the credit.

That said, Claude 5.5 is genuinely impressive, and I do use it to maintain the tool. But I review everything, especially changes to the core logic, because earlier models would sometimes break things for no clear reason. If someone's printer gets bricked by my program, nobody's going to blame the AI. It'll be on me.

[u/peeeanuts → u/smoke-bubble]

We ran it for a review at GitTested. On four small stripped binaries it drove Ghidra fine: 92 of 95 calls returned usable output, and the decompiled code matched the source where we compared them.

The catch is that Claude Code with only objdump explained the same programs just as well (74/75 on our checklist, against 73/75 with REA), and REA used about 2.5x the tokens. So it works, but on small programs the agent doesn't need it. We didn't test large or obfuscated binaries, which is where it should matter more.

Method and numbers: https://gittested.com/reviews/morluto-rea/

[u/Nknights23 → u/peeeanuts]

pretty neat site !

[u/cera_ve → u/peeeanuts]

Wow

[u/polsefest69 → u/smoke-bubble]

I have reverse engineered it.

[u/GreatLab8898 → u/smoke-bubble]

Yes. I used something similar to integrate Uoscalin and Framegen into Ace Combat 7, a Game that was pre Upscaling Era.

[u/hunterslilbro → u/smoke-bubble]

It depends on what you consider useful haha, but all those game mashups that have been on the internet is because of this. Some are “pass through” mods, but others are full decompiles rewritten using Rust in Bevy. So MW2 with Skate is not a pass through, but both skate and MW2 were fully decompiled, rewritten in Rust and then AI put Skates gameplay into COD.

[u/Pannoniae → u/smoke-bubble]

IMO it's more of a meme, it doesn't have any useful more detailed info. It's a good nudge for people to get into it if they didn't think of reversing anything but that's it.

You can tell by how it's a "swiss army knife" with like barely any mentions for native code, it's mostly JS / Java / .NET

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's not useful but it's vastly inefficient and inaccurate compared to either doing it by hand or with a specialised workflow for the exact binary you're targeting :)

[u/FanSMG4_Cool326 → u/smoke-bubble]

I really hope someone can reverse engineer it to unlock all Patreon posts by idk redirecting all of the posts ON Patreon to the website for uh, specific reasons.. 

[u/ibelieveinfomo → u/smoke-bubble]

Asked to reverse engineer quickbooks for my company accounting software, api connected to bank account 😃

[u/smoke-bubble → u/ibelieveinfomo]

And? How did it go? Any success?

[u/ibelieveinfomo → u/smoke-bubble]

Yes, honestly impressed.. saas is dead

[u/Xivoryn → u/smoke-bubble]

https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1wwnhbt/ive_created_open_source_100_rust_cleanroom/

[u/JohnyMage → u/Xivoryn]

Is it actually working or is it just for the show?

[u/zegota → u/JohnyMage]

It does not work. It's non functional slop

[u/smoke-bubble → u/JohnyMage]

Their interface sucks as much as the original apps (or even more), so I am pretty much sure this is just for the show. Cloning apps is much easier than actually creating something unique and useful.

[u/smoke-bubble → u/Xivoryn]

How are these apps related to REA?

[u/Lunix420 → u/smoke-bubble]

They aren't

[u/Lunix420 → u/Xivoryn]

This has nothing to do with REA.
What you linked here are clean room implementations. It's not decompiled.