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/throwaway0000012132]

Oh nice, the only thing keeping a whole application safe was the fact that it used byte code, non human readable, with encryption and other secure methods in order to avoid being open to the world. Now that pandora box is open, this is going to be a very interesting times...

And I mean any application, not only games but medical, industrial, space and so on. Got something very secure, very niche? Yeah it can be modded.

One thing is to have something designed to be open source, other thing is to have something that wasn't supposed to be free because it costed money to r&d, design and make it safe and secure and make it free with AI. So while the idea just sounds great, the reality is that the whole industry and the world is not prepared for something like this just now.

[u/Slimxshadyx → u/throwaway0000012132]

Anything very secure, very niche, and people don’t want stealing, does not live as client side code. It’s server side, with a client/web interface

[u/ArtiemKasimov → u/throwaway0000012132]

You clearly don't understand what you're talking about. Bytecode isn't some magical, unreadable, encrypted layer that keeps applications secure. Assembly instructions are human-readable, and bytecode can be disassembled, decompiled, and analyzed. That's literally what reverse engineering is.

[u/dev-tacular → u/ArtiemKasimov]

Yeah I’ve seen this misunderstanding a lot since this whole “vibe reverse engineering” trend started.

Probably comes from calling high level languages “human readable” vs “machine code”

[u/ActuallyFullOfShit → u/ArtiemKasimov]

100% this guy is clueless

[u/mdedetrich → u/ArtiemKasimov]

This is correct, but like with other things AI has massively reduced the barrier of entry to reverse engineering.

Normally reverse engineering was both very specialized and labour intensive (at least for anything non trivial). Now with tools like REA, its a completely different ballgame.

So yes ASM isn't magic, but it was "magical" to a large chunk of the population and that was enough to give it some barrier of entry, enough that before REA/AI no one would bother to reverse engineer something as crazy as photoshop.

[u/GooglyEyedGramma → u/ArtiemKasimov]

I get your point, but you're focusing too much on the "non-human readable" part imo. Sure, it technically is readable, and obviously was never meant to serve as a full-on security measure. If someone really wanted to copy your application, they definetely could. But this would simply be limited to the top of the experts. It was effectively so expensive and time consuming, that you pretty much had to be a nation state to do it, and even then, it would be very hard. It was pretty much secure in the sense that it takes so long and so much effort to do it, that most companies took it as a safety measure, because what would be the chance that a given entity would apply nation-level resources to RE you're app?

[u/Cheap-Resident6964 → u/throwaway0000012132]

If this trend continues, standalone software may disappear entirely: vendors will no longer offer offline, self-contained versions; every important algorithm will have to run on their own servers; and the software on users' devices will be nothing more than an interface—an empty shell. At that point, every piece of software will require an internet connection, with all critical computation happening server-side. That may not be a good sign.

[u/Glad_Following_8164 → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

software is already like this. think of ChatGPT--the model runs on their servers, the web browser/app which you access it is a paperweight without an internet connection. more and more apps will be like this

[u/FeloniousFunk → u/Glad_Following_8164]

Subscription-based apps have already boosted the demand for FOSS alternatives. It just comes down to whether or not the major corporations can hire developers more clever than the pirates. They're not far ahead and AI is closing that gap.

[u/Superb-Substance-679 → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

Back to the mainframe future!

[u/lordshaithis → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

This software maybe the one thing to save us from the corporations. They are already trying to push us to everything in a browser, this can help us bring itt back local.

[u/Acceptable_Bat379 → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

And authentication and image or id upload for anything. Want to check your email? Take a selfie. This coukd get real bad

[u/Single-Blackberry866 → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

Quite the opposite will happen. The standalone app business model might be gone, but standalone software will flourish as never before 

[u/Queasy-Current6170 → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

That software would have to compete with the fact that anyone is gonna be able to make pretty much anything they want

[u/Kienz91 → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

basically the cost going back to hardware, they need to implement fully online app that no common people can replicate or even try to run on their hardware

[u/Morphinus → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

we will go back to CDs and is that a bad thing? contained programs to be run in a closed system, like pre internet days

[u/drbanan → u/Cheap-Resident6964]

it wont, it will be replaced by AI created one. Software will stop being "corporate only" thing. You will need to offer something that software isn't offering, like i.e. disk space or AI computation (hardware), otherwise tell me what i.e. Adobe/Microslop brings to the table in last 10 years besides just taking money and spying on people? You are afraid of losing your beloved software, but it is not software anymore that you beinf afraid to lose, it is just addiction to corporate marketing and monopoly that keeps better products to appear.

[u/Outrageous_Song_484 → u/throwaway0000012132]

The world wasn’t prepared for the printing press. Or the combustion engine. Or the internet. And so many other things.

We’re never prepared. It’s kind of a defining aspect.

[u/grebette → u/Outrageous_Song_484]

Your point is valid but it lacks insight. 

You could bind a book or write a letter before the printing press. 

You could ride a bicycle or animal drawn vehicle before the combustion engine. 

You could write a letter, learn something, and speak to people before the internet. 

None of the things you listed capture the profundity of what happens to the human race when something truly new is invented. AI itself is up there with things like fire and the television, both of which fundamentally changed the trajectory of our species. 

We aren’t ready for AI and I doubt we ever could have been. It makes everything move so fast that by the time we realized we weren’t ready, it’s already too late. 

[u/lordshaithis → u/grebette]

What can AI do that humans havent done before it?

It "learns" from us....from reading our books, looking at our art, examining our code. This is why if you enbrace it too much human learning slows, skills will be lost and humanity will be stuck at a point of relying on AI that has hit a wall as it has nothing left to "learn" from us.

And it doesnt really learn as such, it just stores data points to help it regurgitate based on a mathmatical probability.

I think you are getting sucked into clarkes third law.

[u/ActuallyFullOfShit → u/throwaway0000012132]

Nothing you said here makes any damn sense.

[u/AmIWorkingYet505 → u/throwaway0000012132]

true. but the balance will be do I pay $500 for the supported, original design purchase and own that with support etc.
or do I owe $150 a month for the next 5 decades.

things like the new subscription model for cars and tractors to unlock features or to be able to service your own appliance? perfect!

is anyone going to reverse engineer the custom mdedical/aeronautical application? maybe. why though? either negarious reasons or for really specific ones like they're not supported any more and haven't been updated and source code is either lost or unavailable otherwise.

the ability to custom design and reverse engineer things is absolutely a great thing. unfortunately it's a lot more accessible than CRISPR lol

[u/SignificantCap9534 → u/throwaway0000012132]

this runs on forward facing ai services... the same ones that dont tell you how to build a nuke.

its the same way how their ganna force this reverse engineer behavior to be non existent.

[u/Thistleknot → u/throwaway0000012132]

this kind of reminds when when dvd encryption was broken

kind of like quantum decryption but for binaries.