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vlinx-io / native-image-reverse.md
Last active April 7, 2024 05:28
NativeImage Reverse Engineering

NativeImage Reverse Engineering

Restoring and protecting Java code is an old and often-discussed issue. Due to the byte-code format used to store Java class files, which contains a lot of meta-information, it can be easily restored to its original code. In order to protect Java code, the industry has adopted many methods, such as obfuscation, bytecode encryption, JNI protection, and so on. However, regardless of the method used, there are still ways and means to crack it.

Binary compilation has always been considered as a relatively effective method of code protection. Java's binary compilation is supported as AOT (Ahead of Time) technology, which means pre-compilation.

However, due to the dynamic nature of the Java language, binary compilation needs to handle issues such as reflection, dynamic proxy, JNI loading, etc., which poses many difficulties. Therefore, for a long time, there has been a lack of a mature, reliable, and adaptable tool for AOT compilation in Java that can be widely applied in p