It’s been in my mind if we are using the software/program or even hardware of a tech company, we can play around, install-unsinstall and more. Then how is it so difficult for someone to “unhide” the source code that the device uses? Technically the code is in the device somewhere hidden in it, so it’s there, but still, it’s almost impossible to obtain the source code. How do they achieve this so no one copies their code?
In: 366
My understanding
Languages show us words and formats them so we can read and understand the code with files, comments, and organisation tools.
That code is then compressed into machine code, which is what the language is built off of. It reduces code to its most basic functions while still being somewhat readable to humans, but all the language and variable are converted to symbols and addresses without any explanations.
This is then converted into assembly, what a machine reads. This is basically nonsense to humans.
Companies ship assembly, as only your computer needs to read it.
You can actually convert it back into machine code pretty easily as that’s the point of machine code.
After that, if you had 1000s of lines with 1000s of variables, it could take you and a team AGES to read, interpret, rewrite, and recreate code through this method. That’s assuming the engineers involved put in no effort to prevent this from happening.
Encrypting the assembly code, adding layers of dummy variables and logic in the machine code, verification checks.
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