Decompiling Android

Chapter    ¹

Laying the Groundwork

To begin, in this chapter I introduce you to the problem with decompilers and why virtual machines and the Android platform in particular are at such risk. You learn about the history of decompilers; it may surprise you that they’ve been around almost as long as computers. And because this can be such an emotive topic, I take some time to discuss the legal and moral issues behind decompilation. Finally, you’re introduced to some of options open to you if you want to protect your code.

Compilers and Decompilers

Computer languages were developed because most normal people can’t work in machine code or its nearest equivalent, Assembler. Fortunately, people realized pretty early in the development of computing ...