Computer Science master thesis by Bálint Kiss, Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest 2017
This is my master thesis, which deals with the topic of reverse engineering Java class structures from JAR files. The documentation contains technical background information and methods on doing that, while describes implementation of a JAR reader module for CodeCompass.
This reading is useful for anyone who wants to start out with reverse engineering Java bytecode or anyone who wants an in-depth understanding on how the JVM executes bytecode programs.
Information retrieval from Java archive format (PDF)
During the course of my work, I contributed to CodeCompass, an open source code comprehension tool made for making codebase of software projects written in C, C++ and Java more understandable through navigation and visualization. I was tasked with the development of a module for recovering code information of Java classes in JAR files. This document details background concepts required for reverse- engineering Java bytecode, creating a prototype JAR file reader and how this solu- tion could be integrated to CodeCompass.
First, I studied the structure of JAR format and how class files are stored in it. I looked into the Java Class file structure and how bytecode contained in class gets interpreted by the Java Virtual Machine. I also looked at existing decompilers and what bytecode libraries are.
I created a proof-of-concept prototype that reads compiled classes from JAR file and extracts code information. I first showcased the use of Java Reflection API, then the use of Apache Commons Byte Code Engineering Library, a third-party bytecode library used for extracting and representing parts of Java class file as Java objects. Finally, I examined how CodeCompass works, how part of the prototype could be integrated into it and demonstrated the integration through parsing of a simple JAR file.
- Thesis in PDF format
- Source code of the JAR reader prototype in
jarreader-prototype/ - API documentation for the JAR reader prototype in HTML form in
jarreader-prototype/doc/ - Source code of example JAR files in
example-jars/
- Java Development Kit (JDK), at least version 1.8
- Apache Maven
In the jarreader-prototype folder, issue Apache Maven with the following command:
mvn clean javadoc:javadoc packageThe generated executable will be at "jarreader-prototype/target/jarreader-prototype-1.0.0.jar".
In the example-jar folder, issue Apache Maven with the following commands:
mvn -f ClassInJar/pom.xml clean package
mvn -f TestJar/pom.xml clean package
mvn -f InstanceMethodCalls/pom.xml clean package
mvn -f StaticMethodCalls/pom.xml clean packageDocumentation and JAR reader prototype sources are Copyright 2017 by Balint Kiss. JAR reader prototype sources are licensed with MIT license.