# Edit Shockwave



## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

Hey for a flash file that is a .SWF I can simple use flasm to extract the bytecode.flm out of the .swf and edit and reassemble it back when done..
But I'm confused of how I edit a Shockwave file that is of .DIR format or if it even used bytecode.
I'm not the biggest genius on a pc so I might sound stupid but what I'm 'trying' to do is edit the actionscript coding of a shockwave file that is of .DIR format so yeah...
If you could help me it would be appreciated.


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## Chicon (Jul 29, 2004)

Hi bikerbcs,

Reverse engineering of files is on the verge of illegality. You won't have any support or advice in this forum.


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## bikerbcs (Oct 10, 2005)

oh.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Sometimes it is illegal, sometimes it isn't. Anyways, changing published files (like SWF) to editable files (like FLAs) often works bad.


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## Chicon (Jul 29, 2004)

ferrija1 said:


> Sometimes it is illegal, sometimes it isn't. Anyways, changing published files (like SWF) to editable files (like FLAs) often works bad.


The .SWF files you download on the web are generally copyrighted materials. They are mainly introduction pages of websites, games or miscellaneous presentations.
Most of them contain multi-media documents which creators want them to be protected from copying.
Also, a meticulous Shockwave developer will more likely use code obfuscators or scramblers to prevent or sabotage the reverse engineering of his work.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Chicon said:


> The .SWF files you download on the web are generally copyrighted materials. They are mainly introduction pages of websites, games or miscellaneous presentations.
> Most of them contain multi-media documents which creators want them to be protected from copying.


Some things aren't copyrighted, though. It depends what it says on the Flash/Shockwave content or at the bottom of the page.



Chicon said:


> Also, a meticulous Shockwave developer will more likely use code obfuscators or scramblers to prevent or sabotage the reverse engineering of his work.


Putting it into an SWF is usually enough and I know pros don't use "code scramblers" as doing that would would make it very hard to change or update and I don't think Flash lets you do it because it would think your ActionScript is a bunch of garbage.


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## Chicon (Jul 29, 2004)

ferrija1 said:


> ...
> Putting it into an SWF is usually enough and I know pros don't use "code scramblers" as doing that would would make it very hard to change or update and I don't think Flash lets you do it because it would think your ActionScript is a bunch of garbage.


I think it's a mistake to not protect his work. Of course, it depends of the content. Personally, I would be angered if a competitor steals the coding of a program I could have spent many months to build it. 
SWF files are easy to decompile and there are free multi-media extractors on line that allow to strip SWF files from their contents.
Also, as a good obfuscator doesn't alter the syntax and the logic of a program, it poses no problem for the compilation.
For security reasons, I've already been told to use an obfuscator for some Java programs I developed for the company where I worked. All I can say, it is a real nightmare to understand what an obfuscated application does after decompilation.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

> SWF files are easy to decompile and there are free multi-media extractors on line that allow to strip SWF files from their contents.


They often work bad and they can not decompile some of the movie clips and graphics. It usually gets the audio and AS out fine, though.


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## Chicon (Jul 29, 2004)

ferrija1 said:


> They often work bad and they can not decompile some of the movie clips and graphics. It usually gets the audio and AS out fine, though.


I don't know. I've never tried a SWF decompiler.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

I did once and it was horrible.


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