How to extract data from EXE File

youtalk said:

Yes I am still very interested in getting this figured out. I don't believe it's anything to creative that this exe was built on. It seems like a very dated program. The program itself is huge, and has tons of information. (450 MB to be exact)

but there's only certain areas I want taken out and created for my site. All the data is in the program, it does not use web for information.

Click to expand...

Ok, it's coming back to me. If it's a C# / .NET program, you're in luck as that's the easiest to decompile. Check out Reflector (from Redgate) or dotPeek. C# / .NET are most common around 2002+~

If it's really old, might be Win32 / C++... makes things a bit harder but I'd try Boomerang, IDA pro or HexRays.

If it's really Win32 / C++ it's going to be pretty hard as that compiles down to machine code if I recall correctly. In any case, best of luck, be safe!

Still not enough posts to reply to your PM, youtalk. Additionally, I don't use Skype for security/privacy reasons. Other common IMs or email would be fine though.

450 MB? Are you sure our info is in exe file?

Data shouldn't be hardcoded into exe file, but in its some kind of database.

Depends on the compiler creating the executable file. Some executable files have plain string here and there, others are completely encrypted. Your best bet is to trace the code and fetch data directly from memory.

@W130SN has shown all the tools you need. But SoftICE and W32Dasm, both are old tools that may not work on modern computers anymore. Unfortunately there's no alternative as good. And even if you can get your hands on them, it requires quite a steep learning curve.

Typically there are graphics and whatnot stored in an EXE. Something like songs, i'd imagine, would be stored externally to the EXE. But if you open an EXE in a resource editor, or say, in Visual Studio directly. You can "look through" it.

as guys says it is possible even with encrypted exe file, EXE format is well known, encryption techniques too, so it will be mater of your free time to unpack it