Examining VB6 exe files

Dragoon

I have been tasked with moving us off of an ancient windows XP box. This is our current EDI box and we have several VB6.exe (I know for sure that two of them are VB6, but there are others that I am not so confident in) files being used as part of our GenTran/Lexicom workflow. I can execute the files just fine, on the new box, they produce no obvious errors. But I have no idea if they are actually working correctly as I am unsure what they are suppose to do (or if they are even needed anymore).

Any suggestions on how I should approach this?

error

@Dragoon ISTR a VB decompiler existing.

Google says: https://www.vb-decompiler.org/products.htm

Tsaukpaetra

@Dragoon said in Examining VB6 exe files:

moving us off of an ancient windows XP box

How is that going, by the way?

Dragoon

@Tsaukpaetra

Still in progress. It isn't a priority and as I got in there I found that a bunch of stuff was not working correctly, even on the old box. None of the error checking works today, two of the backup scripts silently fail for reasons unknown and the email notifications all timeout on send. So it is taking some time to rewrite everything.

As part of this move we also want to automate several of the manual steps that have to be performed today. Our old method for automating this kind of thing was a kludgy script written by an admin long ago. It works, mostly, but there is zero monitoring built into it, zero visibility of it. So we are in the process of writing something better and seeing as our EDI box keeps working, we are just moving slowly.

Vixen

@Dragoon said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@Tsaukpaetra

Still in progress. It isn't a priority and as I got in there I found that a bunch of stuff was not working correctly, even on the old box. None of the error checking works today, two of the backup scripts silently fail for reasons unknown and the email notifications all timeout on send. So it is taking some time to rewrite everything.

As part of this move we also want to automate several of the manual steps that have to be performed today. Our old method for automating this kind of thing was a kludgy script written by an admin long ago. It works, mostly, but there is zero monitoring built into it, zero visibility of it. So we are in the process of writing something better and seeing as our EDI box keeps working, we are just moving slowly.

The slow and steady tortoise gets to eat the rabbit stew....

hungrier

@Vixen Aren't tortoises herbivores?

Mason_Wheeler

@hungrier Well, they used to be, but then they won the race and now they get to eat the rabbits too.

error

@hungrier said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@Vixen Aren't tortoises herbivores?

I've heard most herbivores are omnivores when necessary.

ben_lubar

@Dragoon the NSA has a tool called Ghidra

not sure how well it works with VB6, but it's pretty good at reversing MSVC

Vixen

@error said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@hungrier said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@Vixen Aren't tortoises herbivores?

I've heard most herbivores are omnivores when necessary.

there are obligate herbivores which lack the ability to properly digest non plant based foods. They are a stark minority of animals.

There are your standard herbivores what are set up to most efficiently digest plant based foods but can and will in extremis eat and digest non plant based foods.

there are your omnivores which will eat anything they can that gives them net calories

there are your carnivores which are set up to most efficiently digest meat and have limited ability to digest plants, but will eat plants in extremis.

there are your obligate carnivores which barely can digest plants and will not survive well at all in the absence of meat.

then there are your mundivores which will eat anything up to and including the entire planet. These include Sergeant Schlock of the Tagons Toughs mercenary group and Alduin the world eater.

Mason_Wheeler

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

then there are your mundivores which will eat anything up to and including the entire planet. These include Sergeant Schlock of the Tagons Toughs mercenary group and Alduin the world eater.

I don't remember Schlock ever devouring a planet. How would it even fit, given that he's more-or-less the size of an adult human?

In the comic, his diet is generally portrayed as consisting mostly of the corpses of his enemies, and Genuine Imitation Ovalkwik .

Vixen

@Mason_Wheeler said in Examining VB6 exe files:

I don't remember Schlock ever devouring a planet

he has, however been described in canon as literally a mundivore, hence why i listed him. :-)

hungrier

@Mason_Wheeler said in Examining VB6 exe files:

I don't remember Schlock ever devouring a planet. How would it even fit, given that he's more-or-less the size of an adult human?

I don't know who or what, but why would he have to eat it in one sitting? Monsieur Mangetout ate (among other things) an entire airplane, which is confirmed larger than most adult humans

Mason_Wheeler

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@Mason_Wheeler said in Examining VB6 exe files:

I don't remember Schlock ever devouring a planet

he has, however been described in canon as literally a mundivore, hence why i listed him. :-)

Do you have a reference? A bit of googling says he was described as one at one point by Murtaugh, but I can't find the actual strip. Murtaugh's first appearance was in 2011, about 8½ years ago, so... somewhere in the last 3000 or so strips the word got used. Given Murtaugh's character, it doesn't seem likely that she meant it literally, rather than as a hyperbole for "extreme omnivore".

Vixen

@Mason_Wheeler said in Examining VB6 exe files:

Do you have a reference?

off hand no. i could come up with one but

your googlefu should be sufficient to the task if you really want the specific strip.

@Mason_Wheeler said in Examining VB6 exe files:

Given Murtaugh's character, it doesn't seem likely that she meant it literally, rather than as a hyperbole for "extreme omnivore".

...... aaaaaaaand? i said he was described as such. not that it was literally true.

Mason_Wheeler

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

...... aaaaaaaand? i said he was described as such. not that it was literally true.

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

he has, however been described in canon as literally a mundivore, hence why i listed him. :-)

error

I'm in that weird part of WTDWTF again.

Vixen

@Mason_Wheeler said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

...... aaaaaaaand? i said he was described as such. not that it was literally true.

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

he has, however been described in canon as literally a mundivore, hence why i listed him. :-)

Murtag's the only one allowed to use hyperbole?

that's literally bullshit! ;-P

Mason_Wheeler

@error Read Schlock Mercenary. Then it will make sense.

Vixen

@error said in Examining VB6 exe files:

I'm in that weird part of WTDWTF again.

you're going to have to be more specific..... this whole place is weird......

Vixen

@Vixen said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@error said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@hungrier said in Examining VB6 exe files:

@Vixen Aren't tortoises herbivores?

I've heard most herbivores are omnivores when necessary.

there are obligate herbivores which lack the ability to properly digest non plant based foods. They are a stark minority of animals.

There are your standard herbivores what are set up to most efficiently digest plant based foods but can and will in extremis eat and digest non plant based foods.

there are your omnivores which will eat anything they can that gives them net calories

there are your carnivores which are set up to most efficiently digest meat and have limited ability to digest plants, but will eat plants in extremis.

there are your obligate carnivores which barely can digest plants and will not survive well at all in the absence of meat.

then there are your mundivores which will eat anything up to and including the entire planet. These include Sergeant Schlock of the Tagons Toughs mercenary group and Alduin the world eater.