Covert Java™: Techniques for Decompiling, Patching, and Reverse Engineering

Chapter 17. Understanding and Tweaking Bytecode

	“Every solution breeds new problems.”
	--Murphy's Fifth Corollary

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Bytecode Fundamentals 165

• Viewing Class Files Using the jClassLib Bytecode Viewer 166

• The JVM Instruction Set 167

• Class File Format 168

• Instrumenting and Generating Bytecode 174

• Bytecode Tweaking Compared with AOP and Dynamic Proxies 181

• Quick Quiz 182

• In Brief 182

Bytecode Fundamentals

Chapter 2, ”Decompiling Classes,” presented a brief overview of bytecode and the purpose it serves in Java. As you undoubtedly know, the bytecode is the intermediate step between the source code and the machine code, which enables cross-platform execution of the Java programs. The bytecode is defined by the Java Virtual Machine Specification ( ...