Re: IDA goes to Linux!!!
Frome some point of view, each _DIS_-Assembler might be used as an analyzis tool for reverse engineering and h@cking.
The "normal" way of software development is: You have a "High Level" language like (Delphi, Java, C++, Cobol, Fortran, Pascal and 1000 more). These languages will be used to programm a desired functionality.
Computers consist of processors with registers and the processor itself may address a huge amount of memory. Processors understand "low level" elementar instructions like "add the content of memory address 4711 to the register_R1" in short form, this may be written down as "add &4711, R1". And as a processor dowes not understand this (text) "mnemonic", this processor will be feed by the byte sequence "0C AB 47 11" as a "byte format (object file)
A disassembler now translates back the 0C AB 47 11 to a more readable format add &4711, R1. If you have "library functions" which may be included in the disassembler, the analyzis might get more comfortable: Instead of "calll function 02ABC4" you will read "call funtion_draw_circle"
But without any idea what the programm is doing, you have no chance at all to understand anything of the code. It might be compared to a DNS sequencer in genom technology: you will get the answer that there is a specific code sequence of CTGA at a specific part of the genom, but you will not be able to identify if this is an ear or a leg which will be coded there ......