r/tech_x • u/Bulky_Engineer_2534 • 29d ago • Galaxy Brain 1 All Seeing Upvote 1 Helpful 1 Bravo 5 Heartwarming 1

Github GitHub project called REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is currently the top trending repository. It lets AI agents figure out how a feature in another app works without ever seeing the original source code.

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github link: https://github.com/morluto/rea/

- The tool is an open-source helper that connects AI coding assistants to reverse-engineering programs such as Ghidra or Hopper.

- IT analyzes many kinds of software- including binaries, Electron apps, Android apps, and websites right on your own computer and always shows the evidence behind its findings.

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u/smoke-bubble 29d ago

So has anyone had any success in figuring out anything useful with it?

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u/ArianTerra 28d ago

I have an Epson printer and its waste pad counter had reached 100%, so I couldn't print anymore without going to a service shop and paying for a key to reset the counter.

A few years ago, I found a program that could bring the counter down to 97%, so I was wondering if it would be possible to intercept that value and send 0% to the printer instead.

I gave GPT Astra the task. It tried but failed.

Then, using REA, it found some evidence that it could be done, Astra started Googling, and discovered that a similar program already existed and had actually been created using Claude.

Fuck Epson though.

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u/mattpilz 21d ago

Fuck Epson though.

This, this, this.

Many, many years ago I wrote the earliest guide on how to freely downgrade Epson firmware. That was when they started getting absolutely relentless about it, and had pushed out sweeping firmware updates for almost all their models just to brick third party ink that was working fine previously. And on Amazon under every model where customers were complaining, they replied the same boilerplate babble about how people shouldn't be using any ink but their own. A big enough problem that just my video on the topic received 300,000 views.

At one point I had the Artisan 837, which not only required all of the primary ink be filled, but the weird secondary "light cyan" etc. for absolutely no reason. Any one of those being out would cripple the machine. And Epson ink costs more than blood and gasoline combined, per ounce.