libdisassemble

libdisassemble is a Python library that will disassemble X86.

A disassembler is a computer program which translates machine language into assembly language, performing the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A dissasembler differs from a decompiler, which targets a high level language rather than assembly language. Disassembly, the output of a disassembler, is often formatted for human-readability rather than suitability for input to an assembler, making it principly a reverse-engineering tool.

Assembly language source code generally permits the use of symbolic constants and programmer comments. These are usually removed from the final machine code by the assembler. If so, a disassembler operating on the machine code would produce disassembly lacking these constants and comments; the dissassembled output becomes more difficult for a human to interpret than the original annotated source code.

Some disassemblers can infer useful names and comments; however, interactive disassemblers are able to successfully disassemble more programs than fully-automated disassemblers because human insight applied to the disassembly process parallels human creativity in the code writing process.

There can never be a completely automated disassembly tool which always outputs correct source code because the disassembly process reduces to the impossible-to-solve halting problem.