Reverse Engineering

My biggest personal project (~4 years)
Date: 2022 - 2026

Overview

This large-scale personal project evolved from reverse engineering scripts into a multi-service distributed platform running in production on my VPS. The initial architecture started with Website BDMD on a classic LAMP stack (Apache2, PHP, MySQL). It then migrated to a Debian Docker stack using Nginx + PHP + MySQL + application containers with a shared web root and compose-based orchestration. Today, the ecosystem combines reverse engineering, live parsing, automation, and web administration through:

• semaphore for proxy/parser execution, supervision, and multi-account management.
• BDM-svelte-manager for SvelteKit-based administration, Discord integrations, and manager-facing dashboards.
• BDM-BDD-API (XavierDB API) as a FastAPI layer above MongoDB for controlled data access.

This project now covers protocol reverse engineering, real-time data pipelines, database APIs, deployment automation, and production operations.

Key Features

• Reverse Engineering Core: Reverse engineered the game client protocol and traffic format to build reliable packet decoding and runtime control tools.
• Packet Injection Pipeline: Built a custom packet injection system after traffic mirroring, enabling controlled packet modification and event automation.
• Distributed Proxy/Parser System (semaphore): Implemented a Python proxy/parser architecture with supervision, logs, scanning flows, and manager APIs for many concurrent users/accounts.
• Multi-Account Management API: Exposed account and supervisor controls through manager routes under /api/v1/..., including status, logs, and command dispatching.
• Web Supervisor Endpoints: Added supervisor endpoints (/supervisor/snapshot, /supervisor/logs, /supervisor/command) to operate parser/proxy workflows remotely.
• Legacy Platform (Website BDMD): Designed and maintained the original monolithic website architecture (Apache2/PHP/MySQL) used to display chat, player stats, rankings, and maps.
• Dockerized VPS Migration: Migrated to Docker Compose services with Nginx reverse proxying and dedicated containers for PHP runtime, MySQL, Svelte manager app, and MongoDB service.
• Svelte Admin Platform (BDM-svelte-manager): Built a SvelteKit app with operational pages (/admin-manager, /admin-manager/supervisor/:accountId) to control backend systems.
• Discord App Integration: Embedded Discord bot workflows in the Svelte manager runtime for operational commands, data interactions, and event notifications.
• MongoDB API Layer (BDM-BDD-API): Built a FastAPI service exposing /auth and /query for secured MongoDB operations over more than 100k collections.
• Dual Database Strategy: Combined MySQL for legacy relational workflows and MongoDB for high-volume document-centric datasets.
• Automation with ADB and Bots: Automated client-side actions with ADB scripts and connected remote bots/webhooks for event-driven reactions.

Challenges and Learnings

This project introduced long-term architectural challenges across reverse engineering, distributed orchestration, and production migration.

1. Protocol Reverse Engineering and Stability: Understanding and reproducing packet structures was a major challenge. Reliability required strict validation and careful timing to avoid client-side inconsistencies.

2. High-Throughput Data Flow: Keeping proxy, parser, queueing, and dispatch flows synchronized under sustained load required robust inter-process coordination and monitoring.

3. Packet Injection Reliability: Injection logic had to be deterministic and safe enough to avoid crashes while still enabling meaningful automation scenarios.

4. Multi-User Orchestration: Scaling semaphore to manage many accounts at once required per-account isolation, supervisor observability, and clear control boundaries in manager APIs.

5. Migration from LAMP to Docker + Nginx: Moving from Apache2-centric behavior to Nginx with Dockerized services required routing adjustments, compatibility rewrites, and environment standardization.

6. MySQL and MongoDB Coexistence: Running both relational and document stores in the same platform required clear data ownership, separate access paths, and disciplined query boundaries.

7. Svelte Admin and API Integration: Building manager pages that interact with backend supervisor APIs required strong contract consistency and operationally safe command handling.

8. Deployment and Operational Discipline: Stabilizing production deployments involved compose validation, container health checks, log-based debugging, and repeatable CI/CD flow through GitHub Actions.

Through these challenges, I gained practical experience in network protocol analysis, multi-service backend design, containerized deployment, and full-stack operational engineering.

Technologies Used

Proxy, Parser, and Manager Backend

Name	Badge	Purpose
Python		Core language for reverse engineering, proxy/parser runtime, and automation tools
FastAPI		Manager and API services for supervision and account orchestration
Uvicorn		ASGI server for Python API runtimes
socketserver		Low-level proxy communication handling
Named semaphores / IPC		Inter-process signaling between proxy and parser components

Web Apps and APIs

Name	Badge	Purpose
SvelteKit		Admin web interface and management workflows (BDM-svelte-manager)
TypeScript		Typed backend/frontend logic for manager features
Node.js		Runtime for SvelteKit server and integrated services
Discord.js		Discord app integration running with the web manager
REST APIs		Service contracts across manager, supervisor, and data APIs

Containerization, Hosting, and Delivery

Name	Badge	Purpose
Docker		Containerization of web, API, and database services
Docker Compose		Multi-service orchestration for the VPS stack
Nginx		Reverse proxy and virtual host routing
GitHub Actions		Automated deployment workflows
OVH		VPS hosting provider
Cloudflare		DNS, edge routing, and security layer

Databases and Data Access

Name	Badge	Purpose
MySQL		Relational store used by legacy and PHP workflows
MongoDB		High-volume document storage (100k+ collections)
PyMongo		Python client for MongoDB operations and services
PDO / PHP DB Layer		Database connectivity in legacy PHP applications
XavierDB API (BDM-BDD-API)		Authenticated API gateway for MongoDB (/auth, /query)

Legacy Website Stack (Historical Architecture)

Name	Badge	Purpose
Apache2		Original web server used in the monolithic phase
PHP		Backend logic for dynamic pages and database access
LAMP Stack		Original end-to-end hosting model before container migration

Frontend and Visualization

Name	Badge	Purpose
HTML5		Website structure and templates
CSS3		Styling and responsive layout
JavaScript		Interactive client-side behavior
Bootstrap		UI components and responsive design
Plotly		Interactive graphs
Chart.js		Data visualization dashboards
Leaflet		Interactive map rendering

Automation and Bots

Name	Badge	Purpose
ADB		Android device automation for gameplay control
Pure Python ADB		Python integration with ADB workflows
Webhooks		Event-driven integrations between services