WebAssembly Disassembly: Converting WASM to WAST with wasm-dis

Have you ever needed to inspect a compiled WebAssembly binary to debug an issue, audit its security, or simply understand how it works under the hood? Converting binary WebAssembly (WASM) into its human-readable text representation (WAST/WAT) is an essential skill for modern web developers and security analysts. This text-based course guides you through using the wasm-dis command-line tool, a core utility of the Binaryen toolkit. You will learn to easily disassemble binaries, read the underlying Abstract Syntax Tree structure, and troubleshoot compilation outputs. What you'll learn: - Understand the core differences between WebAssembly binary (WASM) and text formats (WAST/WAT) - Configure the Binaryen toolset to access the wasm-dis utility - Convert binary WASM files into clean, readable text representations - Analyze verbose disassembly output to inspect low-level instructions and function signatures - Apply validation checks to ensure WebAssembly module integrity before and after disassembly - Integrate modern WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) concepts when inspecting binary structures You will start with the fundamental terminology of WebAssembly formats before moving step-by-step through command-line operations, debugging workflows, and output customization options. This course is designed for web developers, security researchers, and software engineers new to WebAssembly internals, with no prior compiler experience required. Start exploring the inner workings of your WebAssembly binaries today.