How to unpack dos lzexe packed exe?

[jonwil]

I have an exe file (16 bit dos) that seems to be packed with lzexe.
When I run unlzexe on it I get this:

UNLZEXE Ver. 0.81
Detected size of File is 27837 bytes
file 'mbucks2.exe' is compressed by LZEXE Ver. 0.90

but all I get as output is a zero byte file named the same as my exe but called .exeNEW instead of .exe

How can I unpack this exe (which btw does work just fine in DosBOXs)? (I want to throw it into IDA to reverse engineer some things)

[CodeCracker]

Try this:
https://www.classicdosgames.com/utilities/dos.html
UnLZEXE
https://www.classicdosgames.com/files/utilities/unlzexe.zip

[jonwil]

Ok the exe unpacks and the unpacked exe runs but when I throw it into IDA, it doesn't disassemble into anything that makes sense.

[sendersu]

try Ghidra
it knows 16 bit old binaries for sure

[BlackWhite]

Originally Posted by jonwil

I have an exe file (16 bit dos) that seems to be packed with lzexe.
When I run unlzexe on it I get this:

but all I get as output is a zero byte file named the same as my exe but called .exeNEW instead of .exe

How can I unpack this exe (which btw does work just fine in DosBOXs)? (I want to throw it into IDA to reverse engineer some things)

There is an old tool called CUP386 which can be used to decompress
your exe automatically.