How to become an MSIL pro?

Question

I have spent hours on a debugging problem only to have a more experienced guy look at the IL (something like 00400089 mov dword ptr [ebp-8],edx ) and point out the problem. Honestly, this looks like Hebrew to me - I have no idea what the heck it's saying.

Where can I learn more about this stuff and impress everyone around me? My goal is to read stuff like the following and make a comment like: Yeh, you are having a race condition.

.maxstack 2
.entrypoint
.locals init (valuetype [MathLib]HangamaHouse.MathClass mclass) 

ldloca mclass
ldc.i4 5

Answer 1

That is not MSIL, it is assembly langauge 80x86.

Answer 2

To get great at IL, start with this fantastic article: Introduction to IL Assembly Language. Although it says "introduction", it's everything you need to start getting comfortable.

The other part of what you need is practice and lots of it. Use .NET Reflector and start looking at code disassembled into IL. (Tip: when you go to download it, you don't have to provide a real email.) Also, play with the Reflexil plugin in Reflector. Here's a good starting point for that: Assembly Manipulation and C# / VB.NET Code Injection.

Not necessary but a bonus: Reflexil is open source. You can get the source here.