Well, i'm not sure that this post belongs here, but anyway +TSehp will take
appropriate precautions and move the post, if necessary.

I was trying to learn something from the recent "flame war". It is wise to do
so, especially if you were a part of it. Here are my humble findings:

The gap between the beginner and the experienced "software protection reverser"
is widening. Software protection schemes (SPS) were highly evolved and the
evolution is still going on.

This, makes the lifes of the beginners more difficult. Years ago, a decent
information on assembler and a couple of tools were enough for getting
rid of an SPS. Now, even intermediate reversers have troubles on deciding
what to do first with the SPS.

The minimum information level which is necessary to cope with an SPS is
increasing. This is widely known and very discouraging for the beginners.

In the history, it was more easy to choose the path of wisdom. Now it is
much more difficult. Therefore, the number of "lamers" is increasing.

This increase disturbs and discourages (also) the experienced reversers,
coders. The uneasiness spreads and makes the scene imflammable.

Another finding is the "impossibility of communication". As you may agreee,
it is not easy to communicate with a "new" person. You may share the same
socio-cultural background, same language etc. It is still difficult.

Think about the messageboards (or even e-mails). Different people with
different backgrounds, values, even different ethics. Without the aid of
face to face meeting, commmuniactions is VERY difficult (if not impossible).

The virtual means of communication is "rude" by default. You can not smile,
can not make gestures, no eye-contact etc. One must be very careful about
his wording/style in order not to be misunderstood.

These are only some humble findings. No solution proposals yet.

Kind regards.

I agree with a lot of what you have sead.

However, there are a lot of protection systems out there that are easily bypassed, provided the beginner actually reads up on the subject in the first place.

Annoyance comes from several sources but heres one which isn't covered very often

Aiming too high and not listening when being told to lower their sights

This is often a problem, for those new to the reversing.

Please excuse the example I have chosen, but it is STILL a current topic.

Ath the moment it can appear that everything is packed with asprotect.

DON'T WORRY it's not the case it just feels like that when you can't unpack it.

But the person new to unpacking just sees that he/she has to be able to unpack asprotect, it is their Holy Grail.

You just can't do that, you have to work up to it, you can't just do it by the numbers (not all the time anyway)

Learn to unwrap other packers and find out how they work.

You will still get a real buzz out unpacking them even though it's not aspr

Once you learn to unpack, the details already on the messageboard, give more than enough information, on the asprotect wrapper.

But once you can get past the basic aprotect wrapper theres a whole new world of what the author can do with the asprotect API, and it is much more fun hello s-spline, advanced directory printer and flexy, all of which have their own little tricks

So for the newer members, please don't set your sights too high.

Listen if an experienced person says to look something easier, at least consider it, they could easily have ignored your post.

If they say to read a certain tut or essay then do so, once again they could have ignored you, but they didn't. The essay may not appear relevant, if it dosn't then read it again, you probably missed somthing.

Regards,

Kilby...

It's been mentioned before, I think it's time to create it now. A well written FAQ shouldn't need to be updated frequently and will pay for itself thousands of times over

entirely agree with all this, all the work is needed to build on the intermediate stage, when the cracker finally understands that he uses a very usefull knowledge, but silled if only used to cracking. It's also great fun to code something, same thinking methods but more generous.

I had started a little faq, but don't have actually the time to finish it, also my english feels pretty bad

If there's any way I can help out with this FAQ, I'd be happy to do so!

woodmann told me last evening that he will take charge of this faq, watch for the related thread into general topics, he will upload his version and allow everyone to make the necessary additions/modifications.

this work will surely get better if it's team work, like rl, this place needs some rules and advices, so to be accepted they must be made by everyone here.

regards,

+Tsehp

You can find the latest version of the FAQ here:

http://208.50.16.104/Ultraboard/Public/HTML/B11/367-1.topic.html

I will keep it updated on that thread.

Peace, Woodmann