Hi,

Can someone please point me to the tutorial on creating a no-cd patch or something similar? I have an annoying proggie that, even with the serials and a place on my hard drive, demands the CD each and everytime I want to use the program. I have Wdasm and HexEdit. I can get SoftIce and I dual boot with Linux - So i have compilers and such on that side. I also have MSVStudio on the Win side. I am new to programming but have always wanted to learn. Currently I'm doing those "Teach Yourself C++ and Visual C++ in 21 days" deals. I know Fravia has some tutorials on basic reversing. I might have missed one on Cds, and so I'll ook again a little later.
I did a light search on Astalavista and Google for a patch but returned empty handed. I figure since I don't need the program right away, and the no-cd thing is just a REAL BIG annoyance I can make that my first attempt.

On a side note, I remember about three years ago or so I downloaded SoftIce and tried a tutorial on cracking WinAmp 1.8 I believe. I didn't do anything other than have to refomat my hard drive -- which was a whopping 1 GB on my 100 MHz PPro!!! : )

Thanks for any help,

Adri_Magnon

Hi Adri_Magnon,

It depends on what kind of Cd-check is employed.. if the exe is not packed/protected then you can simply find the CD checks and patch it (it still happens nowadays)... if the CD actually read some data from your CD then it is going to be harder... if the CD is protected with safedisc then you are going to have some fun...

May I suggest these 2 sites for some readings :>
krobar.cjb.net
www.yates2k.net
krobar has a nice collection of EVERYTHING, and yates site has lots of CD-check cracking tutorials as well as information...

regards,

Hi,

Thanks for the reply!

I don't think it's a secure-cd type of deal. The program says "Please insert Cd in drive. Otherwise program will be run as Demo and files can not be saved."
I was looking in the registry for the program to see if some reference is made to checking for the CD. Since the program is so small I could happily pull it from the Cd as an ISO and do a virtual Cd but that seems like kind of a hassle too. I was hoping to just add a line to the registry that told the proggie the "CD" was in such and such place. I think i saw a smiliar deal used on Star Craft once. Hmmmm... maybe I should see how that crack/patch was written.
I was using Wdasm and then I got an error about not enough memory available. The proggie (exe only part) is 4.8 MB on my hardrive.

I appreciate your help and I will keep trying.

Thanks,

Adri_Magnon

Are you sure?

"Please insert CD...yiddayadda" are generally found only for games.

If it is indeed a software/application protections, could you let us know the name of the software?

If it is a game, you need not feel akward to ask for the same. After all, cracking is cracking. And games are sometimes "overprotected" (where have I heard that now??)

You are most likely facing one of the two:

1. A user made CD copy protection
2. A commercial CD protection

You could alternatively go to your "software" site and find out if there is anything mentioned about the CD check.

...Have Phun

Hi,

I apologize for not mentioning the proggie earlier. I read the FAQ but was unsure if it was in bad taste to say what it was outright.

The proggie is Final Draft 5. I got the ISO off a newsgroup. It sounded interesting. It allows the user to write a script or what not in a page already formatted for the type (movie. etc.) I burnt the ISO and it installed fine. The size of the image was only 63MB.
So I used the serial and it was all good. About a month later, today, I decided just to fool around with it. It said "Please insert CD or Program wille be run in Demo mode and files will not be saved." So I put the CD in and started it again. I re-entered the serial and it worked but then it asked for the CD again after I closed it, took out the Cd, and reopened the it. I figured this is annoying and looked for a crack or patch. All I found was one for an earlier 4.0 version. I decided I'd give it a try.
The folder is 9MB on my hd. In Wdasm, which doesn't open all the exe 'cause I don't have enough free memory (which bugs me cause I have 256MB) I searched for "GetDriveTypeA" and found several references.
However, when I looked up "cmp eax, 00000005" I found tons of references.
I was hoping I could crack it with the tutorials I got off the net. The one I am using primarily is Zoltan on cracking Dune 2000 for no-cd.
I printed out several others though.
On a hnch I opened a DLL in Wdasm and found the same GetA command above in it. There are 6 DLLs in the folder on the HD.
So far, with what little experience I have (some minor stuff on Unreal Tournament and a "21 days to C++" book), I am guessing that all the references in the main exe are to the Cd and what might be best is just to change/patch/edit all the calls to the harddrive and do the same to the dlls.
By the way, if I am way oof, please say so. I'd appreciate the help. : )

Thanks,

Adri_Magnon

P.S. The reason I think it's not protected with a CD-Copy sceme like SecureLock or whatever is because I got an ISO copy. I might be wrong though.

Try doing these:

1. You have several references to GetDriveTypeA.
2. Breakpoint on all of these using softice (if you have it) or try it in Ollydbg, which you can download it for free. Just search for "Ollydbg" without the quotes in Google.
3. I assume that only a couple of if you are really lucky, only a single GetDriveTypeA would be activated. Notice the locations in your program where this is called from. Write them down on a piece of paper.
4. Hex edit your file and put a bunch of nops (90 - in binary formats) where the GetDriveTypeA is called. Eg:

text.401000: E8 45 56 43 76 CALL GETDRIVETYPEA
here, change the bytes E8,45,56,43,76 to 90,90,90,90,90 and run the proggie.

5. If you crash or any error pops up, you are mos likely looking at some kind of a CRC/checksum inbuilt into the program. In that case, try modifying the same in memory rather than in the physical file
6. If it still does not run, then you are most likely facing a commercial protection. You have made an ISO image. Most likely, the original CD was replicated perfectly, which was re-burnt by you again perfectly. Alongwith the commercial protection. Therefore, it allows you to run the image and without the CD it does not.

Try this and let us see what happens...


...Have Phun

Hi,

I downloaded Olldbg (I thought it was Oily Dog at first) and when I open the exe it says "Entry Point Alert: Module MSVCRT 20 has enrty point outside the code." It then suggests the file maybe self-extracting or self-modifying and to keep that in mind when setting breakpoints. Does that change the advice you offered earlier?

I appreciate this.

Adri_Magnon

Just carry on straight ahead.

...Have Phun

Yup,

Final Draft is COPY PROTECTED (based on your hard-disk details). However, after serialization, it SHOULD NOT, repeat N-O-T ask you for the CD. If it still is then, as documented on their website, it is a BUG.

You can download the small COPY PROTECTION UPDATE from their own web site. In their own words:

"This file solves issues regarding authorization on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. If you are experiencing 16-bit .dll messages when launching Final Draft or are receiving a request for the CD when double clicking on a Final Draft file after your hard drive has already been authorized, please download this application to your desktop and install it by double clicking on the file. This will replace the necessary files in the Final Draft directory (Please note: This file will not install on Win 95, 98 or ME)."


You can find the update on:

http://www.finaldraft.com/downloads/fd5win.html

Once you reach this site, let it load. Once complete, go to the bottom of the page and click the link:

"Final Draft Copy Protection Update"

OR

You can directly update from:

http://www.finaldraft.com/assets/files/cp_update.exe



...Have Phun

Hi,

I'm running Windows 98 so I can't use the update - I tried. So, what do you think I should do? If it can be cracked like you mentioned earlier I'm all for it and will keep trying. Or, if I need to change the type of attempts I'm doing to a CD-Copy Protection (like SecureRom, etc.) then I'll find different tutes.

Thanks so much for the help,

Adri_Magnon