hi All.

in this days i was thinking to a new project. i know that some projects are not yet completed but i think that it's time to talk about the future projects for this area.
it's always difficult to find something of interesting that can be involved more persons why we are in many and all various (everyone has the own preferences). i have some ideas in my head but before create a new thread, i would like to know your thoughts. obviously, i don't have to be the only one to propose -or impose- a project. the area is opened to anyone, especially timidest that sometimes has fear to make question why they think are too *stupid* (nobody will never say to you *lame*...i hope ). doesn't count the level of difficulty of a project, the most important thing is to see that someone can learn something!

back to my thoughts:
we could start a project for learning how a new dialog (not the usual messagebox) is added and managed to a program. this argument is interesting but at the same time not much immediate for those who they try for the first time. in fact, it requires the definition of a new routine handler (for the new dialog). in this way we will be pushes to learning something new about assembly and to understand how is the structure of a generic routine handler. it would be a beautiful project where beyond to the usual use of a debugger or a disassembler, there is the possibility to add new code. moreover, we will have the possibility to use new tools *ad-hoc* (i.e. code snippet creator) for adding new code lines (that are not the usual 4/5 lines...). i have made a search on the net but i have not found tutorials interesting for which it could be a plan to hold in consideration.

otherwise, we can do a classical project and beyond the usual protection routine based on name/serial, keyfile, regfile we could involve in:
- something about inline-patching
- cryptography. if i remember well, this idea was born in an old post. i don't know too much about crypto so if someone wants to help us is the welcome.

there is the possibility to cover many different argument, we have only to decide and focalize our attention to a specific project and then...start with it!!!

ok, that's all. i hope to receive comments or new ideas from you!

best regards,
ZaiRoN

Projects are always good, especially if it involves coding. I'm not entirely clear as to what it is you want to make. I've only been skim reading this board for a while so Im not sure what your idea of a project is, but whatever it is, if i can help I'd be happy to....

Hi Zairon,

It's difficult to please the masses isn't it? Especially if the masses won't tell you what pleases them. One thing I've thought about a few times for a different kind of project, but never got around to it, is designing a Reverse Engineering Crossword Puzzle. Y'know, with clues like

1. Name of the Win32 API which, when given the handle of a control, returns the identifier of the specified control (12 letters)

2. Definition of Bit 8 in 80x86 EFLAGS register (2 words, 4,4)

3. Opcode Instruction 31D2h (3 words, 3,3,3)

4. "PE + 80h" (simple definition, 2 words, 6,9)

5. Sum of digits in slang expression when written numerically for "elite" (9 letters)


Something like that anyway. I wonder if there's any way we could standardize things using a demoware or freeware crossword puzzle maker, such that everyone could submit their own crossword puzzles for others to solve? I don't know which one might be the best that won't become a problem to use, but we'd need a standard format. The puzzle files are simply small binaries with the questions and answers encoded.


If designing a crossword puzzle proved too difficult, maybe just a series of questions that can be read in as a text file plugin and placed into levels in a simple crackme style skeleton. If 10 people submitted say 10 questions (and 10 answers) designed to challenge, vex, and tittilate, then we'd have 100 questions and answers for people to learn from. My gosh, people would actually have to do research to solve it! No more mind-numbing codewood excursions into Softice (unless the clue required it), but actual reading and scanning and searching to find the answers to the clues. Zounds, what a concept ;-)

Anyway, there's 2 more pence to ponder.

Cheers,
Kayaker

Nice idea Kayaker. I quite like that as it encourages memorization of opcodes, flags, etc to make us better reverses and quicker on our feet. I think there are free crossword platforms you could do this for. It would be neat have everyone submit questions and someone could throw it together.

Snatch

Great idea, Kayaker, I like it a lot.


Of course Zairon's first suggestion appeals to me as well, but hey look at my name tag..... ( I love code snippet creator )

-nt20

Hi Kayaker,
congratulation for the idea! this could be an interesting and amusing project.

> I wonder if there's any way we could standardize things using a demoware or freeware crossword puzzle maker
to standardize a demo/freeware puzzle maker could be very interesting.
i have found many puzzle maker program on the net but the big problem will be to choose one program to work with. i'm not a crossword puzzle player and i can't help you on finding the best....

>we'd need a standard format
yes, a standard format is necessary. i have a question for you (and for all other mates):
why do you want to use binaries in order to encode questions and answers? Why not a simple text file?

to nikolatesla20 & RaX: glad to see that someone is interested in code injection

regards,
ZaiRoN

write the proper opcode for:
add dword ptr [ebx*8+edi+AB3D13CC], esp

LOL well who doesnt know the MOD R/M and SIB byte encoding values I mean come on guys .

Better though in all realism would be something like which register cannot be used when using a scaled index byte. That one we SHOULD know.

Snatch

A crossword puzzle? Now, that is a very creative idea... !!! And of Zairon's ideas, I like code injection... Not really a big one on crypto as I never could really get into the level of math required

Cheers,
Clandestiny

Yep a crossword sounds cool..but can you keep it on a gentle learning curve for us newbies....

Thanks

paul333

hmmm, a crossword. What about different levels of it, such as a no corners blank scenairo typical of regular crosswords....

it seems that the idea of the crosswords is liked to many
before beginning this new project i think we need to agree on what we want to do. i have seen some answers like "good idea" or "very interesting" but...what we will want to do exactly? Kayaker has proposed two different possibilities:
1) to work on a demo and reverse it for reading our puzzle, encoding them in .exe (or something else)
2) to put questions all together in a crackme level style

the first proposal is decidedly more interesting and requires some time in order to organize the work.unfortunately, in this days i'm busy with university and i don't have much time to find a suitable crossword proggie.

for the second proposal....well, it's much more simple and fast.
anyone could prepare some questions (atleast ten for everyone), and put them in a .txt file (question + answer + level).if wished you can transmit them me using the PM; i will put all the questions in an *answerme* and when we have a good number of questions we could launch the challenge. obviously, if there is someone else that wants to collect the questions and to organize all is the welcome and can also make yourself ahead

regards,
ZaiRoN

Way to kick some butt Zairon, heheh I've been wanting to make a reply to all the enthusiasm, but I haven't been sure of the best approach either. There are several good CP programs out there, but it's a little early in the game to be choosing a specific one and basing everything on people having to, erhm, 'attenuate any restrictions' the demo program might present ;-D

Besides which, I figure part of the fun and challenge should be for people to go through the process of having to design their own crossword puzzle Clues and Answers. At least on a basic level so they get some appreciation of how difficult it can actually be to come up with a good crossword puzzle.

So, to that end I was going to suggest this proposal. There is a small freeware crossword puzzle compiler program (with source no less) written by PC Magazine called WordJunction. I've been testing it out and it seems to work reasonably well. It doesn't have all the fancy capabilities of predesigned grids etc, etc, but I gave it about 50 "RCE" words of variable length as Answers, and it easily made up a 24x24 grid of about 35 of those words. This seemed to be about its limits, but was good enough for the purposes.

I figured those who want to play with this can give a go at designing their own puzzle and present it if they wish. Even if it's a small one, or basic, or subject specific, or whatever. It might be interesting to have separate subjects like a Cryptography Crossword Puzzle, etc.

Or, save the RCE Clues and Answers they come up with and submit them as Zairon suggested via PM or whatever. Once we get 50 or 100 good clue/answer combinations then one of us could design 1 or 2 medium sized puzzles from the words and present them for everyone to play with.

If someone gets keen while doing this and designs a more complete puzzle they want to present on their own, that's cool. They could use any CP program they wanted to to design it then simply attach it as an RTF or other suitable output file. This doesn't have to be an electronic crossword puzzle - remember pen and paper? Anyway, all suggestions are good, but to start with here's the WordJunction program I spoke of, and we'll see how things progress:

ftp://ftp.zdnet.com/acq/downloads/pub/zd/PCMag/pcmwrdjc.zip

Cheers,
Kayaker