I have checked the FAQ!!

After reviewing post on this board and being a begginer programer (7 monthes in class) I have decided to learn this "reverse engineering". My question comes accross as this:

What are some good tools to start out with, that are free?
-I searched FTP sites and google for SoftIce and a few others but no luck.
What is an easy project?
-I'm thinking about a few old shareware games to begin with.


If thier is something I missed please lemme no b/c I am a n00bie and I probaby deserve the flame/bash

BTW: Im not doing this to be "cool" or "elite"

Thank you
~[]Trailer Trash[]~

I'd start by downloading OllyDbg and a few simple programs such as dvd95copy and dvdxcopy. All these are free to download, and OllyDbg is free to use

Once you know Ollydbg well and have done some programs, then is the time to move onto SoftIce. Far too many beginning jump into softice first and then are totally confused as they've never seen assembler code before, let alone debugged or reversed it.

To be honest however, I only use SoftIce for one or two "tricky" situations where Ollydbg is useless, but that certainly isn't many!

Try and get your hands on a copy of IDA if possible. The demo version is perfectly fine for most people, and there is a cut-down freeware version too (but not on DataRescue's webpage). If you can find a full retail version that has not be butchered to death, then that is good to, just don't ask us where to get any of this stuff from.

I'd get a copy of PEID too - it's a file identifier. I find that reversing 32-bit PE file is far easier than the 16-bit programs (much easier to "debug" as many more programs support them). So unless your old shareware programs are 32-bit (PEID will tell you this), then I'd kick them into the trash for now.

Got me PEID and OllyDbg, couldnt find anything else so I am going to look for some tut's and think of a easy project to try
Thanx!

Hold up there sporty.......................

Wheres your hex-editor and Wdasm ?

If we are starting at the beginning.......

Also, find tuts that also have the target included.
It will make things so much easier then trying to apply
an old tut to a newer version.

Check out Krobar's site for newbie tuts.

Woodmann

Hello,

While I totally agree with Squidge i would not put my hands
directly into the engine, and learn how it works first.

If you are planning to do learn reverse engineering,
i would advise you to LEARN assembly first.
By learning i don't mean understanding was a "cmp" does, nor what "jnz" does, but actually to code in assembly.

Even simple applications like the examples on Iczelion site are an invaluable help. As soon as you understand how to code some bit of assembly, how to call API, how you feeds them with parameters, where they return their values, what are the registers of an intel cpu, what they are used for and all the rest, you will find debugging and cracking a LOT easier because you actually understand what you are reading, and you won't end up patching every je/jne you find around a stupid error message without having a fucking clue about what's going on. That's what do 90% of nowadays newbies IMO.

I'd advise you to read main chapters of Art Of assembly (not the HLL version) and to get your hand on some win32asm programming with Iczlelion's site and examples.
Win32ASM (http://www.win32asm.cjb.net)

Wish you good luck.

Regards,

Analyst

need info / explainations on what asm code means ?

http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~yap/classes/machineOrg/helppc/helppc21.zip

download that...

http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~yap/classes/machineOrg/helppc/

the above link explains what it is and how to install...

its an old (dos based) program but its still VERY useful when beginning.

Thanx for all your help guys, im going to the book stores tomorrow to get some things and read all the stuff in the links!

I must agree with the "learn to program in asm first" part, as most of the programs that people hack now are not the simple "switch the jne/je jump" like they once were, they are more like rewrite a hole section of code (few hours tops), or spend days trying to find all the comparisons.

Recently, I "extended" the lifetime of a commercial compiler for an embedded Microcontroller, and the program was protected using SentinelLM. They used the challenge-response throughout the program with the license manager several hundred times. It was far easier to rewrite one of the sentinel routines and code my own response routine for there challenge rather than attempting to find all the comparisons.

it's been a long time since i messing up some DOS games. i gotta learn some real cracking now. thanks for this valuable info for a newbie like me. i wish there were a sticky for a newbie . i m kinda lost in my path right now and need to find a dierction. asm, softice , Ollydbg . what is the first step for a compeltely nooob???

Thanx

I'd say learning ASM is really the first thing - you'll be seeing it and working out what it does a lot, so need to be very familiar with it.

Learning ASM is definitely the way to go.

But I think more in terms of "reading" ASM rather than "coding" ASM.

And learning coding need not turn you into an expert cracker, necessarily.

A good thing would be to crack windows based programs rather than DOS based ones. 32-bit ones are the ones to look out for.

The verneable Winzip is the best to learn cracking. Start by searching for winzip version 5.0 and gradually move upwards to the 8.0 version.

Subsequently, try your hand and various "primitives" rather than specializing in one field (say, unpacking only). This will give you more insight to cracking than learning how to code ASM will ever do.

However, most importantly, enjoy yourself.

Have Phun

Learning how to code in win32asm do help a damn lot.
you don't need to be expert in coding, just to know how to make simple files using API.

You will learn what an API is, how they take their parameters,
how they return their values.. the basis.

Then you can start to try your hand on targets as you mentionned.

Most newbies just bpx getwindowtexta just because they read to do so, without having any fucking clue about what does that api,
what it returns, what parameters it takes..

That's my point.

Understand how it works, then research on targets.