Hi, I am producing a new site - still under construction - on Visual Basic 6.0 cracking. So far there is an overview of the Winice.dat file for VB, information on cracking string compares, long compares, enabling and disabling controls etc.
There is also a downloadable crackme which is pretty hard to do unless you think about what you are doing. You will also find the complete VB 6.0 API and OLEAUT32 API is downloadable form with a description about how to create breakpoints with SoftIce.

I would appreciate any feedback and contributions in the form of technical papers or links. I shall continue to develop the site ONLY if it gets enough visits.

If you have any clues or need any hints about the crackme you should send them to this message board. If you get the password then send it to me directly and don't spoil the fun for others. If you manage the crack I'll invite you to write a tutorial and send you the Visual Basic source code as well.

Enjoy the site.

hiya The Diver,
sounds interesting, shall certainly visit if/when you decide to let us know where it is ^_^

regards
hz

The address is WWW.infonegocio.com/VBCrack. The page requires java.

I'd take out that moving link javascript ... and add section on SmartCheck

I may remove the moving Javascrip link even though it is quite pretty in order to make the site easier to access. SmartCheck is a pretty good tool for initial analysis and cracking weak programs but it is not as flexible as softIce. You will notice that cracking the CrackMe should first be tried using SmartCheck. Nonetheless, the program uses Windows API's and smartCheck is not the best tool for these.

Thankl you for your comments.

Has anyone tried the Crackme from the site? If you have your feedback may well be apreciated by others. Letting people know what you have tried and what has not worked is a great way to learn and for me to improve on the basic algorithm.

Let's get some feedback here. This is a forum not just a book.

I have just added a new section to the site with some advice on making your Visual Basic applications more difficult to crack.

Most of the techniques discussed are actually used in the downloadable CrackMe so I'd recommend downloading it and having a go at cracking it.

Remember that if anyone manages the crackme I'll publish the commented Visual Basic Source Code.

If you get stuck you should ask for help by posting a message after this message.

Nice stuff. More than what I originally write in some places. 8)
If you get your info from elsewhere, don't you think a credit to the author is required?

Regards
EB

I got everything myself the hard way. Write a very small VB app and then breakpoint on everything in sight. The lists of breakpoints came from using W32Dasm to decompile - the rest common sense. I would appreciate help from others however where credit will of couse be given.

There is a general void in literature for cracking Visual Basic which I hope my site will help to remediate. the original idea for the site was to get others interested and form a reference point for everyone. It is great to say give credit to others but for me to say this others have to do something first.

I will nonetheless give credit to vReal whom was the only person to crack my last CrackMe and with our conversations has allowed me to improve the basic algorithm - which was in its day posted in Visual Basic code on this board.

You will note that if you use a program to search the net and check for copied material it will bring up negative results.

I hope you have tried the CrackMe. It will test your knowledge properly.

I have added another new section today called Rolling Your Own. It describes in detail how to go about researching Visual Basic Calls and as an example gives detailed instructions on the information which lead to the section on Long Compares.

The section tells you which tools to use and with which patches and then what you should do.

The idea of the section is to get others to continue researching and produce some papers or articles for publishing on the site. So far absolutely no one has sent any material. I find it hard to believe that nobody else has the slightest clue about cracking Visual Basic.

If you find the site useful and would like it to grow I expect to get some help from others. If I do not get any help then I won't bother publishing at all and will use my notes for my own personal use only.

Interesting... 8)
My essay dated 23rd Jan 1999, has a lot of similarities with your VB API overview... especially the
1) Data type conversions
2) Moving Data
3) Mathematical
4) Miscellaneous

Even to the point that I didn't capitalised the various APIs (You have the same thing too)... hmmm... Of course there are a few more that you most probably leeched from somewhere else...

For your interest, you might already have the URL, the essay I am refering to this
http://www.mesa-sys.com/~eternal/eb/eb_vbpart1.zip

Hmm... maybe you have gotten the stuff from Crackers notes by tornado who added them with my permission...

OUCH..... Checked it out and what a bitch-slap that was. EB I agree with you.

I will be checking your reference today. If you have come to the same conclusions then I will give you credit for it for doing it first. I can assure you that so far I have not seen your essay but I hope that it will provide some more valuable information.

Rather than criticising wouldn't it be better to get together and jointly write the site? It seems pretty obvious that we are going to reach the same conclusions on many things. Particualrly the main useful API's which have been common knowlegde for quite some time.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I have checked the Eternal Bliss link. I see what you mean. The original table was given to me in a slightly less complete form in an e-mail a couple of years ago. Now I know where it actually comes from I have ammended the Overview and added a credit to Eternal Bliss.

I am truly sorry for having a copied table on my site on the API overview page and I unreservedly ask for EB's forgiveness for not having given him credit. The original site of Eternal Bliss has even more types of comparison explained and is well worth a visit.

I have also added "rtcTrimBstr" to the original Eternal Bliss table as this is called before most conversion routines.

I would also like to take the opportunity to ask EB if he would like to get together and produce a combined site.

The Diver