Hi, I am writing this in the hope that i won't get flamed and that some very nice person might take pity on this almost newbie to cracking. By almost newbie, i mean that i can identify and remove a few nag screens (ie. MessageBoxA) but thats about it and I'm having trouble advancing to anything further
I can find specific cracking tuts such as "Crack Winzip 7.0" and even followed them through in the hope I might learn something but that didn't work although a did get a valid serial for Winzip. Please take pity on me and help someone that may be able to help you. (I do proffesional webdesign (ASP))

Hiya,
Ok we feel sorry for you, we really do ^_^ , what is it you are asking beside we take pity on you? ???.

Anyway what I need is someone that is willing to actually be a mentor or just guide me along the path to getting to the point where i can learn more be myself. I can use search engines and sometimes they yeild results but I'm after general lesons on the technique of cracking, finding the protection. Ideally i need a mentor, a teacher but then again noone normally gives up any time for me so why should a complete stranger? Just consider it write back soon with suggestions!!PLEASE!

That's what these forums are for....to offer assistance to people as they need it.

You just walked into the middle of a LOT of talented reversers who ARE willing to offer their time to give you pointers.

....but first you have to have a reversing question.

I need a lot of advice about how to fish for serials. Please, nothing specific, i really hate specific tutorials. Its pointless. Anyone can follow a tutorial! I'm not interesting in keygenning (yet) I just want to know the best way to go about this common protection scheme (name/serial generated OR hardcoded)
I'd appreiciate a fairly prompt response

Did someone call the messageboard police?

Read the FAQ.

Peace, Woodmann

You ought to be more understanding of the nature of serial fishing. Gone are the times when you laid an ear to the working of the program and it would echo back the serial to you.

Nowadays, apps are using sophicticated algorithms to match serials and use lots of self modifiying codes. It is nearly impossible to get a serial number in the SICE data windows as was with Win 3.11 proggies.

Of course, I speak for good programs. You can find a lot of bad programs on the net that STILL do the actual serial comparision. Winzip, for example, is one such.

Instead, I'd advise you to go to google and search for "DrMe1.htm" and "DrMe2.htm". Explains almost all concepts and without taking into account a single program! It should be good to you.

Have fun

Thanx, now does anyone know any easy targets for a newbie like me

Guess wot? I just cracked the cd check on Sonic 3 & Knuckles!!!
Woohoo!
Well, kinda
I inversed a 'je' to a 'jne' rather than making an unconditional jump
This was because i didn't know all the hex op codes
I though there was only one hex equivalent for each instruction, but i found that
je starts with either 74 (what i'm used to) OR 0F84
jne starts with either 75 (what i'm used to) OR 0F85
Why is this? Although i've sorted it, its not very satisfactory bcoz it only works with the cd out. So, can anyone help me with my problem?

when u got 75 = JNZ and 74 = JZ and EB = JMP
these jumps are called shortjumps and the other ones.... 0F85, 0F84, E9 are the code for long jumps= jumps out of the routine u are in..

well í'm a newbe too so i can be wrong but this is what i think anyway.

i'm like you learned cracking without a mentor... i've got about 500 tutorials on my HD.. anyway i've been doin this with the proggiez i'm cracking.
first find the serial-calculation and the right serial.
and find the messageboxa that says wrong code.
change the wrongcode message with the right serial... make it show u the right serial = the program keygens it self... thats how i spend my time now
ok have fun

----------------------------------------------------------------
first find the serial-calculation and the right serial.
and find the messageboxa that says wrong code.
change the wrongcode message with the right serial... make it show u the right serial = the program keygens it self... thats how i spend my time now
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sounds fun but, how?
HOW?
I can easily locate the "wrong code" message box but what do i do from there?

hi
ref probs with sonic
you need to know why it jumps in the first place
1 does it jump if cd found
or
2 does it jump if cd not found

then you change the jump to match

all that you have done so far is changed the check around

hope this helps

gaffa

ps
winzip 7 should be easy have cracked winzip 6 and made my 1 and only keygen .As far as i know same keys still work

Don't worry about it. I sorted it out myself.
Before, i just inverted the jump so it worked without cd but not with. Then when hubbabub89 told me about 'e9' op code i sorted it to work with and without the cd!

Anyway can anyone help me with hubbabub89's method about cracking, sounds simple but then again, i'm stupid!

The method is explained in an essay by Kwazy Webbit (look for the `DREAD way' at the end of the essay).

h**p://its.mine.nu/html/re/essays/kwazy.html

have fun

Also, you might want to check out 2 columns written by Matt Pietrek (obviously these columns don't deal with cracking )

The columns explain how basic hll constructs are converted by the compiler to asm. Since you seem a newbie a bit lost in the codewoods, I suggest you study these columns well. They will give you more insight in understanding compiler generated code, so check 'em out.

part 1:
h**p://www.microsoft.com/msj/0298/hood0298.htm

part 2:
h**p://www.microsoft.com/MSJ/0698/hood0698.htm

From there on: read (esp. the essays by DrMe), practice, read, ... (you get the point)

have fun and good luck,
m0sk

thanx BTW why star out the t's in web addresses

hehe, otherwise this board would convert it to a hyperlink (you can click on it). Problem is that every time you click on a hyperlink, your browser sends the address of the page that contains the link to the target server (in this case m$). This way, the admin of the m$ server can see where traffic is coming from, and they might not like this place ;-)

If you copy and paste the url in your address bar (as I force you to do by starring out the tt), no `refferer information' is given away...

In other words: /me was being paranoid

Btw: you can disable referrer logging in Opera ;-)

The Dread way is amazing! One prob, i don't know enough assembler anyone know any decent tus for win32asm?