Yes... What happened with the oldschool style of unpacking? What happened with the unpacker writers? Is a kiddie script a real solution?

P.S: I am not saying anything against OllyScript.Greetz to SHaG.

The scripts don't unpack a program, only help with mechanical cuestion and repetitive, the methods are the same of unpacking today and in teh past, i'm unpacking by years and i do no look changes in the method for help in the repetitive tasks with and script.
There are new packers day by bay if you don't acelerate your work, when you unpack asprotect 1.23 for example there are 5 new versions of asprotect and your work is wasted time.In old times a new version of a packer was published one by year.

Ricardo

When I wrote OllyScript I didn't know it would become a scriptable unpacking engine. =) There are many other tasks that can be automated!

I posted the first msg .
Well sure it is a nice tool SHaG, but i prefer to write a 900 lines of asm code with full decryptor,decompressor,stolen bytes restorer and import rebuilder (my last unpacker - not released) than 5 lines in a kiddie script.For me the script is worse than a dumper.I am just giving my own opinion and how I feel all this.

Well is a good job the yours, but i unpack manually all packed programs, your 900 lines with a little change of version is fooled, and if you wish,you can adapt the unpacker to the new version of the packer.
Manually is more dificult be fooled by little changes, and i not depend if are released the new version of the unpacker or not.
Very good unpackers are discontinued and the users are not capable of unpack manually nothing, if you unpack manually good, you not depend of others.

Ricardo Narvaja

Right.I code unpackers because I like to break the whole protection scheme.This is interesting and it brings real knowledge.Manually unpacking is ok too, but not a script unpacking .I just hate the word "script" ;P

well only the script automat the hard work, not unpack, if you use the script to found and oep, you can dump repair the iat, and repair the code (antidump etc) all the manual work is realized by hand, the script only save time in any aspect (found OEP) for example.

Ricardo

BTW many of the scripts don't work for me.Like Asprotect and PeSpin.They do not bypass the anti-debug tricks.

There is a hide debugger plugin :P

but i prefer to write a 900 lines of asm code with full decryptor,decompressor,stolen bytes restorer and import rebuilder (my last unpacker - not released) than 5 lines in a kiddie script

Each to their own. Personally, if a 5-line script is available to unpack a program then I find it pointless writing 900 lines of asm code to unpack it. I mean, what do you really want to do - unpack it, or try and impress somebody with your l33t assembly program? Time is money. If you want to waste time writing and debugging 900 lines of assembly code to unpack a program that a 5 line script can already do for you then that's your loss, and anyone from the 'oldschool' (as you put it) would be resourceful enough to do the same, and spend their time on more constructive issues that can't be automatically solved by existing programs/scripts.

Peace.

900 lines is a waste of time.

Cracking isn't a hobby for most people, it's a means to get software.

So yes, Time is Money

Hey Guys,

Just my 2 cents on this topic :P

Both parties have valid points.

A 900 line ASM app which is well written, stable and effective app is a work of art and a joy to use.

A script gets the job done and give you the flexability to change things slighty for the next version is useful.

So which is better ....

1. A script allows you to learn from the process.
2. An app is standalone and allows even the most in-experienced person to unpack complex commercial protection schemes.
3. An app does this at the click of a button.
4. A script can become redundant or wont work when a big enough change is made to the script engine.
5. an app can bypass msot generic or specific debug traps.

So the jury is still out

Scripts can still be classed as "old-school".. Remember TR.EXE (Liu Tau) ..

Well I wrote a number of scripts to unpack various files...
When scripts would not cut it, i wrote apps...


I think this is a mute topic cause you should use the best tool for you (personally) to get the job done.

L8z

*rant rant*

RedBull

Ah the old tr.exe .Good compare.Well I think having the source of the unpacker in front of you is better than having a script.You will learn more.