View Full Version : Good reversing puzzles for Mac OS X...
...are hard to come by. Currently, I'm working through +mala's riddles, but, my PC emulator only goes so far...
Thanks,
rous
PS-I'm still learning a hell of a lot from you guys :)
Thanks again.
I guess I should have asked if anyone knows of any reversing puzzles for OS X.:)
rous
I imagine those would indeed be rare. Mac OS X isn't exactly known for it's ability to let you change and manipulate things lowlevel (or it's users desire to do so for that matter :))
There might be some out there, but personally I know of no site where one would find them.. Google might help if they do exist. Otherwise, you might be able to develop some of your own :)
It's always good practice to see what your own code looks like from the other side, I think.
Hopefully someone else does know a source for OS X puzzles.
Regards,
KW
Maybe I will develop puzzles of my own. I've never done that before, and I wonder where would I begin? Perhaps I could model one or two off PC based riddles...I'll ponder more.
xCode, Apple's suite of software development tools, is actually pretty decent--especially considering that it's free. Among some of the more interesting apps (in case anyone is interested):
MallocDebug-tracks and analyzes memory allocated in an application. You can use this tool to find memory leaks or analyze memory allocation patterns.
ObjectAlloc-tracks Objective-C and Core Foundation object allocations and deallocations in real-time. It also lets you view the retention history for an object.
OpenGL Profiler-creates a runtime profile of an OpenGL-based application. You can view function statistics and the call-trace history of your application's OpenGL calls.
PEFViewer-displays the contents of a PEF binary file. You can use it in much the same way you would use the nm and otool command-line tools for Mach-O binaries.
QuartzDebug-shows screen updates in real-time by briefly flashing the areas being redrawn...analyzes your application's drawing behavior, etc.
Sampler-analyzes your prog's behavior at runtime. It can identify where your program spends its time and summarize how often allocation routines, system calls, or arbitrary functions were called.
Thread Viewer-graphically displays activity across a range of threads, shows time-line views of thread activity (in color), and can display backtraces of activity at specific points.
gdb-xCode's tools default debugger.
CacheBasher-measures cache performance under many different conditions.
MONster-allows direct access to performance counters.
Reggie SE-examine and modify CPU and PCI configuration registers.
Saturn-instruments your code to provide function-level profiling, then displays the resulting data graphically.
Shark-shows you where the app spends it user and supervisor code time, and correlates performance events to it's code.
Skidmarks GT-measures integer, floating-point, and vector performance.
acid-a cmmd line tool that analyzes TT6E instruction traces. Useful for detecting bad instruction sequences.
amber-a cmmd line tool that traces all threads of execution in a process and records.
simg4 and simg5-cmmd line tools...are cycle-accurate simulators of the PowerPC G4 and G5 processor.
I just came across a mactool, and thought I'd drop the link here:
http://www.jasik.com/nosy.html
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunatly, MacNosey was written for much older PPC chips and although the assembler language (mnemonics, etc.) hasn't changed much, it wouldn't disassemble G4 or higher instructions.
School just started and I havn't had much time to think about constructing puzzles for OSX...I guess I'm looking for someone to point me in the right direction. Perhaps it would be easier working with java or even a decompression crack...something cross platform with tutorials available for PC x86.
Stuffit .sit compression is the most common form for Macs...does anyone know of any essays written about it...I'll look myself.
Thanks,
rous
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