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- 8/24/97
-
- How to USE nag screens?
- =======================
-
- Introduction
- ------------
-
- What I`m about to teach in this tutorial, is simply how to USE nag screens,
- yeah yeah, it sounds redicules, and, I`m not sure that i`m not inventing
- the Wheel here, but, I've never seen any tutorial about this issue...
-
- I`ll assume you have the knowledge in:
-
- 1.SoftIce (Winice will be more percisive...).
- 2.cracking (ie, about 2-3 months of cracking..).
- 3.Nag Screens (How to kill'em - but, that's of course not what will be discussed
- here).
-
- Tools you`ll need for this tutorial:
- 1.SoftIce 3.00/01.
- 2.Hex Work Shop (ANY VERSION) / or any other good Hex Editor.
-
- Programs that will be discussed in here:
-
- 1.DeskWipe v1.2 : URL - Http://Home.sol.no/Frankm
- 2.Idyle Phone Book Pro 97 V2.21 : URL - Http://www.idyle.com/
-
-
- Some words for start
- ----------------------
- What we're going to be doing here, is to use the nag screens in order to
- get to the registration routines, in programs that newbies usually find
- hard to handle - The programs that have NO visible registration info...
- Which means, programs without register boxes... etc..
-
- Our basic method here, will be to set a break point on a messagebox , or
- some other forms of nag screens that will be discussed here later,
- then , after breaking in the nag screen routine, look back in the code,
- and see what condition brought us to the nag screen, then, break point in that
- condition (ie, je,jz,jnz etc....), and disable it... ;-)
- Sounds like we`re just about to start our cracking here...... :)
-
-
- The first program I'd like to discuss is one of the simplest...
-
- DeskWipe 1.2 Cracking (Using nag screen).
- --=========================================--
- OK, we're all set with SoftIce running?
- great, lets start the program to see the actual protection scheme...
-
- After launching DeskWipe 1.2 , quickly pops a nag screen, errrgh! sux!
- Lets Exit the program , and set a bp on messageboxa, then, run it again...
- oh, no ;`[ , we're lost, messageboxa wasn`t such a lucky guess,
- Hmm..... Now, we can use our knowledge in nag screen (which is not too hard
- to achieve btw...;)), while we're in the nag screen, press CTRL+D, And,
- type hwnd deskwipe...
- U`ll see only one button , BMSG on it, (For me , it gave 0688...).
- Now, press CTRL+D, and follow my instructions FULLY! (I'd really wish to
- talk to you guys about these stuff, but, thats not for this tutorial,
- and, it won`t serve my targets...).
-
- 1.After pressing CTRL+D , you`ll pop again in SICE, press F12 9 times.
- 2.press F10 several times, until you get to this instruction:
- .
- .
- .
- MOV EAX,[EBP-04]
- MOV EAX,[EAX+00000128]
- TEST EAX,EAX
- JZ 420940 / This one, u`ll have to NOP in order to pass the nag screen,
- / because, this is the condition, if the Button was pressed
- or wasn`t... (That was just a side comment).
- .
- .
- .
- NOP the JZ...
- 3.now, we can Continue pressing F12 7 more times...
- until we're popped in this instruction:
- .
- .
- .
- CALL 00425728
- POP ECX
- POP ECX
- .
- .
- .
- Let's now press CTRL+UP several times, (to see the above code, that brought
- us to this nag screen)
- Until you get to this:
- MOV EAX,[429664] / The initial value for the registration routine
- CALL 425FFC / The registration routine itself!!! ;)
- INC EAX / The Boolean identifier, that's used to determine if
- JZ 426EA6 / The registration was successful...
- .
- .
- .
- I`ll leave you guys the job to Register this program (NOTE that in order
- to crack this one with Patching, you`ll HAVE to change EAX's value INSIDE
- the registration routine, But, it won`t be the BEST crack, for making the
- BEST crack, you`ll have to make a license file... - I`ll leave this job to
- you, I`m not trying here to teach how to do key files, I already assume
- that you can handle the registration routine by yourself... ;))
-
-
- Well , that's it for this program , Now , Let's move to some harder
- Job... ;)
-
- Lets Crack Idyle Phone Book Pro 97 Now!!
-
- Phone Book Pro 97 V2.21 Cracking!!!
- --===================================--
-
- I'd like to take these lines to GREET the author Damien Rame for a GREAT
- interface, I've never seen a better phone book!!! If you use this program,
- please send him money! he deserves that!
- This one, is about to be harder to do than the other one we've seen.
- I`m about to do patching here , just to give you an example of a CRC checking
- that's kicking ya from the program if it detects patching (this one, is usually
- done by doing CheckSum to the EXE, and , comparing it with a Value that's
- kept somewhere.......).
- We're all set with our little SoftIce? :)
- great!
- Lets launch the program...
- press the About/Register button...
- Hmm, interesting... the author seems to be pretty smart, look what he did,
- he DIDN`T give ya ANY buttom to press in order to tell the program to check
- the registration info that was entered!!!
- How do we solve this problem?
- Well, it's obvious that the program checks the registration info in REAL TIME
- (ie, when you enter it in the dialog box).
-
- OK, Let's try something here:
- I entered Name :^pain^ '97
- Reg Code: 9999999
- Wait, Let's Press CTRL+D, and, set a bp in HMEMCPY,then , press CTRL+D again,
- and, add another char to the reg code...
- YES! we popped right next to the registration routine...
- Let's press F12 now until we get to the program code, and, trace the code
- until we get to this instruction (The registration routine):
-
- .
- .
- .
- MOV EDX,EBX
- MOV EAX,EBX
- CALL 49616C
- TEST AL,AL
- JZ 004968B4
- .
- .
- .
- Now, it's obvious what u should do, trace in the registration routine,
- Set a bp on some code in the registration routine, and, restart the program.
- (Don`t worry, I know what I`m doing...)
- After we pop back in Sice...
- Exit the routine, and ,do the patch OUTSIDE the routine!!! (VERY IMPORTANT!)
- (ie, TEST AL,AL ===> OR AL,01)
-
- Now, we're all set for the point I want to discuss... :)
- Launch the program!
- Oh shit,Now Look what happens!!! This program does CRC checking!!! (Did I ever
- say the author is smart??? ;-)) Although, he did a stupid thing...
- Left us a MSG TYPE ERROR BOX!!! (That says there was a CRC error, and that the program
- will now be terminated!!!) Let's use this shit! :))
-
- Launch the program AGAIN!
- when you get to the Error Button.
- 1.Type in Sice HWND.
- 2.BMSG on the ONLY button that PHONEBOOK uses.
- 3.Press CTRL+D
- 4.Press F12 5 times.
- 5.Press F10 until you get to this instruction:
- .
- .
- .
- Mov EAX,[EAX+00000150]
- TEST EAX,EAX
- JZ 00430CE2 / Nop the JZ...
- (Only a temporary change for passing the msg box).
- .
- .
- .
- 6.Press F12 8 more times.
- 7.Press CTRL+UP some times, until you see this:
- CALL 445570 / CRC Checking routine... :)
- CMP EBX,-2 / Boolean Identifier.
- JNZ 459409
-
- Now, All you have to do, is to change the CMP EBX,-2 ==> MOV EBX,01
- JNZ 459409 ==> JMP 459409
- And , we're all set! ;))
- simple eh? :)
- After nopping it, patch the EXE, and, you have a FULL crack! :)
-
- NOTE that that's not how I did the crack, I did a better patch, but, I really
- don`t remember now wtf did I patch, and, it's not really important for our
- discussion ;) So, you`ll have to forgive me...
-
-
- Well, I think that's it, I've cleared my point, and , I think it's time to
- Sign off...
- Hope you found this info interesting.....(I wouldn`t like to spend my time for
- nothing... ;-)).
-
- Ohhh...... almost forgotten, I'd like to greet the following dudes:
- Acp,Niabi,JosephCo,_rANDOM,|KAIRN|,Razzi,Yoshi,GrimL0ck,kOUGER,Odin,
- [J0B],Qapla,Leddy,TeRaPhY!,All the great guys in
- #cracking & #Cracking4newbies And all the rest of you M$ fighters I've forgotten!
-
- Signing off - ^pain^ [mEXELiTE] in the year of 1997 -
-