As the name would suggest, in this section you'll find tutorials aimed specifically at newcomers to reverse engineering, there are unsurprisingly several CrackMe's here, I particularly recommend the Cruehead series for those of you confused by XOR (everyone must understand the most basic form of encryption).
The ubiquitous Start Menu Cleaner (reverse engineered by just about everyone) is a great first program for you to start with, I also recommend you try your hand at Vulcan Notes v2.13 & WorkStation Lock v2.6, both of which are stored locally and will hopefully give you the motivation to continue. If you find any of the information on my site useful please contribute by writing a tutorial so others may also learn.
Deciding that you want to become a reverser is not a decision you should enter into lightly, nor should you believe that learning to "crack" will somehow solve your software problems, a non-mercantile mind as +ORC put it is a pre-requisite. Here are some very brief tips :-
1. The Master is the Master: Get a Tutor. There are lots of
crackers on the web. Convince one to be your teacher.
2. Education comes first: Get & read all available Assembly
Tutorials.
3. Bad habits come next: Get & read all available cracking
tutorials.
4. To see or not to see, that is the question: Where is the protection
scheme? You must see it before being able to crack it. Locating
the protection scheme is the hardest part of cracking. Steps two
and three will help you accomplish this task.
5. Destroy your enemy: Learn all techniques to defeat the most
popular and generic protection schemes.
6. Master your power: Turn the protection scheme to your advantage.
This one is up to you!.
7. Spread your knowledge: Publish your work around the web. Remember,
you can't be a great cracker & dead, so don't take this knowledge
to your tomb!.
Good advice, if you choose to take it :-).
| Target Name | Description | Date |
| CopyTo Ver 2.14 | Conditional jump reversing for newbies by Ordoc. | 31/12/98 |
| Cruehead CrackMe No. 1 | Contains notes on XOR. | 06/06/98 |
| Cruehead CrackMe No. 2 | Another XOR password test. | 09/06/98 |
| Cruehead CrackMe No. 3 | Making a keyfile. | 10/06/98 |
| Darts 95 v1.0 | Very basic "follow my method" tutorial by ManKind. | 10/09/99 |
| Hard Disk LED v1.1 | A very simple hard-coded in serial #, SoftICE practice. | N/A |
| Hex Workshop v2.54 | Reverse engineer this competent HEX editor. | 13/06/98 |
| HTMLGate 4 | RUSKiE's first tutorial (an unbelievably poor protection). | 14/06/99 |
| LaunchPad v2.8x | Advice and coding tips for reversers new to keygens, with ASM Key Generator. | 14/01/99 |
| L0phtCrack 2.52 | A simple memory echo tutorial by Goatass. | 14/04/99 |
| Mexelite CrackMe No. 1 | A very simple CrackMe. | 06/06/98 |
| Mexelite CrackMe No. 4 | A more challenging CrackMe by nIabI. | 14/06/98 |
| Open Sesame v3.1 | Introduction to a simple key generation routine with C Key Generator. | 10/09/99 |
| PhrozenCrew CrackMe 3 | A missing file protection, PE encryption & File Monitor detection. | 23/07/98 |
| Start Menu Cleaner v1.2 | A new reversers first project. | 29/06/98 |
| TechFacts 95 v1.41 | Reverse a tool of the trade. | 25/08/98 |
| Vulcan Notes v2.13 | A very simple "find the serial #" exercise. | 21/02/99 |
| Win-eXpose-Registry v1.00 | Read also for Win-eXpose-I/O v2.00. | 26/05/98 |
| WinRAR v2.06 | How to crack a very good scheme by Rayden. | 05/03/99 |
| WorkStation Lock v2.6 | More simple serial # retrieving with SoftICE. | 13/03/99 |
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