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There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. |
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Calypso organizes e-mail accounts,
messages, and information into a collection of folders called a mailbox.
You can create more than one mailbox, each with its own password, to allow
different users to share the same computer. Each mailbox can manage multiple
e-mail accounts, and you can have more than one mailbox open at a time."
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When you do this you will notice that the program ONLY requires a serial number from you, this tells us that the actual serial number is NOT based on our User details such as our Name/handle, it's a single, generic registration code.
The program creates a number of entries in your System Registry file, the one we are interested in can be found right here:-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MCS\Calypso
ActivationCode
= "279FQBZ9SERUR6D4Z5LR" ;Encrypted Install
Date?
BrandName
= "The Sandman"
BrandOrganization = "-"
Language
= "USA"
LoadTraymon
= 01h
RegDone
= 01h
The installation date for this program is
stored and encrypted in the actual default ActivationCode. I'm not 100%
certain of this but from the tests I've done on this ActivationCode it
seems highly likely that I'm correct.
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By the time I started
looking at Calypso with view to writing an Essay on it I found someone
else had beaten me to it!. However, all was not lost, after
reading this other tutorial on Calypso I found that it does not explain
how to crack this program, instead it describes three undocumented features
about this program which I recommend you all read. Rather than duplicate
work already done I suggest you go HERE
and read this other tutorial written by a +Cracker called +MaLaTTiA.
Right, back to this essay...
The first thing I recommend is to create a dead listing of Calypso, the main code is found in calypso.exe so create a dead listing from this. If you check the directory where this program resides in you'll notice a whole bunch of .DLL files, just thought I would mention this.
Checking the program's String Data Resources
you'll see *most* of the shareware messages used within this program, I
say *most* because some are not shown. I refer to the shareware messages
shown on startup when your 30 day evaluation period runs out, perhaps these
are stored in a .DLL file..:). You can see this message box for yourself
if you change your pc's date so that it's more than 30 days in front of
your present date.
I original began my crack using the softice
bpx messageboxa command on the error message generated when you get the
Activation code wrong but I quickly found out that the routine that handles
these message is ALSO use throughout the whole program as well. This means
the message to be displayed is created elsewhere within the program's code
and once created, it comes to this routine that I've just bpx'd on to be
displayed. My initial attempts to backtrack through the code failed, it
snakes in and out of conditional jumps like there's no tomorrow so it was
time for plan 'B'.
Plan 'B' was to create a new breakpoint using
Softice so that it would break on the system function GetLocalTime.
The idea being was that the program had to FIRST check the current time
in order that it could determine wether or not the User's evaluation period
had ended or not. The program makes two calls to this system function before
it displays the Nag screen.
After tracing through the program's code,
reversing conditional jumps as I went along and causing many General Protection
Faults I decided to try plan 'C'..
Plan 'C' was based on this idea. The
program had to store it's day counter somewhere safe, as a rule this would
be either in your System registry file or, in some cases in a innocent
looking file stored in your C:\Windows directory.
Filemon didn't show anything out of the
ordinary, and Regmon too didn't tell me anything new. However, some
programs use the default registration code inserted in your System Registry
File as an encrypted form of the install date. The way this method works
is like this.
On installation the program accesses your
pc's clock and encrypts THIS date and inserts it into your system registry
file, the program will call this encrypted date your Installation
or product key. Now, when you run the program it reads this encrypted
date and is able to then calculate how many days you have used this program
just be checking the current date your pc is set to.
After locating where the default activation
key was:-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MCS\Calypso
ActivationCode
= "279FQBZ9SERUR6D4Z5LR" ;Encrypted Install
Date?
I accidentally deleted it, so rather than make up a random one of my own I left it empty thinking the program would put put it back for me when it notices it empty!
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MCS\Calypso
ActivationCode = ""
Whoa, what!. Running the program again produces No expire notice, it runs straight into the main program menu!. Quickly checking the 'About' screen shows that I am now the *Registered* owner of Calypso!. No, it can't be true, I found a bug in this great software!..
Checking my System registry file using RegEdit
I now see these entries..
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MCS\Calypso
ActivationCode
= "3C7RPAX69WFYLZPHHX2V" <--The *REAL* Serial
Code!
BrandName
= "The Sandman"
BrandOrganization = "-"
Language
= "USA"
LoadTraymon
= 01h
RegDone
= 01h
heheh, it seems this program cannot understand
how to handle an empty ActivationCode entry, it expects some sort of code
but finds nothing. Why the program then decides to place the *real* ActivationCode
in the System Registry file instead of generating an error message or just
assume that the code is invalid I haven't a clue...
Incidentally, this also works if you delete the whole Key:-
[ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MCS\Calypso] and all the settings contained within. The program will re-generate these for you..:)
So here you have possibly one of the first
programs you can register without requiring any patches or serial sniffing.
Job Done...(Anyone
care to show how this program can be patched?)
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Ripping off software through serials and
cracks is for lamers..
If your looking for cracks or serial
numbers from these pages then your wasting your time, try searching elsewhere
on the Web under Warze, Cracks etc.
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