+HCU: Academy of Reverse Engineering

Founded by +ORC in April 1996

Project 7: Most stupid protections

Updated in September 1999

[Poor shareware programmers] [Useful for beginners] [Essays]

+HCU Papers	Our tools	Our protections
Programmers Corner	Packers & Unpackers	Unassigned
Project 0: Wdasm reversing	Project 1: Hexeditors & co	Project 2: Softice & Numega's
Project 3: Dongles cracking	Project 4: CD-Rom faking	Project 5: Netscape ameliorating
Project 6: Crippled targets	Project 7: Most stupid schemes	Project 8: VisualBasic cracking
Project 9: Micro$oft bashing

Most stupid protection

Poor shareware programmers

Poor shareware programmers... they would like soo much to concentrate on their own nice petty code, but -alas!- they have to wage battle against hordes of pirates, thousand of "serial numbers afecionados", their own concurrence (may be their most dangerous enemies), and, last but not least, all little wannabye crackers on the wide wide web (I did not included us reverse engineers in this list, because we are not their enemies and their struggle against us would have the same chances of paper against scissors :-)
Some of them, in their deep desperation (and unbelievable assembly ignorance) resolve to "buy" already made "commercial" protection schemes, most of which don't work at all (which does not wonder, being produced by "extremely mercantile" minds), as we will demonstrate in this project, started 05 July 1997

Useful for beginners

Please note!: This section is EXTREMELY useful not only for protectors (in order to avoid at least the most obvious mistakes you could do protectiong your software, but also for all beginners in the reversing arena. Most code reversed here is extremely simple, and you'll be able in many case to follow its flow sitting in your armchair, without even the need of running the target. It is tehrefore high suitable for all those readers that have never 'trusted' themselves (yet) in reversing code. It's easy, it's great fun and, as you'll soon learn, there's no end of such stupid "faux pas" around...

Essays

05 Jul 1997	Aesculapius	Hex Workshop 32 v. 2.53	Weak protection schemes are worse than no protection at all
05 Jul 1997	TheChineese	Claris Home Page version 2.0	Stupid time trial limits
05 Jul 1997	Frog's Print	SmartDraw for Windows95, Version 3.11	Heawy Stupid anti-crackers protection
09 Jul 1997	plushmm	A pretty stupid scheme: Spam Exterminato	it's all there... "autocracked
28 Jul 1997	+SNikKkEL	Another "blacklist" protection	Hypersnap-DX version 3.02 Key generator, ASM CODE
06 Aug 1997	Frog's Print	PhotoShop 4.0 / Digimarc	Commercial stupidity - Digimarc downfall
14 Aug 1997	+Sync	SoftWrapper - Cracking Windows Calculator?	how to reverse engineer a simple "anti-Winice" protection scheme
15 Aug 1997	iNCuBuS++	Cracking WinHacker95 2.0	MSVCRT.dll reverse engineering
17 Aug 1997	Jon	Kremlin 1.1, a stupidly protected encryption utility	An useful encryptor for our studies, btw
17 Aug 1997	FanTC	Cracking Comments v1.3	If they would only make it so easy for us every time
28 Aug 1997	Mammon_	EnTray-Vous, Merci	How NOT to use the Registry to protect your software
29 Aug 1997	PNA	Ulead PhotoImpact Trial 3.01	"Protections" that tell you the name of the calling dll and of the calling function
31 Aug 1997	Flipper	iniquity's inequality protection scheme	some tips about pascal reverse engineering
04 Sept 1997	SiuL+Hacky	"Mental" cracking: techfacts95 v1.3	Am I dreaming?
04 Sep 1997	x86	Bypassing Ready made Commercial Protection Schemes (RSAgent32)	Cracking Xing Technology's Mpeg Player
22 Sep 1997	+ReZiDeNt	DLL-based schemes are dead	A long overdue lesson for shareware programmers
24 Sep 1997	Frog's Print	Bullet Proof FTP V1.0	hidden, bloated exe creation
24 Sep 1997	Flipper	Cracking SendMail 2.0 for Windows NT	Obvious Name Protections
27 Oct 1997	Snatch	An interesting tool: Numega Smartcheck 5.0	Echoing a silly "install" and trial protection scheme
02 Nov 1997	+DataPimp	Cracking Unlocker for newbyes	Defeating Lame Commercial Protection Schemes
06 Nov 1997	A+heist	Symantec Visual cafΘ trial version 1.0	a very silly protection scheme on a very interesting target
05 Dec 1997	Vizion	The Easy Protection Schemes And The Lazy Protectionists	InstallShield Software Corporation protection schemes
12 Dec 1997	PipoMan	BEGINNERS: Prassi CD-REP trial stupid protection	dead listing a very easy protection scheme
31 Dec 1997	Tristan	BEGINNERS: Awesome AW: MOST STUPID PROTECTION OF THE YEAR 1997! Most stupid protection 1997	Hardcoded and unencrypted registration codes: a touristic tour for beginners
16 Mar 1998	The Nameless	BEGINNERS: Big tent, little circus	Observations and Thoughts springing from an mIRC 5.3 crack
26 Apr 1998	Kabhoet	BEGINNERS: Menu disable and active by Register Number	Dynamic Procedure Call and crack by the stupid way
29 Jun 1998	XaVaX	PhotoShop 5.0 / Digimarc 1.6.82	Commercial stupidity is alive & well
29 Jun 1998	cYnAppZ	copy your own working serial number from the *.cfg file
16 Sep 98	Sanity	cyberme.htm	TU: Cracking an uninstaller ~ [Filemonitor & Deadlisting]
02 Dec 98	Sojourner	rhino.htm	What Time Does the Library Open? A "Cinderella" protection for beginners
24 Sep 99	LaptoniC	rhino.htm	Cracking Access Databases (Beating M$ with his own tools)