Gourt > Computers > Hacking > Cracking
Software cracking is the modification of software to remove encoded copy prevention. Distribution of cracked software ("warez"), or patches to circumvent software protection on software (commonly known as "cracks") is generally an illegal (or more recently, criminal) act of copyright infringement.
Legality
The distribution and use of cracked copies is illegal in almost every developed country. There have been many lawsuits over cracking software, but most have been to do with the distribution of the duplicated product rather than the process of defeating the protection, due to the difficulty of constructing legally sound proof of individual guilt in the latter instance. In the United States, the passing of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) legislation made software cracking, as well as the distribution of information which enables software cracking, illegal. However, the law has hardly been tested in the U.S. judiciary in cases of reverse engineering for personal use only. The European Union passed the European Union Copyright Directive in May 2001, making illegal software copyright infringement in member states.
Methods
The most common software crack is the modification of an application's binary to cause or prevent a specific key branch in the program's execution. This is accomplished by reverse engineering the compiled program code using a debugger such as SoftICE, GDB, or MacsBug until the software cracker reaches the subroutine that contains the primary method of protecting the software (or by disassembling an executable file with a program such as IDA). The binary is then modified using the debugger or a hex editor in a manner that replaces a prior branching opcode with its complement or a NOP opcode so the key branch will either always execute a specific subroutine or skip over it. Almost all common software cracks are a variation of this type. Software developers are constantly developing techniques such as code obfuscation, encryption, and self-modifying code to make this modification increasingly difficult. More on [ Software cracking ]
Can obscurity make cryptography better? - InfoWorld
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:07:46 -0000
Can obscurity make cryptography better?InfoWorld, CA - 20 hours agoThe salt adds one more wrinkle, that although trivial in the crypto world, means hackers can't immediately begin cracking hashes into their plaintext ...
Introducing UniKey Software Protection USB Key - iTWire (press release)
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:21:53 -0000
Introducing UniKey Software Protection USB KeyiTWire (press release), Australia - Jul 17, 2008All the communication between the UniKey copy protection dongle and the application is encrypted with noise being introduced to make cracking more difficult ...
Cracking down on Comcast - guardian.co.uk
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:09:39 -0000
Cracking down on Comcastguardian.co.uk, UK - Jul 16, 2008Tens of thousands of people from across the country also filed comments with the FCC, nearly all of them calling for a crack down on Comcast. ...
Fallout From the Fall of CAPTCHAs - Slashdot
Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:07:57 -0000
Fallout From the Fall of CAPTCHAsSlashdot - Jul 16, 2008You don't need to have any cracking skills. All you need is a desire to spread spam, make anonymous online attacks against your enemies, propagate malware ...
Google, Microsoft Slide; Profit Misses Show Demand Is Cracking - Bloomberg
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:23:44 -0000
Google, Microsoft Slide; Profit Misses Show Demand Is CrackingBloomberg - Jul 17, 2008The results raise concern that customers are curbing spending in the online ad market, dominated by Google, and the software industry, ruled by Microsoft. ...
WPA-Enterprise for Small Businesses (Part I) - Wi-Fi Planet
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:08:29 -0000
WPA-Enterprise for Small Businesses (Part I)Wi-Fi Planet, CT - 11 hours agoUsing WEP actually invites Wi-Fi eavesdroppers to take a stab at cracking your encryption key, so they can connect to your network in order to steal data ...
Astalavista - Offers security directory and related news.
Meta Description: [ Information Security Portal ]
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E-Forumz - Forums on hacking and cracking and general computing.
Meta Description: [ Links from the scene, security and downloads, aligned with E-Forumz for all your hack and crack newz ]
FHCF - Flying Horse Cracking Force - Some background information about the group, member list, and some cracking tutorials.
Meta Description: [ FHCF is the biggest Norwegian cracking group, we crack programs for windows, dos, linux, mac, pda and more, we also gamehack/train games etc. ]
Hacking and Cracking 3k - Contains tutorials, hacking utilities, and security tools.
Meta Description: [ hnc3k.com ]
Neworder - Hacking, cracking and security exploits.
Meta Description: [ Computer security and networking portal ]
Reverse Engineering Team - Contains projects, papers and tools.
Serials 2000 - News, discussion, information and help.
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