Computer Cracking Software
Posted : admin On 10/4/2019Software cracking (known as 'breaking' in the 1980s[1]) is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, especially copy protection features (including protection against the manipulation of software, serial number, hardware key, date checks and disc check) or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.
All Pc Software like Antivirus, Windows Activator, Graphics, Converter, Editor, Office Tools Full Version with Crack, Patch, Keygen, Keys, Code, Serial Number Free. Online shopping from a great selection at Books Store. Hacking: Hacking for Beginners: Computer Virus, Cracking, Malware, IT Security (Cyber Crime, Computer Hacking, How to Hack, Hacker, Computer Crime, Network Security, Software Security). Cracking refers to the practice of hacking computer systems and software with malicious intent, such as cracking a password or a public Wi-Fi network in order to see people’s private information. Nov 25, 2012 Software Cracking Tutorial in Hindi, Bypass Software Activation Step by Step 💾 - Duration: 11:10. Naitik Haiking 58,668 views. Password cracking is the process of guessing or recovering a password from stored locations or from data transmission system. It is used to get a password for unauthorized access or to recover a forgotten password. In penetration testing, it is used to check the security of an application.
A crack refers to the means of achieving, for example a stolen serial number or a tool that performs that act of cracking.[2] Some of these tools are called keygen, patch, or loader. A keygen is a handmade product serial number generator that often offers the ability to generate working serial numbers in your own name. A patch is a small computer program that modifies the machine code of another program. This has the advantage for a cracker to not include a large executable in a release when only a few bytes are changed.[3] A loader modifies the startup flow of a program and does not remove the protection but circumvents it.[4][5] A well-known example of a loader is a trainer used to cheat in games.[6]Fairlight pointed out in one of their .nfo files that these type of cracks are not allowed for warez scene game releases.[7][4][8] A nukewar has shown that the protection may not kick in at any point for it to be a valid crack.[9]
The distribution of cracked copies is illegal in most countries. There have been lawsuits over cracking software.[10] It might be legal to use cracked software in certain circumstances.[11] Educational resources for reverse engineering and software cracking are, however, legal and available in the form of Crackme programs.
History[edit]
The first software copy protection was applied to software for the Apple II,[12]Atari 800, and Commodore 64 computers.[citation needed]. Software publishers have implemented increasingly complex methods in an effort to stop unauthorized copying of software.
On the Apple II, unlike modern computers that use standardized device drivers to manage device communications, the operating system directly controlled the step motor that moves the floppy drive head, and also directly interpreted the raw data, called nibbles, read from each track to identify the data sectors. This allowed complex disk-based software copy protection, by storing data on half tracks (0, 1, 2.5, 3.5, 5, 6..), quarter tracks (0, 1, 2.25, 3.75, 5, 6..), and any combination thereof. In addition, tracks did not need to be perfect rings, but could be sectioned so that sectors could be staggered across overlapping offset tracks, the most extreme version being known as spiral tracking. It was also discovered that many floppy drives did not have a fixed upper limit to head movement, and it was sometimes possible to write an additional 36th track above the normal 35 tracks. The standard Apple II copy programs could not read such protected floppy disks, since the standard DOS assumed that all disks had a uniform 35-track, 13- or 16-sector layout. Special nibble-copy programs such as Locksmith and Copy II Plus could sometimes duplicate these disks by using a reference library of known protection methods; when protected programs were cracked they would be completely stripped of the copy protection system, and transferred onto a standard format disk that any normal Apple II copy program could read.
One of the primary routes to hacking these early copy protections was to run a program that simulates the normal CPU operation. The CPU simulator provides a number of extra features to the hacker, such as the ability to single-step through each processor instruction and to examine the CPU registers and modified memory spaces as the simulation runs (any modern disassembler/debugger can do this). The Apple II provided a built-in opcode disassembler, allowing raw memory to be decoded into CPU opcodes, and this would be utilized to examine what the copy-protection was about to do next. Generally there was little to no defense available to the copy protection system, since all its secrets are made visible through the simulation. However, because the simulation itself must run on the original CPU, in addition to the software being hacked, the simulation would often run extremely slowly even at maximum speed.
On Atari 8-bit computers, the most common protection method was via 'bad sectors'. These were sectors on the disk that were intentionally unreadable by the disk drive. The software would look for these sectors when the program was loading and would stop loading if an error code was not returned when accessing these sectors. Special copy programs were available that would copy the disk and remember any bad sectors. The user could then use an application to spin the drive by constantly reading a single sector and display the drive RPM. With the disk drive top removed a small screwdriver could be used to slow the drive RPM below a certain point. Once the drive was slowed down the application could then go and write 'bad sectors' where needed. When done the drive RPM was sped up back to normal and an uncracked copy was made. Of course cracking the software to expect good sectors made for readily copied disks without the need to meddle with the disk drive. As time went on more sophisticated methods were developed, but almost all involved some form of malformed disk data, such as a sector that might return different data on separate accesses due to bad data alignment. Products became available (from companies such as Happy Computers) which replaced the controller BIOS in Atari's 'smart' drives. These upgraded drives allowed the user to make exact copies of the original program with copy protections in place on the new disk.
On the Commodore 64, several methods were used to protect software. For software distributed on ROM cartridges, subroutines were included which attempted to write over the program code. If the software was on ROM, nothing would happen, but if the software had been moved to RAM, the software would be disabled. Because of the operation of Commodore floppy drives, one write protection scheme would cause the floppy drive head to bang against the end of its rail, which could cause the drive head to become misaligned. In some cases, cracked versions of software were desirable to avoid this result. A misaligned drive head was rare usually fixing itself by smashing against the rail stops. Another brutal protection scheme was grinding from track 1 to 40 and back a few times.
Most of the early software crackers were computer hobbyists who often formed groups that competed against each other in the cracking and spreading of software. Breaking a new copy protection scheme as quickly as possible was often regarded as an opportunity to demonstrate one's technical superiority rather than a possibility of money-making. Some low skilled hobbyists would take already cracked software and edit various unencrypted strings of text in it to change messages a game would tell a game player, often something considered vulgar. Uploading the altered copies on file sharing networks provided a source of laughs for adult users. The cracker groups of the 1980s started to advertise themselves and their skills by attaching animated screens known as crack intros in the software programs they cracked and released. Once the technical competition had expanded from the challenges of cracking to the challenges of creating visually stunning intros, the foundations for a new subculture known as demoscene were established. Demoscene started to separate itself from the illegal 'warez scene' during the 1990s and is now regarded as a completely different subculture. Many software crackers have later grown into extremely capable software reverse engineers; the deep knowledge of assembly required in order to crack protections enables them to reverse engineerdrivers in order to port them from binary-only drivers for Windows to drivers with source code for Linux and other free operating systems. Also because music and game intro was such an integral part of gaming the music format and graphics became very popular when hardware became affordable for the home user.
With the rise of the Internet, software crackers developed secretive online organizations. In the latter half of the nineties, one of the most respected sources of information about 'software protection reversing' was Fravia's website.
Most of the well-known or 'elite' cracking groups make software cracks entirely for respect in the 'Scene', not profit. From there, the cracks are eventually leaked onto public Internet sites by people/crackers who use well-protected/secure FTP release archives, which are made into full copies and sometimes sold illegally by other parties.
The Scene today is formed of small groups of skilled people, who informally compete to have the best crackers, methods of cracking, and reverse engineering.
+HCU[edit]
The High Cracking University (+HCU), was founded by Old Red Cracker (+ORC), considered a genius of reverse engineering and a legendary figure in RCE, to advance research into Reverse Code Engineering (RCE). He had also taught and authored many papers on the subject, and his texts are considered classics in the field and are mandatory reading for students of RCE.[13]
The addition of the '+' sign in front of the nickname of a reverser signified membership in the +HCU. Amongst the students of +HCU were the top of the elite Windows reversers worldwide.[13] +HCU published a new reverse engineering problem annually and a small number of respondents with the best replies qualified for an undergraduate position at the university.[13]
+Fravia was a professor at +HCU. Fravia's website was known as '+Fravia's Pages of Reverse Engineering' and he used it to challenge programmers as well as the wider society to 'reverse engineer' the 'brainwashing of a corrupt and rampant materialism'. In its heyday, his website received millions of visitors per year and its influence was 'widespread'.[13]
Nowadays most of the graduates of +HCU have migrated to Linux and few have remained as Windows reversers. The information at the university has been rediscovered by a new generation of researchers and practitioners of RCE who have started new research projects in the field.[13]
Methods[edit]
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,[14]x64dbg, OllyDbg,[15]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 or monitor in a manner that replaces a prior branching opcode with its complement or a NOPopcode 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. Proprietary software developers are constantly developing techniques such as code obfuscation, encryption, and self-modifying code to make this modification increasingly difficult. Even with these measures being taken, developers struggle to combat software cracking. This is because it is very common for a professional to publicly release a simple cracked EXE or Retrium Installer for public download, eliminating the need for inexperienced users to crack the software themselves.
A specific example of this technique is a crack that removes the expiration period from a time-limited trial of an application. These cracks are usually programs that alter the program executable and sometimes the .dll or .so linked to the application. Similar cracks are available for software that requires a hardware dongle. A company can also break the copy protection of programs that they have legally purchased but that are licensed to particular hardware, so that there is no risk of downtime due to hardware failure (and, of course, no need to restrict oneself to running the software on bought hardware only).
Another method is the use of special software such as CloneCD to scan for the use of a commercial copy protection application. After discovering the software used to protect the application, another tool may be used to remove the copy protection from the software on the CD or DVD. This may enable another program such as Alcohol 120%, CloneDVD, Game Jackal, or Daemon Tools to copy the protected software to a user's hard disk. Popular commercial copy protection applications which may be scanned for include SafeDisc and StarForce.[16]
In other cases, it might be possible to decompile a program in order to get access to the original source code or code on a level higher than machine code. This is often possible with scripting languages and languages utilizing JIT compilation. An example is cracking (or debugging) on the .NET platform where one might consider manipulating CIL to achieve one's needs. Java'sbytecode also works in a similar fashion in which there is an intermediate language before the program is compiled to run on the platform dependent machine code.
Advanced reverse engineering for protections such as SecuROM, SafeDisc, StarForce, or Denuvo requires a cracker, or many crackers to spend much time studying the protection, eventually finding every flaw within the protection code, and then coding their own tools to 'unwrap' the protection automatically from executable (.EXE) and library (.DLL) files.
There are a number of sites on the Internet that let users download cracks produced by warez groups for popular games and applications (although at the danger of acquiring malicious software that is sometimes distributed via such sites).[citation needed] Although these cracks are used by legal buyers of software, they can also be used by people who have downloaded or otherwise obtained unauthorized copies (often through P2P networks).
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Kevelson, Morton (October 1985). 'Isepic'. Ahoy!. pp. 71–73. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
The origin of the term probably lies in the activity burglars in the still of the night.
- ^Tulloch, Mitch (2003). Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security(PDF). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. p. 68. ISBN0735618771.
- ^Craig, Paul; Ron, Mark (April 2005). 'Chapter 4: Crackers'. In Burnett, Mark (ed.). Software Piracy Exposed - Secrets from the Dark Side Revealed. Publisher: Andrew Williams, Page Layout and Art: Patricia Lupien, Acquisitions Editor: Jaime Quigley, Copy Editor: Judy Eby, Technical Editor: Mark Burnett, Indexer: Nara Wood, Cover Designer: Michael Kavish. United States of America: Syngress Publishing. pp. 75–76. doi:10.1016/B978-193226698-6/50029-5. ISBN1-932266-98-4.
- ^ abFLT (January 22, 2013). 'The_Sims_3_70s_80s_and_90s_Stuff-FLT'.
This can be the only reason you have come to the conclusion that a modified startup flow is the same like the imitated behavior of a protection, like an EMU does it.
- ^Shub-Nigurrath [ARTeam]; ThunderPwr [ARTeam] (January 2006). 'Cracking with Loaders: Theory, General Approach, and a Framework'. CodeBreakers Magazine. Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. 1 (1).
A loader is a program able to load in memory and running another program.
- ^Nigurrath, Shub (May 2006). 'Guide on how to play with processes memory, writing loaders, and Oraculumns'. CodeBreakers Magazine. Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. 1 (2).
- ^FLT (September 29, 2013). 'Test_Drive_Ferrari_Legends_PROPER-FLT'.
Test.Drive.Ferrari.Racing.Legends-SKIDROW was released with a 'Loader' and not a cracked exe. This is why you see the original exe renamed to 'TDFerrari_o.exe'. As this is not allowed and in this case considerably slows down the game with Xlive messages while starting and playing the game, you can see why we have included a proper cracked.
- ^SKIDROW (January 21, 2013). 'Test.Drive.Ferrari.Racing.Legends.Read.Nfo-SKIDROW'.
Yes our 'method' is a loader and our competitors have used the same method for 'cracking' xlive games like this.
- ^'Batman.Arkham.City-FiGHTCLUB nukewar'. December 2, 2011. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014.
UNNUKED: game.plays.full no.issues crack.is.fine no.single.byte.patch.used protection.bypass.means.not.active.means.removed protection.does.not.kick.in.at.any.point this.or.removal.makes.no.difference [ZoNeNET]
- ^Cheng, Jacqui (September 27, 2006). 'Microsoft files lawsuit over DRM crack'. Ars Technica.
- ^Fravia (November 1998). 'Is reverse engineering legal?'.
- ^Pearson, Jordan (July 24, 2017). 'Programmers Are Racing to Save Apple II Software Before It Goes Extinct'. Motherboard. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
- ^ abcdeCyrus Peikari; Anton Chuvakin (January 12, 2004). Security Warrior. 'O'Reilly Media, Inc.'. p. 31. ISBN978-0-596-55239-8.
- ^Ankit, Jain; Jason, Kuo; Jordan, Soet; Brian, Tse (April 2007). 'Software Cracking (April 2007)'(PDF). The University of British Columbia - Electrical and Computer Engineering. Retrieved January 27, 2018.Cite journal requires
journal=(help) - ^Wójcik, Bartosz. 'Reverse engineering tools review'. pelock.com. PELock. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
- ^Gamecopyworld Howto
Windows password recovery tools recover or reset lost user and administrator passwords for the Windows operating system.
Password recovery tools are often called 'password cracker' tools because they are sometimes used to 'crack' passwords by hackers. Legally cracking or unlocking your own Windows password is certainly a legitimate practice!
Check out our Windows Password Recovery Programs FAQ for additional guidance. We also have an easy-to-read comparison of these programs that should help.
A Windows password recovery program is just one of several ways to find a lost Windows password. Try our guide for resetting your password for Windows 7.
Cracking Other Passwords
See this list of free password crackers for free programs that crack PDF files, Word & Excel documents, RAR & ZIP archives, and more.
Below you'll find the best free Windows password recovery programs available, most of which work for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP passwords.
Ophcrack
What We Like
Easy to use; passwords are recovered automatically
Doesn't require installation; it runs from a disc or flash drive
You don't have to know anything about the original password
What We Don't Like
Doesn't crack Windows 10 passwords
Can't crack passwords 14+ characters in length
You have to boot to the media to run the program
The file size is rather large
The Ophcrack Windows password cracker is by far the best freeware Windows password recovery tool available. It's fast and easy enough for a first-time Windows password cracker with a basic knowledge of Windows.
With Ophcrack, you don't need any access to Windows to be able to recover your lost passwords. From another computer, visit the site, download the free ISO image, burn it to a CD or flash drive, and then boot from it.
The Ophcrack program starts, locates the Windows user accounts, and proceeds to recover (crack) the passwords—all automatically.
In a test on a Windows 8 PC, Ophcrack recovered the 8-character password (mixed letters and numbers) to an administrator account in 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
Ophcrack supports Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. Though weI tried Ophcrack against three very simple Windows 10 passwords, not one of them were found.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
What We Like
Deletes the password completely
You don't have to install anything to the computer
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Works quickly
Works on Windows 10 down through Windows XP
What We Don't Like
Must boot to the disc or flash drive to run the program
Works from the command line, so everything is text
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor works differently from most password recovery programs in that it erases your Windows password instead of recovering it. You can think of it as more of a Windows password tool.
Like Ophcrack, you boot from a burned disc or flash drive created with the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor ISO file. After running the program, log in to your Windows account without entering a password at all, and then, of course, make a new password if that's what you want.
We've tested Offline NT Password & Registry Editor on 64-bit & 32-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP PCs, and it reset the passwords immediately without a problem. It should work on Windows 2000 and Windows NT operating systems too.
Kon-Boot
What We Like
One of the easiest ways to reset a password
No need to install the software to the computer's hard drive
Smaller download than most bootable password reset tools
What We Don't Like
Doesn't work on Windows 10 or Windows 8
Doesn't work on 64-bit operating systems
You have to put the software on a disc to use it
Kon-Boot is yet another free password reset program, much like ONTP&RE. Just burn the program to a disc or USB drive, boot from it, and you're off.
Kon-Boot works differently from the two password reset tools above, so if you have problems using them, give Kon-Boot a try. It's easy to use and probably the fastest password reset-and-recovery tool available.
Kon-Boot 1.0 does not work with 64-bit versions of Windows, nor any version of Windows 8 or Windows 10. We used Kon-Boot v1.0 to successfully delete the password on a Windows Vista PC and then also on a Windows XP PC.
Cain & Abel
What We Like
You can install it in minutes
More advanced than similar password recovery tools
Includes lots of other useful tools
What We Don't Like
Requires access to a Windows account
Officially works with Windows XP and older OSs only
Hasn't been updated in a very long time
You need extra files (not included) in order to recover passwords
Cain & Abel is a free, fast and effective Windows password recovery tool.
Unlike Ophcrack and other popular Windows password-hacking programs, Cain & Abel requires access to Windows under an administrator account. As such, it's a valuable resource to recover passwords to accounts other than the one you're using.
Cain & Abel was able to recover the 10-character password to the Windows XP 'Administrator' account in 10 seconds. While it only officially supports Windows XP, 2000, and NT, some people have had luck getting it to work in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
We've tried it with Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista, and was unsuccessful each time.
Trinity Rescue Kit
What We Like
Computer Software Hack Kaise Kare
Can delete Windows passwords
Lets you make a new password for a user account
You don't need access to a user account to reset passwords
What We Don't Like
Needs to be booted from before Windows starts
Doesn't have a regular, graphical user interface
Boot Trinity Rescue Kit from a disc or USB stick to work. It includes many different tools, one of which is for password recovery.
Use Trinity Rescue Kit to clear a password entirely, making it blank, or to set a custom one.
The program lacks a graphical interface. However, even if you're not used to a command-line interface, most of the required keystrokes are just numbers for choosing different options for resetting a password.
Trinity Rescue Kit should work with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.
What Is Computer Cracking
The password resetting tool in Trinity Rescue Kit, called winpass, is actually just an automated script for the chntpw tool, which is what Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, listed above, is based on. If you tried that password tool and it didn't work, Trinity Rescue Kit probably won't either.
John the Ripper
What We Like
The program is 100 percent free
Small download size
Runs quickly and from within Windows
What We Don't Like
The required wordlists aren't free
Works from the command line
You need Windows access to use it
While the password recovery application itself is free, the wordlists used by John the Ripper to discover passwords, come with a cost and are required for the software to work.
John the Ripper is operated at the command line, which makes it a password-cracking tool reserved for the advanced user.
John the Ripper supports all popular versions of Windows like Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.
Windows Password Recovery Tools Aren't Necessary If You're Proactive!
These Windows password recovery tools are great if you need them, but there's a much easier way to access your account if you forget your password—a password reset disk!
Computer Tracking Software Free
A password reset disk is a special disk you can insert in your PC during the logon process that will allow you to change your Windows password without knowing your current password. You will need to create this disk before you lose access to your account.