Software cracking

Software cracking (known as "breaking" mostly in the 1980s^[1]) is an act of removing copy protection from a software.^[2] Copy protection can be removed by applying a specific crack. A crack can mean any tool that enables breaking software protection, a stolen product key, or guessed password. Cracking software generally involves circumventing licensing and usage restrictions on commercial software by illegal methods. These methods can include modifying code directly through disassembling and bit editing, sharing stolen product keys, or developing software to generate activation keys.^[3] Examples of cracks are: applying a patch or by creating reverse-engineered serial number generators known as keygens, thus bypassing software registration and payments or converting a trial/demo version of the software into fully-functioning software without paying for it.^[4] Software cracking contributes to the rise of online piracy where pirated software is distributed to end-users^[2] through filesharing sites like BitTorrent, One click hosting (OCH), or via Usenet downloads, or by downloading bundles of the original software with cracks or keygens.^[4]

Some of these tools are called keygen, patch, loader, or no-disc crack. 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.^[5] A loader modifies the startup flow of a program and does not remove the protection but circumvents it.^[6]^[7] A well-known example of a loader is a trainer used to cheat in games.^[8] Fairlight pointed out in one of their .nfo files that these type of cracks are not allowed for warez scene game releases.^[9]^[6]^[10] A nukewar has shown that the protection may not kick in at any point for it to be a valid crack.^[11]

Software cracking is closely related to reverse engineering because the process of attacking a copy protection technology, is similar to the process of reverse engineering.^[12] The distribution of cracked copies is illegal in most countries. There have been lawsuits over cracking software.^[13] It might be legal to use cracked software in certain circumstances.^[14] Educational resources for reverse engineering and software cracking are, however, legal and available in the form of Crackme programs.

^ 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.
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Goode 2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Tulloch, Mitch (2003). Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security (PDF). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. p. 68. ISBN 0735618771. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 10, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
^ ^a ^b Kammerstetter, Markus; Platzer, Christian; Wondracek, Gilbert (October 16, 2012). "Vanity, cracks and malware". Proceedings of the 2012 ACM conference on Computer and communications security. Raleigh North Carolina USA: ACM. pp. 809–820. doi:10.1145/2382196.2382282. ISBN 978-1-4503-1651-4. S2CID 3423843.
^ 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. ISBN 1-932266-98-4.
^ ^a ^b FLT (January 22, 2013). "The_Sims_3_70s_80s_and_90s_Stuff-FLT". Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014. 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. 1 (1). Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. 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. 1 (2). Universitas-Virtualis Research Project.
^ FLT (September 29, 2013). "Test_Drive_Ferrari_Legends_PROPER-FLT". Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014. 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". Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014. 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]
^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cheng, Jacqui (September 27, 2006). "Microsoft files lawsuit over DRM crack". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
^ Fravia (November 1998). "Is reverse engineering legal?". Archived from the original on March 5, 2022.

[kevelson198510-1] 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.

[Goode_2006-2] Cite error: The named reference Goode 2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[3] Tulloch, Mitch (2003). Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security (PDF). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. p. 68. ISBN 0735618771. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 10, 2014. Retrieved July 20, 2014.

[Kammerstetter_2012-4] Kammerstetter, Markus; Platzer, Christian; Wondracek, Gilbert (October 16, 2012). "Vanity, cracks and malware". Proceedings of the 2012 ACM conference on Computer and communications security. Raleigh North Carolina USA: ACM. pp. 809–820. doi:10.1145/2382196.2382282. ISBN 978-1-4503-1651-4. S2CID 3423843.

[Craig2005-5] 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. ISBN 1-932266-98-4.

[flt-flow-6] FLT (January 22, 2013). "The_Sims_3_70s_80s_and_90s_Stuff-FLT". Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014. 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.

[cbm-loaders-7] Shub-Nigurrath [ARTeam]; ThunderPwr [ARTeam] (January 2006). "Cracking with Loaders: Theory, General Approach, and a Framework". CodeBreakers Magazine. 1 (1). Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. A loader is a program able to load in memory and running another program.

[cbm-oraculums-8] Nigurrath, Shub (May 2006). "Guide on how to play with processes memory, writing loaders, and Oraculumns". CodeBreakers Magazine. 1 (2). Universitas-Virtualis Research Project.

[9] FLT (September 29, 2013). "Test_Drive_Ferrari_Legends_PROPER-FLT". Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014. 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.

[10] SKIDROW (January 21, 2013). "Test.Drive.Ferrari.Racing.Legends.Read.Nfo-SKIDROW". Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014. Yes our "method" is a loader and our competitors have used the same method for "cracking" xlive games like this.

[11] "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]

[:0-12] Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[13] Cheng, Jacqui (September 27, 2006). "Microsoft files lawsuit over DRM crack". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2017.

[14] Fravia (November 1998). "Is reverse engineering legal?". Archived from the original on March 5, 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]