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- HOW TO PATCH Advanced Space Hunter 2.5
-
- Tutorial by UmE
-
- Introduction: it's time for another time trial program!!! You'll see in this tutorial how
- simple can be cracking an application with W32Dasm and what the crackers means with "5 minutes
- cracking"!!! :)
-
- Necessary tools: W32Dasm version 8.9 or better.
-
- Program description: Advanced Space Hunter 2.5, ASH.exe, 745.472 bytes.
-
- PARENTAL ADVISORY: this tutorial is cracking oriented!!!
-
- Step 1: when you run the program a nag screen will appear with some informations about the
- author and three buttons: "Register" show you a form for on-line registration, "Insert Key"
- let you insert the registration number and "Ok" let you continue to use the program. If you
- have used the program for more of 30 days, after pushing the "Ok" button a message box will
- appear with the following written:
-
- "Your trial period is expired, please register"
-
- I prefer to patch the time trial limit...if someone would try to find the correct serial number
- so this tutorial is not for you! :)
- Let's proceed...
-
- Step 2: open W32Dasm and dissasemble the program. Go to the "Refs" menu and click on
- "String Data Reference". Here you can analyze all the strings that are referenced in the
- program. Search for the "Your trial period is expired..." string and when you have found
- click twice on it and you will be on the piece of code where the string is referenced. You can
- see:
-
- :0048E408 2B82AC030000 sub eax, dword ptr [edx+000003AC]
- :0048E40E 83F81E cmp eax, 0000001E Note 1
- :0048E411 7E1D jle 0048E430 Note 2
-
- * Possible StringData Ref from Code Obj ->"Your trial period is expired. "
- ->"Please register."
- |
- :0048E413 B878E44800 mov eax, 0048E478
- :0048E418 E8431AFBFF call 0043FE60
- :0048E41D A174014900 mov eax, dword ptr [00490174]
- :0048E422 8B00 mov eax, dword ptr [eax]
-
- I can believe that is so simple. Let's see.....
-
- Note 1: compare eax (it contains the number of days you've used the program) with 1Eh (30 in
- decimal!).
- Note 2: jump if eax is less than 30 (continue unregistered).
-
- Just change the conditional jump jle... in unconditional jump jmp and the program will work
- forever.
- Let's kill now the initial nag screen.
-
- Step 3: in W32Dasm go to the "Debug" menu and click on "Load Process...": the program will be
- loaded in memory. Now you see three windows: the first is the same window of before where you
- can see the program's code (the entry point is highlighted with a light blue). The second with
- the caption "EIP: 0048E2C0 is in Module: ASH.exe" is a window where you can see and set the
- values of the various registers and flags. The third (the most important) is a window where you
- can see the program's code and where the actual instruction that is executed is highlighted
- with a dark blue. In this window push the "Auto Step Over F6" button and W32Dasm will start to
- trace the code line by line. Let it trace until the initial nag screen appear. Now you can
- notice that W32Dasm has stopped the traceing....look in which instruction it has stoppe and
- you'll see:
-
- call ASH.0042F2E4
-
- This means that the program calls a function in the ASH module (ASH.exe) that is at the address
- 0042F2E4. Just nop this call and the nag screen is killed.
- Very easy....isn't it?
-
- Ok this tutorial is at the end. As you've seen it is very easy and i think it will be very
- useful for newbies.
-
- Greetings to Volatility and all the Immortal Descendants.
-
- Contact me at: ume15@hotmail.com
-
- UmE
-