6 min read

Cracking Guide (Legal)

Let's just say that you have certain games you want to play at any time, without needing to insert the game's CD in the drive each time. You are bored. Who has the time for that? Or or let's suppose you simply want to exercise your abilities in hacking, and want to remove the need to enter the serial number from a program you have made (yes, that YOU made, in any other case, that would be illegal! 🙂 )The following guide will help you through the process.

 

–INTRO (BEFORE YOU APPLY THE CRACK)

When a program is created, you can view its rez code. What is rez? It is the hexadecimal code of program which it has been created. It is one step above the machine language (binary numbers). When you create a program in any language you want, this will be translated into machine language (understandable by the computer). However, even if you see the language of machine, you cannot extract the initial code that created it. You can however see the program in hex code, (which is almost impossible to understand if you are not an expert). In order to do this, you need a program that could extract the hexadecimal code. We will talk about those programs afterwards.

A other element that is not obligatory, but it is good that you know it is the md5 of the application. The md5 is the result of checksuming the application. Putting it simply, the md5 is unique for each application BUT NOT FOR EACH FILE! That is to say, let's suppose that you have an application and duplicate it. The copy will have the same md5 with the original! Commercial programs, have  all the same md5, independently of the copy you may have, but the md5 changes during upgrade of the application. For example, if md5 of application MyApp of version 1.0.1 is 14913b59239a29923cb3b43f943746c0 (do not get any ideas, this number are fictional), when the update to 1.0.2 is released, the md5 he will be completely different.

You need the md5 the case you want to see if a crack can be applied in a file you want to crack. If the crack number in your hands is intended for another md5 from what your file has, the crack will completely destroy your program. There exist applications that allow you to check the md5. With a google search you can find some free applications that do this work.

ALSO: Always make the crack in a copy of the original application. If something goes wrong, you will have completely destroyed your application!

The cracking method described in here concerns OS X. However, the methodology is the same. The programs in other platforms may be different.

–CRACKING USING HEX CODE

Initially you should you find the crack code. These can be found among the internet, you simply should know where to search. I can't say that in this article.  Let's suppose that you want to aplply a crack in a program that is called "aquisition". The cracker says the following about the aquisition:

Acquisition 112.3 [k]
/Acquisition.app/Contents/MacOS/Acquisition
md5: feb943956a60081aad0214e39a508794
7c 08 02 a6 bd a1 ff b4 42 9f 00 05
->
38 60 00 01 4e 80 00 20 42 9f 00 05
7c 08 02 a6 bd a1 ff b4 42 9f 00 05
->
38 60 00 01 4e 80 00 20 42 9f 00 05
48 02 3d 91
->
38 60 00 01
48 02 16 d9
->
38 60 00 01
48 01 fa cd
->
38 60 00 01

7c 08 02 a6 bd a1 ff b4 42 9f 00 05
->

38 60 00 01 4e 80 00 20 42 9f 00 05
md5: 614751bb63336d2a8a47b5cf68fb

After you check the application's md5 (I already told you how to do this) it's time to apply the crack. The crack that is described here is done with HexEdit, which is free. Similar application work for Windows and Linux with the same way, so you shouldn't encounter any problems. Open the application with HexEdit. You will see something like this. isn't it wonderful?

Active Image

 

Don't panic. What you see on the left are hex values that compose the binary code of the program. In the right it is the binary code of program represented by ASCII characters. You can see that they are all garbage, both left and right. In the right only characters that can be represented by ASCII characters are the ones who do. Differently they become what you see in the screen.

 

Active Image
 

What you should now do in this chaos is to find the original Hex code (original chain Hex Values) and replace it with the one that you were given by the cracker. In the HexEdit application you go in the menu named "Find/Find…" and a window will appear, you will supplym it with an initial chain of Hex value and afterwards you will give the new chain Hex values. Select the button "hex" in order to make HexEdit know that you search for Hex Values and no ASCII characters. Press the Replace button. You will be automatically transported in the value that was replaced just now. Continue pressing replace until all hex values that have the same value with what you seek are replaced. Save the application that you modified and you are done. If him have made everything right, your application is cracked and it will run flawlessly.

 
 
–CRACKING WITHOUT HEX CODE

Sometimes when new versions of programs are released, the programmers ban older serial numbers in order to avoid piracy. Sometimes, however, they are careless, and they do not encrypt older serial numbers, so when you open the application in hex mode, you have access in them and you can change them!

The crack is simple. Open the program of your choice with the HexEdit application, and go to "Find…". Now select the box that says "ASCII" because now what you search is not hex code, but ASCII characters. And in the search field put the banned serial number, e-mail, or name and press "Find Next". If you are lucky, you it will find the ASCII text that you entered. Afterwards, replace this text with something else of same length. Here I demonstrate this process in ImageBuddy.

 
Active Image
 
See how we found the banned serial number? Now replace it with a serial number of your choice (which has the same length), and the old serial number, which worked fot the old version of imagebuddy, will work again since it is no longer banned.
 
–OTHER TYPES OF CRACKING
 
Best cracking can be done if you know to program in assembly. Assembly is a step above machine language. And it's the only way in order to make crack from any application you have. The biggest problem however that results from the use assembly is that the way you make your programs differs from platform to platform. Moreover, the assembly language is very difficult in learning and it's not a coincidence that most programmers program in other languages unless they want to program something that concerns hardware features or low-level mechanics.
Assembly is used mainly in the writing of applications for hardware, (lathes, automotive) and in computers it is used for concrete and specialised works such as the creation and the writing of a new programming language, the writing software drivers and of low-level software
<<NOTES>>
On OS X, if a application for does not open with the HexEdit using drag-and-drop, it means you should locate the actual executable file inside the application. You should know that Mac applications are mainly Cocoa, and these are simply a folder with the extension ".app", which inside contains the executable file, as well as data for the program. In order to locate the executable file, select the application, right-click, and select "Show Package Contents". Afterwards in the window that appears, go in the "Contents/MacOS/" where you will find also the executable file. This is what you will open with the HexEdit application.

PROGRAMS AND LINKS:
HexEdit OS X (The best HexEditor for OS X)

Resorcerer (Commercial Hex-Editor for Mac)