Project Soulstorm

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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