Reverse Code Engineering
What is Reverse Code Engineering?
Wikipedia definition is : Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object or system through analysis of its structure, function and operation. It often involves taking something (e.g. a mechanical device, electronic component, or software program) apart and analyzing its workings in detail, usually to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing without copying anything from the original.
Following articles are about Reverse Code Engineering (RCE). That is the process of discovering the behaviour and functionality of programs by decompiling, disassembling and investigating binary files. Because it is not allowed to reverse-engineer commercial applications (of course!) and to be 100% legal, only crackmes are targeted - these are small programs only coded with the target to be cracked.
So RCE is somehow a puzzle for computerfreaks - you need skills of programming, assembly, operating systems, binary file structure and sometimes also mathematics and cryptography - so it's a quite interesting and a cool way to test and enhance your knowledge about software and computers.
If I have awacken your interest keep on reading may tutorials and examples. You may also have a look atmy Links section where you can find the most important and best RCE-related websites.
General RCE Tutorials & Articles
Date : April 2013
Description :
Add a messagebox into a .NET PE file at the entrypoint of the application.
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Download article & sources (59KB)
Date : March 2006
Description :
Examaning Minesweeper and writing a little tool showing us the positions of all mines.
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Download article & sources (9KB)
Date : October 2003
Description :
How to add imports to an import table and use these new functions. A bit more advanced so you should know the things from my earlier tuts.
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Download article & files (57KB)
Date : May 2002
Description :
My first code injection tutorial :-) We'll add a messagebox to a PE file which is shown every time you start the file.
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Download article & files (7KB)
Date : May 2002
Description :
Explains how to convert virtual offsets to file offsets and how the import table in a PE is build up.
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Download article (36KB)
Date : January 2002
Description :
This tut explains how to add a new section to a PE file, taking care of important values in the PE header so that the file will remain legal and the new section will be loaded in memory.
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Download article & example file (36KB)
Date : January 2002
Description :
This is not a real article, it's more a listing of the PE file format structure with the offset of every member.
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Download article (4KB)
Crackme / Reverseme Tutorials
Date : May 2008
Description :
Task is to remove nags, selfkeygen it and also write a keygen. What makes it special is that this crackme is a .gadget file which runs as a gadget inside Windows Vista Sidebar.
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Download package (38KB)
Date : May 2007
Description :
Nice easy console crackme. Find a valid keys (but there are tons!). Bruteforcer included.
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Download package (308KB)
Date : February 2007
Description :
Nice crackme; find the correct password to get a secret text which leads to the correct website.
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Download package (9KB)
Date : November 2006
Description :
Simple crackme; removing a nag window and finding the serial.
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Download package (9KB)
Date : July 2003
Description :
Interesting reverseme with 4 goals, e.g disabling an edit box or getting some text from it.
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Download package (35KB)
Date : May 2003
Description :
Nice easy crackme with one little extra check...
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Download package (8KB)
Date : February 2003
Description :
A really easy crackmes for beginner using a keyfile check.
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Crackmes
Date : July 2010
Description :
My first coded crackme ever. It's quite simple but just be interesting nevertheless!
Level: 1 (Beginner)
OS: Tested with Windows XP and Windows 7
Goal : Register the crackme. Write a keygen and a solution.
Rules : No patching allowed - that would be far too easy... You have to find a valid key for your name.
Download (external link to crackmes.de)
This site is part of Sunshine's Homepage