Subj : Cracking DOS software
To   : AKAcastor
From : Nightfox
Date : Sun Apr 07 2024 18:31:47

  Re: Cracking DOS software
  By: AKAcastor to Nightfox on Sun Apr 07 2024 03:05 pm

 AK> The tools make all the difference!  And willingness to trace through
 AK> assembler code endlessly! :)  Some of the disassembly and decompilation
 AK> tools and debuggers can do a shocking amount of the work in some cases.
 AK> There's no universal solution, but when it does work it's pretty
 AK> impressive.

Yeah, I guess I'd need to practice a bit to learn more of what to look for.  I suppose with dissasembly, you can at least see the CPU instructions being executed and the data it's working with, which would provide some clues about what's going on.

 AK> I love doing hex-edit hacks too.  Neat to poke around inside an executable
 AK> and just paint over some bits to adjust things just so.  Another very
 AK> handy tool is 'strings', to get a list of readable text inside a binary
 AK> file - great for taking a quick peek.

I'll have to look into strings.  Thanks.  :)  Sometimes I've used a hex editor to do simple things like replace a string in an executable to make it say something else (and it's cool when the new text is able to fit in what was there before).

Nightfox
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