History of Software Cracking - Part X

Disclaimer : This article may not be completely accurate and is not extensive. It is based on my understanding of the topic, which in an ideal world, is kinda limited.

Software cracking uses reverse engineering. Reverse engineering involves taking a mechanical device, software program or electronic device apart, understanding its workings, and then attempt to create something out of that. It has been a common practice in the world of mechanics and electronics since a long time.

It has been the greatest challenge for most innovating tech companies (like Sony) for a very long time. The military has been using it for centuries, attempting to analyze the enemy's weapons and creating their own versions to combat them.

In the software industry, a very popular case was San Jose-based Phoenix Technologies Ltd. reverse engineering the IBM BIOS to create their own compatible version. (You can read about it in this great article by Mathew Schwartz, Reverse-Engineering, Computerworld, November 12, 2001)

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Software Cracking

I need to first differentiate between software crackers and 'crackers', the latter referring to malicious hackers, while the former referring to programmers who used reverse engineering to remove copy protection from the software.

Now that I have made that distinction, let me move on to the history of software cracking. It began in the 1980s with disk-based software copy protection schemes on the Atari 800, Commodore and Apple II systems. The software manufacturers used hardware schemes to prevent people from making copies. Game developers had to use the most innovative of solutions to prevent any form of copying. (Some of the methods are listed on - Experiencefestival, Copy protection for computer software)

Circumventing such schemes was the biggest challenge out there, and it spawned the cracking scene. Soon software protection schemes would include hardware dongles, registration keys, keyfiles, internet activation, etc. Crackers were always one step ahead, and all for the glory and challenge.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, the apparent disregard for laws to go one up against rivals in the cracking scene was interesting. It was the strive to possess the intangibles of social esteem and prestige, over any materialistic goods. It almost proved to the world that a coherent social structure is possible where materialism is not the reward. But moving on to the more technical aspects.

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Methods

The most common software cracking involved altering the binary file to prevent a key branch from occuring. In assembly language, it often meant simply altering a je (jump on equal) command to a jne (jump on not equal) command. Finding the right branch was the challenge. But that was for the earlier simpler programs.

It has always been a race out there. The software industry trying to stay one step ahead, and for good reason. It is said that piracy has cost the software industry over 20 billion dollars in revenue, every year. That is more than the GDP of any developing country.

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Reverse Engineering Tools

Some of the tools of the trade were -
FileMon - Monitors files
Regmon - Monitors the registry
W32Dasm - Windows Disassembler
SoftICE - Windows Debugger
Hiew - The coolest hex editor out there
Windows API Reference, etc.

Back in the late 90s, you started off with a disassembler and hex-editor. And then you moved on to SoftIce, a kernel mode debugger that ran underneath Windows. It was a tool so powerful it was used to crack itself.

Numega, the creator of SoftIce is now gone. The plug has been pulled from under Softice too. Most software vendors had anyway implemented measures to make it harder to use SoftIce as a tool.

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Crack Groups

The most famous ones are International Network of Crackers, The Humble Guys (THG), PhrozenCrew, UCF, Core, ViRiLiTY, etc. I shall talk about each one in short articles soon.

I shall also talk about how the 'demo scene' came into existence. A spin-off from the actual cracking. Actually a lot more fun.

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Old Resources

The resources are old and probably will not help anyone who intends to be a cracker nowadays. But it is history. And it needs to be read -

The best resource for tutorials on cracking Cracking 4 Newbies
The New2Cracking website download
Reverse Engineering Team
Reverse Engineering Resources
The Art of Assembly Language - The most comprehensive and famous guide in the history of software cracking.
CrackZ's Reverse Engineering Page
Methods to prevent cracking - Cracking, The Anti by Dorian Bugeja

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United Cracking Force

Cracking

For the uninitiated,

Software Cracking is the modification of software to remove protection methods: copy protection, trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, date checks, CD check or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.

-Wikipedia

From what I understand, the legality of cracking or "reverse engineering" isn't really black or white if you did not act for commercial gain. Even if we assume it is proved illegal, it is a crime hard to prove and convict. Therefore most convictions so far have been done for the "illegal distribution of cracks".

In spite of the illegality in distribution of cracks, we've had a lot of groups throughout history competing to release them, for free. It was done for the challenge, and for the respect and honor. The underground world on the internet has mostly been about reputation, rather than money. But more about cracking in a later post.

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It struck me now that the big players in the past, have all but disappeared nowadays. One of them was the United Cracking Force. I stumbled upon these groups through the artwork I often found. The logo designs for many of these underground groups were really cool. The demoscene, a direct spinoff from the crack scene was a significant component of cyberculture.

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UNITED cRACKING FORCE (also known as uCF2000) were amongst the most renowned cracking groups to exist. Started in 1994 by mARQUIS dE sOIRE, they ruled the release scene for most part of the next decade.

They seem to have faded away now, but at their peak, along with PhrozenCrew, they went after most of the copy protection schemes out there. From anecdotal experience I know that uCF is credited for being the first to break the dongle protection scheme, though the claims have been doubted.

As a researcher, I have been interested in this underground world on the internet for a long time. uCF2000 were the first underground groups I stumbled upon, so I just had to write at least one paragraph about them.

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Links

United Cracking Force Release History
Files from UCF2000 - Defacto2 Group Repository
Reality Check Network 22, "United Cracking Force", 14th July 1996

Windows 3.1x

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History

The ultimate operating system which would herald the modern age and make many of us eternal slaves to the great Microsoft. Released in March 1992, about when Silence of the Lambs had just won the Best Picture award at the Oscars (obscure trivia), Microsoft had mapped its way to dominating the computer industry in ways unlike ever known.

Windows 3.1 replaced Windows 3.0. Amongst the most significant changes was replacing Reversi with Minesweeper. Minesweeper would soon go on to become one of the greatest games of all times, thus vindicating Microsoft and all its strategies.

Read more »

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Solitaire - The Card Game

It has been an integral part of all Windows' users' lives. It is a boring game, almost mind-numbing, but it has existed and thrived because we have often had nothing else to do. In a match-up between laziness and boredom, Solitaire was the perfect trade-off. And playing it usually tended towards an addiction-laced equilibrium state.

Read more »

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Modems and Getsmart

Remember the old days?

With those phone-based dial-up modems, which made a lot of noise and worked at annoyingly low speeds. I have extracted the sound for the listening pleasure of the few who sit around pretending to miss the good ol' days, when things were simpler and the stars were brighter.

The sound of the internet -



(Audio file ripped from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtqz0bdq30Q)

Read more »

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Netscape

The rise and fall of Netscape has been well documented. A little too well. Its kind of passé now. Yes. I know that Netscape was a thought leader on the internet. It created all things good. It was the reason why people stayed glued to their computers, navigating through the world wide web. Its IPO is considered the official start to the dotcom era. It was the reason the internet got popular and became what it became (an orgy of porn and meaningless rants). All before it was unethically crushed by Microsoft and a lethargic AOL.

In 2007, support for Netscape web browsers was officially discontinued. But no one really cared. Mozilla (which was a result of Netscape's efforts) was here. Opera was here. Hell! Even Internet Explorer was good enough. I felt no tinge of nostalgia for a software that by 2002 had become a garbled piece of one-upmanship (against Microsoft's IE). It was a symbol of failure. A symbol of Schumpeter's process of creative destruction.

The internet has changed over the past decade. The cause has been the intense competition that accompanied every single new idea. Netscape's failure only made me believe, like other trendsetters, you are only as good as your current product. History counts for nothing in the cut-throat, constantly innovating software industry. (Of course I hated Microsoft and capitalism for a little while, but life goes on.)

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The Documentary

Code Rush is a 1998 documentary following the lives of a group of Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley. (Just prior to the AOL Merger.)

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Links

 Internet Wars -- Microsoft Vs. Netscape: Goliath Takes On David -- Navigator Still Ahead - But Losing Ground (Year 1997)
ZDnet - The Rise and Fall of Netscape
Berkeley - Strategic Computing and Communications Technology Project - Rise and Fall of Netscape Browsers
Living Internet - Netscape History
A Visual Browser History, from Netscape 4 to Mozilla Firefox
Andrew Turnbull Network - Netscape Navigator Version 1
Killer Products : Netscape Navigator 1.0

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ICQ

ICQ was amongst the first instant messengers I ever used. Right along with AIM. It was weird twist of fate that led me to use these 2 softwares. They were the only chat softwares at the time which supported HTTP proxy servers, and I was stuck behind an oppressive firewall. (Academic firewalls on a dial-up connection. Those were the days.) My quest back in those days was to find softwares that could log me through those pesky firewalls. The late 20th century was a hard place to be. Yeah, we did have Sock2HTTP (the only way I could use IRC) and a HTTP tunneling software that I just couldn't get to work, but nevertheless ICQ was discovered.

Since its inception, ICQ had spread via word of mouth. And had gone on to become really popular. It was filled with features. A million of them. It supported offline messages, had a searchable people's directory. Multiplayer games. Multi-user chats. And many others I cannot recall. It seemed cute at the time. Cluttered, overloaded but it worked. It already had a large user base when I joined. You got to chat with people. With strangers. Hell, even with spambots.

You got a UIN (a sequential number) when you registered, and henceforth you could give yourself any chatname you wished. It was  a flexible idea. I do find it tiring to keep having to choose a unique username, which eventually becomes a mix of numbers and symbols that mean nothing to you or anybody.

ICQ was a homonym for 'I Seek You'. It was started way back in 1996 by a company called Mirabilis, a small startup from Israel. In 1998, it was bought over by the great AOL. The company that seems to buy a LOT of good things for a LOT of money and then push them slowly off the edge in an act of induced tough love.

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Decline

I could blame its takeover by AOL as the reason why it failed. But that wouldn't be true. Because even at its height of popularity, it was still an AOL product. AOL, of course was on a mission to takeover the chatting world, with a combination of AIM, ICQ and techniques to prevent other chat softwares for communicating with them.(See AOL's Proposal Fails To Placate Messaging Rivals). During the takeover, ICQ had 11.4 million users, AIM had a 20 million users. ICQ was growing at a rate of 57000 users a day. A large advertising base for AOL. Now during the takeover of ICQ, there was a lot of discontentment. (See ICQ Fans Rage Against AOL), but AOL did keep ICQ a separate brand for quite some time. Only in 2002 did the 2 networks meet. That was around the time ICQ stopped being advertisement-free.

The rivals were working there way into the IM market. Microsoft did what it always does, a quiet-slow-stuffing-down-the-throat-of-newbies approach to getting its own messenger popular. And while AOL resisted the attempts at universal chat clients, the bandwagon effect couldn't hold people to AOL and ICQ for too long. Not when you had a lot of efficient and simpler softwares out there.

I think the failure of ICQ was the reason why it got famous in the first place. There were way too many features. And they went on a crazed rampage, adding new features every version, but not removing the bugs from before. The tool was soon bloated and took a good amount of memory. Spammers found the perfect tool with its offline directory list to target. (AOL really has no clue how to take care of good pieces of software.)

So with all the features that ICQ seemed to boast off, the future of the internet has always seemed to be minimalist, or so I think. (Think of all the new trends out there.)

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Links
A Take on the ICQ vs AIM debate, and a look at chat culture itself - Instantaneity - A Brief and Uninformed History
People do wonder - What happened to ICQ?
Time Magazine looks at the controversy of universal chat clients - All Together Now
David Lawrence talks why the merger makes sense to the music industry - ICQ vs. AIM vs. AIMster
The fears of an ICQ takeover revisited - AOL/ICQ Acquisition Revisited

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